Fish consumption advisory issued for Lake Gaston (later Uranium Mining heavy leads)

Monday, November 30, 2009 10:07 AM EST

RICHMOND - The Virginia Department of Health has issued an advisory on walleye fish consumption due to mercury contamination in Lake Gaston.

Recent fish tissue sample results from the North Carolina Division of Public Health show mercury levels in walleye fish exceed the amount considered safe for long-term human consumption. As Virginia and North Carolina share boundaries for Lake Gaston, the Virginia Department of Health is taking the prudent measure of issuing an advisory.

VDH advises the consumption of no more than two meals a month of walleye taken from Lake Gaston. Virginia's advisory stretches from John H. Kerr Dam downstream 18 miles to the Virginia-North Carolina state line.

For additional details, visit the VDH fish consumption advisory page at www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemiology/dee/PublicHealthToxicology/Advisories/.

For more on North Carolina's findings on recent fish sampling, visit the North Carolina Public Health Web site at http://www.rabies.ncdhhs.gov/epi/fish/.

Fish is an excellent source of protein and other nutrients. Most people's fish consumption does not cause a health concern. However, high levels of mercury in the bloodstream of the unborn and young children may harm the developing nervous system.

Fish consumption advisories alert people to contaminants present in affected fish species but do not prohibit people from eating fish. Because of the increased health risk to the very young and women who are pregnant or who may soon become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children should not eat fish from this advisory area to avoid ingesting mercury.

Over time, mercury builds up in fish tissue to levels that are many times greater than levels in the surrounding water. Therefore, while eating walleye from the area under advisory may pose a health risk, swimming or waterskiing is safe.

VDH recommends the following precautions to reduce any potential harmful effects from eating contaminated fish:

Eat smaller, younger fish (within the legal limits). contaminants than larger, older fish.

Eat fewer or smaller servings of fish.

Try to eat different species of fish from various sources (i.e., different creeks, rivers and streams).

Cleaning or cooking contaminated fish does not eliminate or reduce mercury.

For more information about fish consumption advisories, including frequently asked questions, go to http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/.

Read more at:
http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2009/12/01/chatham/news/news47.txt

EPA refuses to investigate alleged well contamination at Coles Hill; Federal agency cites state health department study (Uranium Drill Holes)

Comment: Now look at the following statement made by a VA paid Water dude and think about it: "I find that implausible. Drilling is drilling. If that were the case, every time someone sinks a well, we'd see higher lead levels. It just doesn't work that way." Mr. Dude, our wells in this county does not crack the granite that surrounds the uranium, which is 1500 feet in the earth!  Most wells in our county goes down as little as 40 feet to 200 feet, depends where you live! No to uranium mining! More thought, it took VA water dude six months to go to the well!  Another thought, water was fine before the uranium drilling and high lead after drilling, six months later, water was fine again!  The lead problem went to Virginia Beach and North Carolina! 

By TIM DAVIS/Star-Tribune Editor
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 10:05 AM EST

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not investigate complaints of well contamination near the Coles Hill uranium deposit and instead cited state health department tests that determined exploratory drilling is not responsible for high lead levels in drinking water.

In an Oct. 22 letter to Pittsylvania County Administrator Dan Sleeper, EPA Acting Regional Administrator William C. Early said the agency only regulates public drinking water supply systems under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

"EPA does not regulate the drinking water quality of private household drinking water wells and does not have data on the groundwater quality of the private wells in the Coles Hill area," Early said.

Early said EPA contacted the Virginia Department of Health, which sampled private wells around the uranium deposit and did not find any "exceedances" of EPA's lead action level for lead in drinking water.

Concerns about well testing around the Coles Hill uranium deposit, about six miles northeast of Chatham, first surfaced in March.

Virginia Uranium Inc. collected and tested water samples at four ponds and four residential wells as part of an exploratory drilling permit from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy in 2007.

Although not required by the permit, the company sought permission to test wells at homes within about a mile of the site to determine the general water quality.

More than 80 wells were voluntarily tested.

Allen Gross, who lives on Motley Road, about a mile from the uranium, said when the first test was done in 2007 the lead in his water was relatively low.

