RE: Environmental Issues: Grand Canyon #2
It's sad that such an iconic part of the American nature is under threat... the part that strikes me the most is the mining problem... it is something that is also problematic in Australia and even in The Netherlands...
...like most of our economic systems... there is really no financial cost placed on the "intangible" costs of pollution or clean-up or anything like that. Companies are free to pillage and pollute and they aren't held accountable by government due to a misplaced belief that governments shouldn't restrict wealth production, and the costs and downsides are born by the rest of the population... whilst the companies get away with the "costs" of business.
Anyway, I hope there is some sort of bipartisan sort of solution that is possible... but for things like this, I'm a little cynical... people will only do something when something really bad happens to the ecosystem... and even then, a good chunk of the population will scream "fake"!
What's really sad is that Uranium isn't that hot a commodity at this time, and there are mines that are NOT a threat to the Canyon. I don't have a great deal of faith in the Legislature to bail us out, frankly.
And for the record the Bureau has done a very good job with the abandoned mine inside the Park Boundary. It's a successful Super Fund Site.