By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is set to ban new uranium mining claims around the Grand Canyon for the next 20 years, a move hailed by conservation groups as a key to the president's environmental legacy.
The decision, expected to be announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Monday, would put some one million acres of public lands outside Grand Canyon National Park off limits to all hard-rock mining for two decades, the longest moratorium allowed by law. Existing mining operations would continue.
The National Mining Association, an industry group, expressed disappointment, but stopped short of announcing an immediate challenge to the decision.
Uranium claims on public land near the national park have risen in line with soaring prices for this mineral, from fewer than 1,000 claims a year in 2005 to more than 8,000 in 2009, though annual claims have declined slightly since then, according to figures from the Bureau of Land Management.
"One of the things President (Barack)Obama's going to be remembered for is protecting the Grand Canyon," said Jane Danowitz of the Pew Environment Group, a non-profit organization that has pushed for the mining moratorium.
"Despite considerable pushback from the industry and even some in Congress, he didn't punt and he didn't blink and he went and issued the longest moratorium that he could under his executive authority," Danowitz said in a telephone interview.
The Pew group, the League of Conservation Voters and the Center for American Progress applauded the decision as protecting the Colorado River watershed, which supplies drinking water for 25 million people.
The main health risk from uranium mining is water contamination.
Grand Canyon tourism generates $687 million in annual revenue, according to the Outdoor Industry Association, and creates more than 12,000 full-time jobs, the University of Northern Arizona said in a 2005 study.
"Do you want mining in the vicinity of a tourist destination that's visited by 5 million people every year?" Danowitz said. "No, I think is the answer."
Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, took issue with the decision and said the Interior Department's own analysis did not show environmental concerns with mining beyond the boundaries of the national park.
Raulston said the association was disappointed in the decision, and said no decision has been made on whether to challenge it. Any challenge would have to be made within 90 days of Salazar's announcement.
(Reporting By Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Philip Barbara)
