Flooding around Coles Hill
Comments: It is important to attend this meeting. It is likely the uranium interest will have a strong showing of either interested or "paid" parties. PLEASE MAKE EVERY ATTEMPT TO ATTEND!
Uranium Subcommittee of the Coal and Energy Commission meeting details:
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
5:00 p.m.
Olde Dominion Agricultural Center
19783 US Highway 29 South
Chatham, VA 24531
Chatham, VA 24531
COAL AND ENERGY COMMISSION & URANIUM MINING SUBCOMMITTEE
| Meeting Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 |
| Meeting Time: 05:00 PM |
| Location: Olde Dominion Agricultural Complex, Chatham |
| Contact: Martin Farber, Division of Legislative Services (804) 786-3591 Scott Meacham, Division of Legislative Services (804) 786-3591 Barbara Teague, House Committee Operations (804) 698-1540 |
The Coal and Energy Commission will be meeting jointly with the Uranium Mining Subcommittee on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 5:00 PM at the Olde Dominion Agricultural Complex, 19783 US Highway 29 South, Chatham, VA, 24531 (http://www.theodac.com) for the purpose of receiving the Governor's Uranium Working Group Report. No action on the report will be taken at the meeting. Written questions will be taken from the audience after the presentation from the Uranium Working Group. Another legislative meeting will be scheduled in Richmond prior to the beginning of the 2013 legislative session. The discussion of any possible action or recommendation related to the Governor's Working Group Report will take place at this meeting.
For additional meeting information, please go to the Meeting Notification website.
Comments: Ken and I will be at the public hearing tomorrow in Chatham. We are sending out the following press statement to the North Carolina press. I look forward to seeing you.Deborah Ferruccio
FYI...Uranium Mining Press Release: the North Carolina News Media: North Carolina Citizens Against Virginia Uranium Mining
For several years the people of Chatham, Virginia have been mounting an opposition to a plan to mine uranium in their county if a thirty-year ban on uranium mining is lifted by the Virginia Legislature next month, and now more than ever they need the help of North Carolinians. After a year-long assessment of the pros and cons of lifting the ban on mining, the Virginia Uranium Mining Working Group, appointed by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and comprised of government and uranium industry-connected members, has submitted its findings and draft regulations to the Governor who will soon make his recommendation to the Legislature about whether or not members should pass legislation to lift the ban on uranium mining.
The people of Chatham, Virginia, are not alone. A coalition of local governments and civic and environmental organizations such as Virginia Against Uranium Mining, the Roanoke River Basin Association’s North Carolina Coalition, and the Sierra Club has joined the Chatham uranium mining opposition and been working hard to educate the public on the issues, but the coalition needs the attention of the North Carolina news media and the active support of the broader public.
Because democracy functions through the will of the people, and the will of the people is determined by an informed and free press, it is paramount for the North Carolina news media to do its part in promoting the general welfare of both states by utilizing in-depth, unfettered investigative journalism in the uranium mining issue and by spotlighting the contentious environmental, scientific, health, ethical, and economic issues, while giving equal coverage to mining opponents and proponents.
Keep the Ban proponents also need the active help of citizens and local governments in North Carolina who are passionate about healthy air and water and about property that they can deed to their children with a clean title, one without a permanent radioactive lien. They need the help of communities whose economies are dependent on agriculture and tourism and a reputation for a safe and clean environment.
What can and must the growing opposition do? Through a concerted education campaign conducted in churches, county courthouses, and in civil halls, the opposition must explode several myths promoted by mining proponents. First, it must explode the myth that uranium mining “best practices” (plastic and clay liners, leachate collection systems, and monitoring wells) could ever contain the radioactive waste and guarantee environmental protection and public safety. Next, the opposition must explode the myth that “robust” regulations (a euphemistic term used by the government and industry officials) are nothing more than inflated words on paper written by biased, conflicted, highly educated, and highly paid government officials to legalize a commercialized radioactive regime that would rule Virginians, North Carolinians, and others with impunity and in perpetuity.
In addition, the opposition must explode the myth that public hearings actually facilitate meaningful public participation. Public hearings are tightly-controlled, cosmetic in nature, and are intended as mechanisms for gradually cowing mining opponents through intimidation into a state of subservience to the rules. Mining opponents must explode the myth that “good” citizens abide by the rules, no matter how ill-conceived and ill-intentioned the rules are. Finally, the mining opposition must explode the myth that demonstrations, protests, and civil disobedience are extreme measures which belong to left-wing extremists, Blacks, women, paranoid liberals, tree-huggers, and eco-terrorists. Instead, they are measures of resistance to tyranny that are Constitutionally-guaranteed to ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
Over the past three decades, numerous North Carolina Piedmont and other communities, including Warren County where the Environmental Justice Movement was built and launched, have exploded these myths and successfully stopped toxic, hazardous, nuclear, and deadly disease facilities that threatened the state. So, it’s not surprising that the Uranium Working Group did not schedule any public hearings on the issue in North Carolina. Clearly, the collective experience of North Carolina citizens can help to make a difference as citizens speak out and stand together with Virginians in their opposition to uranium mining.
Public sentiment matters, so before officials take holiday leave, citizens can contact: NC Governor-Elect Pat McCrory and tell him that radioactive contamination in North Carolina waterways will not help the state “come back” and that North Carolina unequivocally opposes uranium mining. They can contact: Governor-Elect McCrory at governor.office@nc.gov or 919-855-4400 and VA Governor Bob McDonnell at Virginia.gov (click on governor) or (804) 786-2211. They can also contact Virginia and North Carolina State and US Congressional Representatives.
Sincerely,
Deborah and Ken Ferruccio
Warren County, North Carolina
(252) 257-2604
