March 20, 2010
A study will begin soon to examine whether a uranium deposit in Southside Virginia can be mined safely.
The Environmental Protection Agency is due to release a review of drinking water standards this month.
Recent research suggests that even the tiny amounts of uranium permitted in public water supplies may carry health risks. Sorting through the policy and politics will be a challenge.
The National Research Council's conclusions should provide valuable information state leaders can use to determine whether the state should lift its 28-year moratorium on uranium mining.
But they must retain a healthy skepticism about any recommendations based on current safety standards, recognizing that a growing number of scientists and government regulators consider those rules inadequate.
This issue is particularly crucial for the residents of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Norfolk. Lake Gaston, downstream from the proposed mine in Pittsylvania County, is the main source of drinking water for Virginia Beach, helps replenish Norfolk-owned reservoirs and may one day provide drinking water to Chesapeake.
Beach officials have wisely hired an independent engineering firm to do its own study about risks to the city's water supply. Much of the concern has centered on the potential for large storms to wash radioactive contaminants into streams feeding Lake Gaston, but additional attention must be given to the treatment of groundwater in and around the uranium deposit.
Scientists featured at a symposium last week sponsored by environmental groups emphasized that they are still learning about the health effects from uranium and heavy metals left behind from milling the ore. Recent research suggests even low levels of uranium in drinking water may cause reproductive changes that could increase the risk of fertility problems and certain cancers. Those studies focus on water that meets existing EPA standards for human consumption.
The World Health Organization recommends stricter limits than those in force in the United States. An investigation last year by The New York Times found that the federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulates only 91 of 60,000 chemicals in use in the United States, and many of the standards are out of date.
Government regulations can never eliminate all risks.
The real question: How much risk is acceptable? The EPA is struggling with that question now, and soon Virginia leaders will be doing the same.
Read more:
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/03/how-much-uranium-water-too-much
