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
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