Posted: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 12:09 pm
To the editor,
Any type of mining is a dirty, health-affecting business. Radioactive mining will produce mountains of radioactive dirt (tailings), which will be dumped around and look horrible.The fine and microscopic radioactive material, along with all kinds of other pollutant dust, will enter our houses, our lungs, water, food sources, children and you name it. The good, safe life touted by government officials and the mining company won't happen.
PCS, a mining company in Morehead City, N.C., tried to put a new plant in Morehead City. The people, too, were told it could be safe and without danger to the community, would not stink and that it would not affect the community. The public received very little information about the whole thing, like us, and found out they were lied to about the jobs that were coming, the tax dollars that they would receive, the stink it would create and just about everything else. Go to http://www.newsobserver.com and ask for "plans for sulfur plant at Morehead City" and look up this information for yourself. We are being told the very same thing.
Just consider the massive transportation of the radioactive materials going through our towns. One accident can do untold harm. We are not immune to disasters. Remember the flood just a few years ago? Our whole area was flooded many feet. If tailings were in the area then, it would have washed that stuff right into our water, onto our land and everywhere else.
Oh, don't take my word for this letter. Research this most vital subject yourself. Go to the library and on the Internet. Many towns are polluted by mining of any kind, much less radioactive mining. Oh, by the way, the mining companies in these towns were not anxious to clean up their pollution, which they claimed wouldn't happen because they mine safely. They found all kinds of scientific studies, which claimed that sickness in the area was not the mining industries' fault. Little towns don't have the resources to fight these big mining companies when it comes to pollution problems, and the companies sure didn't volunteer to take care of these pollution problems.
You may not have the resources to move even though you can't stand the pollution. I know. I lived in polluted Chicago and dust settled all over my house. Also, my children were sick with constant vomiting; my daughter blacked out unexplainably at various times and many other little problems, such as skin rashes, itching, coughing and colds were our constant companions. When I visited other places away from Chicago, these things cleared up. I had to move away from my house so that my family wouldn't be sick all the time.
We have to fight uranium mining with every inch of our lives. Don't be lazy; this is one of the most life-changing things that will affect every member of your family. There is a reason Japan is getting away from radioactive energy, yet we are contemplating digging radioactive material out of our ground in our backyard, and the tailings will be dumped under our nose, which will still be radioactive for many, many years. There was a reason that our forefathers didn't allow opening our ground to radioactivity. That reason has not changed one bit. I wish our present officials would stand up for our people and fight this thing. Once this is out of Pandora's box, you can't put it back in.
Morehead City's mining plans were stopped because a coalition was formed to expose truth about the mine they were about to get. We can do something to stop this process in our area. Here is a good cause for a younger person than myself to take up the call to organize the towns for miles around to fight this big curse that is about to fall on us. We, as individuals, can write our government officials letters. Let's flood their offices with our letters letting them know that we don't want this thing. If they don't hear from us, they will think it is OK with us.
Irene Buss
Gretna
http://www.wpcva.com/altavista/opinion/article_54cc6fa6-3c77-11e1-a906-0019bb2963f4.html
