Uranium -Coles Hill

Comments: Thanks for your service during WWII! However, uranium mining and nuclear power are not good things! Uranium mining cannot be compared to tobacco because it seems the people of this community will not have a chance to vote on uranium mining or a choice to stop uranium mining but people chooses to smoke! Please read the comments listed below because they inform us with the problems of uranium mining!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 8:55 AM EDT
Letter to editor:

I have lived in the Sheva community all of my life except time in the Merchant Marines during World War II.

I would like to relate some of my experiences.

I was raised on a tobacco farm in the Mill Creek community.

My three sons operate the dairy on my home place.

I now live in the old Sheva Church of Christ building at Sheva.

Much of the land that is used by the dairy is within a three mile radius of Coles Hill where the deposit of uranium is located.

My family owns stock in Virginia Uranium. This gives us some voice in future developments.

We are now directly involved in the nuclear industry. We have members of our family that work at B&W, a nuclear facility in the Lynchburg area, and the energy used to operate the dairy comes from a nuclear power plant.

There is no place that I would rather live than in the Sheva community.

I have taken no position for or against the mining.

As I recently celebrated my 84th birthday I realize that I know less and less about more and more things.

I don't have answers to the many problems facing our community and nation. I will try to meet the challenges in a positive way.

If and when the uranium is mined, I would like to see the money used to replace the tobacco money.

The issue of growing tobacco has been an issue for most of my life. All of my family including myself have raised tobacco.

My parents and grandparents that I knew raised tobacco. They thought it was all right to grow but wrong to use it.

I have heard my parents pray for rain for the tobacco crop and also pray for the Lord to heal people suffering from the use of tobacco. I also heard similar prayers at church.

There are some questions that I would like to have answered.

What other sources of energy on the large scale provided by nuclear energy are available to us in the area?

How much damage would other sources do to the environment. I know solar energy and wind power are available but are they available to this area in the quantity now provided by nuclear energy.

There are contradictions in my own life. I used money from tobacco to develop the dairy. We have been producing Grade A milk at the homeplace since 1947.

What kind of an example are we setting for our young people?

I have never heard a person encourage their young people to use tobacco.

How do we want people to remember us?

Our record of how we used resources will follow us beyond the grave.

I have misused resources. I have asked the Lord to forgive me.

J. Fuller Motley
Chatham

Comments:

HowMuch
wrote on Oct 8, 2009 2:45 PM:

" Mr Motley and/or his sons are investors in the uranium mining and milling so they say. To what is he now confessing? That he is adding Uranium to his cows diet and milk? Tell us Fuller how much $ has your family "invested"? "

Yellowcake Anyone
wrote on Oct 7, 2009 10:37 PM:

" Mr. Motley,
Forgive me, sir, for I don't want to be disrespectful to an elder, but if you've invested in Virginia Uranium, I dare say, you've taken a position on uranium mining.

Like living in Sheva?

At 84, I know you may not be around by the time the blasting actually starts at Coles Hill, but if you are, you best pick a new spot to live. I seriously doubt you'd be able to tolerate living next to the North and South mines where miners will surface blast uranium all day, all week, all year, out of the ground with radioactive dust accompanying it, up into the atmosphere--over food crops, livestock, waterways, etc...

It won't be safe for you or your loved ones--no matter the drivel VUI has told you--to live nearby a uranium mine. In fact, the entire Sheva community, as beautiful as it is, will suffer as people began to move away to protect themselves.

We're told not to worry for the EPA and the NRC will monitor and regulate every aspect of the industry: uranium mines, tailings piles, mill, and even the future cleanup of the site. (Think Superfund.)

Do keep in mind the EPA & the DEQ monitor and regulate the coal industry. How well did these regulatory agencies protect the people and waterways around Kingston, Tenn., in Dec. of 2008, when toxic coal sludge breached its dam? Re: http://earthblips.dailyradar.com/story/dam_breach_in_tennessee_releases_tsunami_of_toxic_coal/

Considering the outcome, ask the Kingston, Tenn. folks if they had been really, really protected by the EPA and DEQ's oversight of the coal industry.

What do you mean, "I have asked the Lord to forgive me."? Does this mean, if you've hurt the environment and your fellow man by investing in a company that will destroy the very place you love, Sheva, will God forgive you?

I'd like to think God would. The Holy Bible says He forgives all evil-doers who seek His forgiveness.

Investing in a company that will displace families (your long-time neighbors) and pollute the air and water for at least 2000 school-age children in the area of Southside Virginia could be considered a sin.

You also mention how your family grew tobacco for income and felt conflicted when it made some folks sick.

The difference, here, sir, is that people won't have to actively light up a cigarette or chew a plug of tobacco to get sick. They simply have to inhale the air--whether this is a smoker's lungs or that of a tot on his tricycle--and wait for the radioactive sleeper cells to do their work. The question is, will it be a few years or a few decades before the sickness becomes apparent?

I like that you're concerned about the future, sir, but I don't think your children or their children will get the privilege of growing up and living out their days in the Sheva community as you have so far enjoyed, if uranium mining is ever allowed at Coles Hill. (God Bless your time away and contribution to WWII.)

In the scheme of things, time grows short for life as we now know it in Southside Virginia.

Yellowcake Anyone? "

http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2009/10/07/chatham/opinion/opinion02.txt