Passage of a measure overturning a mining ban in a Minnesota wilderness area is raising concerns among environmentalists about its possible ramifications for the Four Corners.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution on a 50-49 vote that overturns a 20-year mining ban in the headwaters of the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Two Republicans, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Maine’s Susan Collins, voted with Democrats in opposition to the resolution. It had already passed the House and is now headed to the president for his signature.
The ban was implemented in 2023 after a lengthy environmental assessment by the U.S. Forest Service found that a proposed copper and nickel mine there would harm the area.
Some 675,000 comments came in during public-comment periods from 2016 to 2022, according to the nonprofit conservation group the Center for Western Priorities, and 98 percent of those supported protecting the watershed from mining.
But Congress used the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn regulations issued by federal agencies such as the BLM or Forest Service, to undo the ban.
Since 2016, the act, which was rarely utilized previously, has been used aggressively.
The conservation groups SUWA and the Center for Western Priorities say Congress could use the same act to undo the recently adopted management plan for Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Two Utah legislators have introduced a joint resolution to do just that.
““The Senate's vote to overturn protections for the headwaters of the Boundary Waters is a reckless assault on one of America's last wild places,” said Center for Western Priorities policy director Rachael Hamby in a release. “The Congressional Review Act was never intended to bypass or reverse the robust land use planning process that led to this mineral withdrawal.”
The ongoing drought in the Four Corners is affecting conditions at a popular tourist attraction.
Officials with Glen Canyon National Recreation Area near Page, Arizona, are warning that boaters need to be careful. They say low water levels have resulted in new navigational hazards throughout the lake.
The park has a team that marks primary travel channels, but they can’t mark every hazard, according to a press release. That’s because of changing water levels and the lake’s size.
“Boaters may encounter newly exposed shorelines, submerged obstacles, and narrower or shifting channels in some areas,” officials said in the release.
“As marinas are repositioned to adjust to changing water levels, no-wake zones may also shift, boaters should remain alert and carefully watch for buoys and updated markers at all times.
“Visitors should operate vessels at safe speeds, maintain a proper lookout, and take early, deliberate action to avoid hazards, especially in unfamiliar areas and near busy launch ramps.”
