The U.S. House has passed a bill that will ban mining on land adjacent to the Grand Canyon, which conservationists say will help protect the Colorado River watershed.
Rep. Raul Grijalva has been pushing for the ban for more than a decade.
During the Obama administration, he helped convince Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a fellow Democrat, to declare a 20-year moratorium on new uranium mines near the Grand Canyon.
That ban will become permanent if it passes the Senate, where Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly introduced their own bill calling for a ban on new mines.
“Obviously the role that Senator Sinema and Senator Kelly will play going forward specifically on the Grand Canyon is going to be critical to how far we get and what happens,” Grijalva said.
The ban was part of a package that will protect wilderness and rivers in a number of western states. The bill also will withdraw some lands from oil and gas drilling.
