Comments: My main saying, Keep the uranium ban, nothing should last 4/ever and poison people!
By: | GoDanRiver.com
Published: February 09, 2012
The 200 people who attended
the National Academy of Sciences uranium mining meeting this week were told that
the Coles Hill site in Pittsylvania County needs more study.
"Nothing is as important as a
site-specific study," John Cannon, chairman of the Halifax County Industrial
Development Authority and president of The Virginia Coalition, said at the
meeting.
That kind of methodical,
plodding approach will not suit the people who only see the project’s estimated
jobs and economic impact and think Virginia Uranium is a company that can help
the Dan River Region today.
For the rest of us, uranium
mining remains a big question mark.
The studies, like the one done by the NAS,
were intended to be a starting point in the debate, not the last word. We
haven’t found a sentence in one of them yet that reads: "Dig here, dig now; no
harm will come to your community."
The truth of the matter is far more complex, made all the more troubling by Virginia Uranium’s deep pockets that have funded its newfound political influence in Richmond.
When’s the last
time a potential new industry came to the Dan River Region and then spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby members of the General
Assembly?
People still want to know
what they’ve always wanted to know — they want to know if uranium mining is
safe. It doesn’t help to hear how much better uranium mines and mills are from
just 30 years ago, when another company wanted to mine Coles Hill and also
insisted that the procedures in place back then were safe.
If Virginia allows Coles Hill
to be mined in the next few years, will the next Coles Hill-sized uranium
deposit found somewhere else in 25 years also come with the assurance that
uranium mining is much better and safer than it was way back in 2012?
These kinds of questions
aren’t meant to bring on the dreaded "paralysis by analysis," but to ask what
will happen to the land we love and the air and water we need.
We’re not talking about an
industry that could supply good local jobs for generations to come.
When it’s done, it’s done,
and our children and grandchildren will live with the choices that we make
today.
For that reason alone, the
methodical, plodding approach is the only thing that makes sense.
Everyone knows
that local people are hurting financially, but tough times don’t last. What does
is a uranium mine’s wastes. Those have to be watched for hundreds, if not
thousands of years — long after the uranium is extracted from the hard rock
under Coles Hill.
