Wednesday, January 12, 2011 9:17 AM EST
I would like to respectfully respond to the recent letters from Mr. Walter Coles and Mr. Joe Aylor, and published in the Chatham Star- Tribune's issue dated Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011.
Mr. Coles: In the first paragraph of your letter you state that, "There are several errors of fact and nuance in a recent editorial in the Danville Register and Bee concerning the motives of the Danville Regional Foundation...."
However, you never enlightened us as to what these "errors" might be. Could it be that there aren't any errors worth mentioning?
You have also mentioned 300-500 jobs being involved in your propaganda.
Yet you have neglected to mention that, according to mining laws, each mining employee must be certified as a miner before he can be employed in the field.
In addition, how may we be expected to believe, since there are less than 1,000 people working in the uranium mining industry in the entire United States, that VUI (or is it VER) will employ half of the entire qualified miners used in the U.S., in your proposed operation?
Yes, perhaps there will be a few guards, gate tenders and secretaries in your employ, but you and your Canadian partners will hire experienced and certified miners to do the real (high-paying) jobs.
The rest of the Pittsylvania County persons on your payroll will be in unskilled and lower paying positions.
I would like to differ with you - once again - over your reference to the "unimpeachable National Academy of Sciences."
No one who looks closely at the credentials of the majority of the commission studying this issue for the NAS could help but wonder about the makeup of the commission.
To many of us it seems that there is a majority of mining industry executives and proponents - to say nothing about the real source of the funding (VUI).
Later on in your letter you accuse those of us who are opposed to your proposal of "delaying tactics."
Now, come on Mr. Coles! Who was responsible for the acceleration of the time required for the C&E Commission's investigation deadline?
In the last two years, the time allotted for this study has been cut from one and a half years to one year.
It isn't appropriate for you to accuse us of delaying, when, in fact, you are accelerating the analytical process.
Both you and Mr. Joe Aylor are guilty of ignoring, before they are even completed, the studies involving drinking water for the entire Piedmont sector and the Virginia Beach/Newport News/ Norfolk areas in particular.
Remember, Mr. Coles and Mr. Aylor, that the rain water that runs over the farms of Pittsylvania County ends up on the dinner tables of homes and restaurants on some of our state's most populous regions.
Both of you gentlemen have bragged about new technologies that have made the concerns of past uranium mining operations obsolete.
I guess that means that safer methods of extraction and waste maintenance have been developed, but we haven't heard of anything like this.
We've all been studying this issue for some time now, and, if there were any new and improved techniques, we would have discovered them by now.
I am also sure you would not keep these advances of technology a secret.
But you and your Canadian partners haven't even published a plan for your proposal.
If you are successful in lifting the moratorium, how do you imagine the Commonwealth of Virginia will benefit?
If uranium is sold in the same manner as coal, then none of it will be sold in Virginia, and, therefore, it is exempt from all but what is called a "capital Tax," which is a tax only on capital on site and cash on hand, over and above what is owed on payroll and expenses.
Virginia will not get any revenue at all from this venture of yours.
Messrs. Coles and Aylor, and anyone else, including your local cronies who are invested in this project, are guilty of ignoring the health and well-being of your families and neighbors in the pursuit of $10 billion.
That falls under the definition of greed.
As you know I am fond of a quotation of St. Paul: "The love of money is the root of all evil."
I would say that this shoe fits all of you, and you must wear it.
That's legacy I am talking about.
Hunter Austin
Hurt, VA
http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2011/01/14/chatham/opinion/opinion14.txt
