Study links stream pollution to higher cancer rates (Comparison of Coal and Uranium Mining)

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 4:59 PM EDT

Researchers at West Virginia University and Virginia Tech now have the study findings to show a causal link between West Virginia streams, those polluted by coal mining activities, and premature cancer deaths in the humans who live near them.

("Study links stream pollution to higher cancer rates," http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201004210757)

Now, just for the sake of argument, let's toss in mountains of low-level radioactive uranium tailings/wastes, a uranium mill and a chemical plant at Coles Hill, near Chatham, Virginia.

(Chemicals, either large amounts of an acid or base, will be needed to leach the uranium ore out of the mined rock and soil.)

What would the mining activities of two huge open-pit uranium mines, with a reported possible third mine at Coles Hill, do to the streams and rivers of Southside Virginia over the proposed mining span of 30 years?

How many more studies have to be done to show a causal link between mining activities and environmental damage?

This study found not only damage to the ecosystems around polluted streams where coal mining has occurred, but it also found a causal link between humans living near these polluted streams and premature deaths by cancer.

One has to ask: Does "premature deaths by cancer" sound like a reversible condition? One you can mitigate?

Are the questionable 300 to 500 jobs the uranium mining industry will bring to this economically depressed area worth the possible health impacts to your loved ones or the harm it may cause to the ecosystems of Virginia?

Per Virginia Uranium Inc., $220 million in annual gross revenue will be generated for each year uranium is mined and milled in Virginia.

Does this mean Virginians will get rich off this revenue? Or, will a Canadian mining corporation, VUI co-owner, Virginia Energy Resources Inc., VUI's 31-area investors and a few landowners at Coles Hill see the bulk of this revenue?

Perhaps we should ask the citizens living around West Virginia's coal mines and surrounding streams what the lengthy history of coal mining there has meant economically, environmentally and health wise for them.

Per a January 2009 issue of Smithsonian magazine: "West Virginia is the nation's third-poorest state, above only Mississippi and Arkansas in per capita income, and the poverty is concentrated in the coal fields..." ("Mining the Mountains," http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Mining-the-Mountain.html)

Considering this recent study's findings, it's not an unjustified leap of concern to question the possible impacts to public health and the environment should uranium mining and milling ever be allowed in Virginia.

Anne Cockrell
Danville, VA (Pittsyvania County)

Read more:
http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2010/04/28/chatham/opinion/opinion02.txt