Comments: Thanks Ms. Cockrell for the great story, I have the pictures that should have been on the local newspaper! KTB!
The wrong top story for 2013: "No, Virginia Uranium "
Posted: Tuesday, January 7, 2014 6:00 am Editorial Boardgodanriver.com
The wrong top story for 2013: "No, Virginia Uranium "
Posted: Tuesday, January 7, 2014 6:00 am Editorial Boardgodanriver.com
To the editor:
I do realize — and am very grateful — that the Danville Register & Bee supports Virginia’s continued moratorium on uranium mining. The editorial board has made that clear with several wonderful, insightful editorials on the subject
The No. 1 story is not that VUI has seemingly suffered a temporary setback and is now having to regroup. A picture of VUI’s Patrick Wales using a Geiger counter was on the front page, along with the Dan River Region’s No. 1 story for 2013: "Mining Halt" (Jan. 1).
Because VUI lost (thus far), why weren’t the victors’ pictures on the front page?
It could have been a photo of jubilant Keep The Ban supporters taken at the General Assembly last January, when one of four proposed bills to tax uranium "severed from the earth" and to keep the mining industry to only within Pittsylvania County died a swift death due to a lack of legislative support.
A snapshot of the KTB billboards on local roads would have been more appropriate than Wales measuring radioactivity at Coles Hill.
The No. 1 story for the region is that the efforts of mostly unpaid citizens (for six-plus years, and counting), who organized, rallied, lobbied state legislators and even caught the
governor-elect’s ear, culminated in keeping an industry out of Virginia that could potentially harm people, air and waterways.
That’s the true, No. 1 story — the resilience of Virginians and North Carolinians who share life sustaining waterways and those from across the region, who said,
"No" to an industry with a terrible environmental track record,
one that is looking to set up business in Virginia.
ANNE COCKRELL
Danville
I do realize — and am very grateful — that the Danville Register & Bee supports Virginia’s continued moratorium on uranium mining. The editorial board has made that clear with several wonderful, insightful editorials on the subject
What’s galling to me is that the No. 1 story for 2013 should have been about citizens from across Virginia who stood up and said, "No, Virginia Uranium Inc.,
a financially backed Canadian company (to the tune of millions of dollars, spread far and wide), is not coming to Virginia and making an environmental mess, regardless of the so-called ‘new and improved’ ways utilized in the mining and milling of uranium."
a financially backed Canadian company (to the tune of millions of dollars, spread far and wide), is not coming to Virginia and making an environmental mess, regardless of the so-called ‘new and improved’ ways utilized in the mining and milling of uranium."
Because VUI lost (thus far), why weren’t the victors’ pictures on the front page?
It could have been a photo of jubilant Keep The Ban supporters taken at the General Assembly last January, when one of four proposed bills to tax uranium "severed from the earth" and to keep the mining industry to only within Pittsylvania County died a swift death due to a lack of legislative support.
A snapshot of the KTB billboards on local roads would have been more appropriate than Wales measuring radioactivity at Coles Hill.
The No. 1 story for the region is that the efforts of mostly unpaid citizens (for six-plus years, and counting), who organized, rallied, lobbied state legislators and even caught the
governor-elect’s ear, culminated in keeping an industry out of Virginia that could potentially harm people, air and waterways.
That’s the true, No. 1 story — the resilience of Virginians and North Carolinians who share life sustaining waterways and those from across the region, who said,
"No" to an industry with a terrible environmental track record,
one that is looking to set up business in Virginia.
ANNE COCKRELL
Danville
Posted: Tuesday, December 31, 2013 7:30 pm Top story of 2013: Mining halt
GoDanRiver staffgodanriver.com
As the sun rises on a new year, the Danville Register & Bee takes a look back at the biggest stories of 2013.
Leading the way is the hotly debated issue of uranium mining, which appears to have ground to a halt at the end of the year. 1. Uranium mining
After several years of heated debate and fierce advocating, Virginia Uranium Inc. announced it was temporarily suspending efforts to mine uranium in Pittsylvania County.
The company has tried to mine a 119 million-pound uranium deposit on Coles Hill for six years, but Virginia’s more-than-30-year moratorium on the practice has so far kept the company from doing much beyond exploratory drilling.
The company announced in November it would not support legislation to draft mining regulations in the 2014 General Assembly session, citing Gov.-elect’s Terry McAuliffe’s recent public opposition to their cause.
Still, the company insisted they remain “committed to the cause,” and will “re-evaluate all [their] options” in the coming year.
For full story visit: http://www.godanriver.com/
Leading the way is the hotly debated issue of uranium mining, which appears to have ground to a halt at the end of the year. 1. Uranium mining
After several years of heated debate and fierce advocating, Virginia Uranium Inc. announced it was temporarily suspending efforts to mine uranium in Pittsylvania County.
The company has tried to mine a 119 million-pound uranium deposit on Coles Hill for six years, but Virginia’s more-than-30-year moratorium on the practice has so far kept the company from doing much beyond exploratory drilling.
The company announced in November it would not support legislation to draft mining regulations in the 2014 General Assembly session, citing Gov.-elect’s Terry McAuliffe’s recent public opposition to their cause.
Still, the company insisted they remain “committed to the cause,” and will “re-evaluate all [their] options” in the coming year.
For full story visit: http://www.godanriver.com/
Posted: Wednesday, January 1, 2014 7:00 am
2013: the year that was for usThe Editorial Boardgodanriver.com
New Year’s Day doesn’t mean that the issues that shaped our lives in the preceding 12 months won’t affect the next 12 months.
In fact, most of the top 10 stories of 2013 are likely to affect the Dan River Region in 2014: Uranium mining has been discussed in earnest here since 2007 when Virginia Uranium first announced its intention to mine the Coles Hill deposit outside of Chatham.
But Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe has already said he would veto any legislation lifting Virginia’s moratorium.
With 119 million pounds of uranium — worth billions of dollars — at stake, it’s a good bet that VUI will try some other way to get at that ore.
For full editorial visit: http://www.godanriver.com/
In fact, most of the top 10 stories of 2013 are likely to affect the Dan River Region in 2014: Uranium mining has been discussed in earnest here since 2007 when Virginia Uranium first announced its intention to mine the Coles Hill deposit outside of Chatham.
But Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe has already said he would veto any legislation lifting Virginia’s moratorium.
With 119 million pounds of uranium — worth billions of dollars — at stake, it’s a good bet that VUI will try some other way to get at that ore.
For full editorial visit: http://www.godanriver.com/
