I hope that someone emphasized to Ms. Moffat the urgent point the we need Senator Reid to use his special powers in the Congress to:

(1) Immediately sponsor a short legislative amendment of a line or two that cancels the special, 1-mile-square exemption to the Sloan Canyon preservation acts to allow mining in that designated area.

(2) Negotiate with the appropriate mining interests to grant access to an alternative mining area to replace the current interests the mining industry has in the Sloan Canyon area in question.

If those two actions were done immediately, BLM would no longer have any authority to do mining in that area, the whole EIS process goes away, and we would no longer have to continue to worry about whether it might EVER get approved, or not. This would be a win-win solution since our people get what we urgently desire for our health and lifestyle, and the mining industry gets something in return.

It is in Senator Reid’s hands to quickly make this problem go away. And, during this election period, we voters have our best opportunity to achieve our goal.

So, we all need to pull together and focus on the path of least resistance to permanently solve this very serious health and environmental problem. As long as BLM has the legislative authority to lease the Sloan Canyon mining area, we will be at high risk of the Washington DC BLM headquarters making a political deal with the mining industry that we can not tolerate.