Posted: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 1:36 pm
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Uranium Working Group will focus on air and water quality when it holds the third of five scheduled public meetings Tuesday, Aug. 28, in Virginia Beach.
The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
The group includes experts from the Virginia Department of Health, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy.
Cathie J. France, deputy director of energy policy for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy, described the group’s role as a “fact-finding mission.”
“There have been a lot of studies done and those studies have raised a lot of questions,” she said. “We have not made any conclusions. We will not take a position one way or the other on whether the ban should be lifted. The information we provide will be used by decision-makers.”
The working group hired Wright Environmental Services, a Colorado consulting firm, to help with the study. Wright will be paid more than $1 million in two separate contracts with the three state agencies.
France said the working group will produce a draft conceptual statutory and regulatory framework, but will not write regulations on uranium mining and milling unless told to do so by the General Assembly.
If legislators lift the 30-year ban, it would take about two years to draft and approve regulations for uranium mining and milling, according to Tom Bibb, a manager with the state mining department
The Uranium Working Group held its first public meeting in June in Chatham on uranium mining permitting and regulations.
A second meeting was held in Chatham earlier this month with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees uranium milling.
The working group will return to Chatham for its October meeting, which will focus on public health and safety.
Its final meeting will be in November in Richmond and will target worker health and safety and emergency preparedness and response.
The working group will present its findings to the governor in late November or early December.
It will be up to lawmakers to decide whether to lift the moratorium on uranium mining, which has been in place since 1982.
The public will have a chance to comment at the Aug. 28 meeting or can submit comments by mail or the website, www.uwg.vi.virginia.gov.
A summary of written comments will be presented at each meeting.
In addition to comments and the group’s scope of work, most of the uranium studies, including ones going back to the early 1980s, have been posted or are in the process of being posted to the website.
Citizens can also sign up for an email list.
http://www.wpcva.com/news/chathamstartribune.com/news/article_ea734968-ec7f-11e1-966b-001a4bcf887a.html