When the last test was done late last year, it had risen significantly and exceeded the maximum allowable level for drinking water, which is 0.015 milligrams per liter.

Gross began drinking bottled water.

He and others took their concerns to the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, which voted in April to ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Virginia Department of Health to investigate lead levels around the uranium deposit.

After tests in June, Dr. Charles J. Devine III, director of the Danville-Pittsylvania County Health District, said plumbing and faulty testing were likely to blame for elevated lead levels in Gross's water.

The health department took its own samples. The first was taken without flushing the water system.

It tested .008 milligrams per liter, which is a "significant amount," but not an actionable level, said the director.

The second sample was taken after the plumbing was thoroughly flushed. Tests for lead were below detectible limits.

"Our interpretation is that the source water was fine at the initial test and fine at our test," said Devine. "The implication is the elevated lead levels came from some place other than the source water."

The most likely culprit is Gross's plumbing. Although he has replaced the metal pipes with plastic, Devine said lead may still be present in the well pump and faucets.

The health department advised Gross to let the tap run in the morning to flush water that has been sitting in pipes overnight.

Patrick Wales, project manager for Virginia Uranium, said the health department confirmed what the company has said all along.

"We have always said we had nothing to do with it," said Wales. "There was never any reasonable connection to be made between our activities and something upstream a mile and a half away."

Gross isn't satisfied.

"It is strange my water was safe to drink before they started drilling, unsafe during the drilling, and safe again now that they've stopped and sealed the holes," he said.

Gross obtained statements from two licensed plumbers certifying the high lead levels came from his water, not his plumbing.

"This isn't a one-person issue," he said. "It's going to be the whole county."

Devine said the health department has no plans for additional testing at this time.

Devine said he doesn't understand the connection Gross and others are trying to make between exploratory drilling and high lead levels.

"I am at a loss to know how drilling for uranium or anything causes lead levels to fluctuate," he said.

"I find that implausible. Drilling is drilling. If that were the case, every time someone sinks a well, we'd see higher lead levels. It just doesn't work that way."

tim.davis@chathamstartribune.com

Click Title or Link to whole post:
http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2009/11/04/chatham/news/news50.txt

Uranium -Coles Hill

Comments: Thanks for your service during WWII! However, uranium mining and nuclear power are not good things! Uranium mining cannot be compared to tobacco because it seems the people of this community will not have a chance to vote on uranium mining or a choice to stop uranium mining but people chooses to smoke! Please read the comments listed below because they inform us with the problems of uranium mining!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 8:55 AM EDT
Letter to editor:

I have lived in the Sheva community all of my life except time in the Merchant Marines during World War II.

I would like to relate some of my experiences.

I was raised on a tobacco farm in the Mill Creek community.

My three sons operate the dairy on my home place.

I now live in the old Sheva Church of Christ building at Sheva.

Much of the land that is used by the dairy is within a three mile radius of Coles Hill where the deposit of uranium is located.

My family owns stock in Virginia Uranium. This gives us some voice in future developments.

We are now directly involved in the nuclear industry. We have members of our family that work at B&W, a nuclear facility in the Lynchburg area, and the energy used to operate the dairy comes from a nuclear power plant.

There is no place that I would rather live than in the Sheva community.

I have taken no position for or against the mining.

As I recently celebrated my 84th birthday I realize that I know less and less about more and more things.

I don't have answers to the many problems facing our community and nation. I will try to meet the challenges in a positive way.

If and when the uranium is mined, I would like to see the money used to replace the tobacco money.

The issue of growing tobacco has been an issue for most of my life. All of my family including myself have raised tobacco.

My parents and grandparents that I knew raised tobacco. They thought it was all right to grow but wrong to use it.

I have heard my parents pray for rain for the tobacco crop and also pray for the Lord to heal people suffering from the use of tobacco. I also heard similar prayers at church.

There are some questions that I would like to have answered.

What other sources of energy on the large scale provided by nuclear energy are available to us in the area?

How much damage would other sources do to the environment. I know solar energy and wind power are available but are they available to this area in the quantity now provided by nuclear energy.

