Writer: No (uranium) mining in our back yard, period
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Published: February 20, 2011
To the editor:
In response to the recent letter, “Science, not hysteria, must prevail,” (Jan. 24, page A8), the author is an Areva nuclear engineer in Lynchburg and he claims he wants to clear the air. But like many a political pundit, he too is putting up a smoke screen, or he doesn’t know relevant history.
He clouds the air by using the clinical term “hysteria,” a diagnostic clinical term used by licensed psychiatrists and psychologists, not engineers.
We who oppose removing the moratorium on uranium mining and milling are well aware of its disastrous history, as well as the advances made in its technology over the past 50 years. Yes, governmental safety regulations of the mining industry have somewhat improved.
Let’s clear the air! We are hearing the big talk about cutting the size of government. during his recent campaign, Rep. Robert Hurt, R-Fifth District, said he would cut the size of government by doing away with the Environmental Protection Agency. This demands a rebuttal from environmentalists.
The letter writer gave a list of the regulatory agencies, some of which oversee safety of nuclear power plants, uranium mining and milling. He must be well aware of the efforts in the past to end those environmental controls, spearheaded by Colorado brewer Joseph Coors and carried out by the Bush Administration.
Coors founded the Mountain States Legal Foundation to challenge environmental laws.
He also was a founder of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which has provided the philosophical underpinning of the anti-environmental movement. It has repeatedly pushed for small government in order to reduce environmental oversight — and continues to do so.
The author would like for us to be compliant, i.e., brainwashed, while we wait for the independent studies. Meanwhile they, as well as corporations, politicians and lobbyists, are working hard behind the scenes for the removal of Virginia’s 1983 statewide moratorium on uranium mining and milling.
Next, he would take us blindly down the future road to “possible” thousands of years of contamination of our air, land and water. This would not only affect Pittsylvania County, but the Dan, Roanoke, and Bannister rivers and their basins, Lake Gaston, the Halifax and Kerr Reservoirs and on down to Virginia Beach and North Carolina.
As responsible citizens, we know our own history and we have studies our environment. We can see our responsibility. This is the American way. We see their indifference through name calling as a cover for their own personal gains — or just plain shortsightedness.
We also see their misuse of the scientific study with its “sound modern laboratory science” for empirical evidence as merely an attempt to hide their intended goal of political action by doing away with oversight of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act and the EPA to profit their owners and shareholders.
It’s time we clear the air!
BOB MARTIN
Chatham, VA
http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2011/feb/20/writer-no-mining-our-back-yard-period-ar-853510/
