Secretary Salazar, don’t put coal in the stocking for Bryce Canyon National Park
There is a reason Santa puts coal in the stockings of boys
and girls who have misbehaved. It’s dirty and not much fun to play with. For as
long as Saint Nick has been making the rounds, people have known coal equals
bad. During this holiday, we are asking Interior Secretary Salazar, who
oversees our national parks, to make sure there isn’t coal in the stocking for
Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Recently, Sierra Club played Santa by delivering
to Secretary Salazar over 67,000 petitions signed by Americans across the
country asking him to deny a permit to expand the Alton Coal Mine outside of Bryce
Canyon National Park.
The Alton Coal Company proposes to stripmine 3,500 acres of
public land, stewarded for the American people by the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM), adjacent to the park. If allowed to expand, coal dust, trucks and mining
operations would dirty some of the cleanest, clearest air in the country,
settling a haze over stunning redrock vistas. Industrial lights from the mine
would assault the world-famous star filled skies of Bryce Canyon. Creeks and
other waters would be diverted and polluted by mining operations. A world class
destination for families to enjoy the outdoors would begin to look and feel
like an industrial zone.
The proposed mine sits smack dab in the middle of literally
some of the world’s most stunning scenery and geography. If one drew a 50-mile
radius on a map starting at the mine, the circle would hit or encompass Zion
National Park, Corral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument, and numerous designated wilderness areas. Near the center,
and closest to the mine lies Bryce Canyon National Park, the crown jewel to the
millions who travel to Utah every year. To say that a coal strip mine with its
industrial zone-like impacts does not fit within this spectacular corner of
Utah is a dramatic understatement.
In addition to impacting local air and water quality,
threatening this national park’s renown night skies, the proposal has alarmed
locals, who object to the harm that constant truck traffic, pollution and other
elements of the mine would have on their communities and on tourism. The
proposed around the clock mining operations would require up to 300 coal truck
trips per day traveling 110 miles one-way from Alton to Cedar City, which would
result in one truck leaving the site approximately every seven minutes.
As if all of that isn’t enough to deny the mine’s proposal
to expand, wildlife scientists have expressed concern the mine expansion would
eliminate critically needed unspoiled land for the Greater Sage Grouse, a bird
being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
The petitions delivered by Sierra
Club support the comments of both the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service that the Bureau of Land Management deny the proposed mine
expansion. The Bureau is still making its decision. You can help them make
sure there’s no coal in Bryce Canyon’s future and do your part to ensure our
national parks have a happy new year. Just click
here and add your holiday cheer for our national parks, wildlife, and clean
air and water.
For more
information on the Alton Coal mine, visit http://www.haltaltoncoal.com/
-- Tim Wagner, Organizing Representative, Sierra Club’s Resilient
Habitats Campaign
