Center for Biological Diversit v. Ken Salazar

Appellants Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust, Sierra Club, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, and Havasupai Tribe contend that Appellees Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (collectively, BLM) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq., the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), 43 U.S.C. § 1701 et seq., and its own regulations, 43 C.F.R. § 3809 , et seq., by permitting Denison Mines Corp. and Denison Arizona Strip, LLC (collectively, Denison) to restart mining operations at the Arizona 1 Mine in 2009, after a seventeen-year hiatus, under a plan of operations that BLM approved in 1988. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I.

The Arizona 1 Mine is a uranium mine located in Mohave County, Arizona, thirty-five miles southwest of Fredonia, Arizona, and six and one-half miles north of Grand Canyon National Park. The history of the mine goes back nearly three decades. In 1984, Energy Fuels Nuclear, Inc. submitted to BLM a plan for uranium exploration activities on mining claims it owned in Mohave County, Arizona. On October 4, 1984, BLM approved the…