05/19/2026
The Pinyon Plain uranium mine sits near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and Red Butte, a geographical feature sacred to the Havasupai, Hualapai, Navajo, Hopi and Zuni people.
The owner of the mine, Energy Fuels Resources, wants state regulators to allow higher levels of arsenic in a groundwater monitoring well.
“It's not surprising that there are elevated levels of arsenic next to this ore body,” says Curtis Moore, Energy Fuels’ senior vice president of marketing and corporate development. “That's why we put a mine there, because there's an ore body there."
But Brad Esser, a retired scientist who worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, calls Energy Fuels’ explanation for the higher arsenic levels a hypothesis, not a proven fact. He thinks regulators shouldn’t approve the minor permit amendment without first requiring more analysis from Energy Fuels.
“It sets the wrong incentive,” Esser says. “The response to high levels that get close to or exceed your permit levels is to try to understand what's going on, not just simply raise the permit levels.”
Read more at the link in our bio.
✍️ /KNAU
📸 Ryan Heinsius/KNAU