There are contradictions in my own life. I used money from tobacco to develop the dairy. We have been producing Grade A milk at the homeplace since 1947.

What kind of an example are we setting for our young people?

I have never heard a person encourage their young people to use tobacco.

How do we want people to remember us?

Our record of how we used resources will follow us beyond the grave.

I have misused resources. I have asked the Lord to forgive me.

J. Fuller Motley
Chatham

Comments:

HowMuch
wrote on Oct 8, 2009 2:45 PM:

" Mr Motley and/or his sons are investors in the uranium mining and milling so they say. To what is he now confessing? That he is adding Uranium to his cows diet and milk? Tell us Fuller how much $ has your family "invested"? "

Yellowcake Anyone
wrote on Oct 7, 2009 10:37 PM:

" Mr. Motley,
Forgive me, sir, for I don't want to be disrespectful to an elder, but if you've invested in Virginia Uranium, I dare say, you've taken a position on uranium mining.

Like living in Sheva?

At 84, I know you may not be around by the time the blasting actually starts at Coles Hill, but if you are, you best pick a new spot to live. I seriously doubt you'd be able to tolerate living next to the North and South mines where miners will surface blast uranium all day, all week, all year, out of the ground with radioactive dust accompanying it, up into the atmosphere--over food crops, livestock, waterways, etc...

It won't be safe for you or your loved ones--no matter the drivel VUI has told you--to live nearby a uranium mine. In fact, the entire Sheva community, as beautiful as it is, will suffer as people began to move away to protect themselves.

We're told not to worry for the EPA and the NRC will monitor and regulate every aspect of the industry: uranium mines, tailings piles, mill, and even the future cleanup of the site. (Think Superfund.)

Do keep in mind the EPA & the DEQ monitor and regulate the coal industry. How well did these regulatory agencies protect the people and waterways around Kingston, Tenn., in Dec. of 2008, when toxic coal sludge breached its dam? Re: http://earthblips.dailyradar.com/story/dam_breach_in_tennessee_releases_tsunami_of_toxic_coal/

Considering the outcome, ask the Kingston, Tenn. folks if they had been really, really protected by the EPA and DEQ's oversight of the coal industry.

What do you mean, "I have asked the Lord to forgive me."? Does this mean, if you've hurt the environment and your fellow man by investing in a company that will destroy the very place you love, Sheva, will God forgive you?

I'd like to think God would. The Holy Bible says He forgives all evil-doers who seek His forgiveness.

Investing in a company that will displace families (your long-time neighbors) and pollute the air and water for at least 2000 school-age children in the area of Southside Virginia could be considered a sin.

You also mention how your family grew tobacco for income and felt conflicted when it made some folks sick.

The difference, here, sir, is that people won't have to actively light up a cigarette or chew a plug of tobacco to get sick. They simply have to inhale the air--whether this is a smoker's lungs or that of a tot on his tricycle--and wait for the radioactive sleeper cells to do their work. The question is, will it be a few years or a few decades before the sickness becomes apparent?

I like that you're concerned about the future, sir, but I don't think your children or their children will get the privilege of growing up and living out their days in the Sheva community as you have so far enjoyed, if uranium mining is ever allowed at Coles Hill. (God Bless your time away and contribution to WWII.)

In the scheme of things, time grows short for life as we now know it in Southside Virginia.

Yellowcake Anyone? "

http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2009/10/07/chatham/opinion/opinion02.txt

Old Jailhouse - San Toy Ghost Town

Comment: I thought the following article was ironic. Santoy/Virginia Uranium, Canadian company want to mine uranium in Virginia!! This is Chatham, Va future!

The town of San Toy existed in the early 1900s. It was a mining town which was notorious for its rough, crime-ridden population.

Mother nature has reclaimed this area, so it's very difficult to imagine that this remote area of deep forest was once a bustling town of 2,000 people.

My information about this peculiar place comes from a web site called Forgotten Ohio. At this site, you can read more about San Toy and view old photos.

Perry County Ohio

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timberwolf1212/3610584013/