Tuesday - January 13, 2026

 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. PST

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""Update on Environmental Issues Dealing

with Uranium Mining Near the Grand Canyon"

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By: Dr. David Kreamer

Professor Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Abstract:​

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​Grand Canyon National Park exemplifies a challenge facing many Western National Parks in the United States of America. Specifically, increased tourism, pumping of groundwater for increased visitors, and mining activities outside the Park boundaries have the potential to affect the quality and quantity of spring flow within Parks. Tracking, tracing, and dating groundwater using water quality parameters indicates hydrologic connection between these activities and the springs, helping managers to predict the effects of groundwater extraction and mining activities. Springs in the Canyon support a multitude of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, recreational activities that are a mainstay of the economy of Northern Arizona, and traditional Native American cultural and religious values. For the last two years, Pinyon Plains Uranium Mine has operated in a geologic formation called a breccia pipe less than nine miles from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The mining industry in the past has insisted there was no appreciable groundwater in the upper aquifer associated with the projected subsurface mining depths, that these underground mining areas were isolated from the deeper Redwall-Muav regional aquifer, and that the dip of the geologic strata was to the southwest (away from the Canyon) and all groundwater would flow in that direction. Multiple lines of recent evidence suggest that these assertions are not the case, and that the subsurface area perturbed by mine is in direct hydrologic contact with the regional deep aquifer and associated vulnerable springs.

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BIO:

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David Kreamer, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus of Geoscience and past Director of the interdisciplinary Water Resources Management Graduate Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dave currently serves as Past President of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) and is a past President of the Universities Council on Water Resources. With over 75 authored or coauthored publications, Dave’s research includes work on water and international security, maintaining quality water supply for people and ecosystems particularly in economically developing regions, and combating environmental contamination. He’s given over 150 invited lectures and served as a professional consultant/ expert witness in many legal proceedings. David has addressed Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the United States Congress and the United Nations General Assembly, among many other invited presentations.

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