Comment: The whole state of VA needs to included in the so called : "socio-economic study" because if the part time state leaders lift the ban, it will include the whole state since uranium is located all of Virginia! Also the so called 'Scoping Study" about jobs was a joke, any 5th grader could have cut and paste the info! The mining jobs and milling jobs will go to outsiders or maybe coal miners in VA but not locals!
By STEVE SZKOTAK Associated Press Writer
October 2, 2010
RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia is moving forward with a study to size up the economic and social impacts of lifting a ban on uranium mining to tap a Southside deposit estimated at 110 million pounds.
The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission is seeking proposals to conduct the study, which is scheduled to be completed by December 2011. Unlike a separate study, which is examining technical aspects of uranium mining on a statewide level, the socio-economic study will be focused on "the region surrounding Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County, Virginia," according to the commission.
Both studies are intended to guide the General Assembly on whether it should end a 1982 ban on mining uranium in Virginia.
Virginia Uranium Inc. has proposed mining the deposit located beneath several hundred acres it owns in Chatham, near the North Carolina border.
The socio-economic study covers several topics, including economic development, public health and environment, government services and regulations, and social impacts. Specifically, the study should answer how many jobs a uranium mining industry would create, the impact on local and state revenues and possible health effects, among many other questions.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, which has been critical of opening the state to uranium mining, questioned the timing of the study. But officials were pleased it will look at disaster preparedness and contingency plans.
"That's a positive," said Cale Jaffe, a senior attorney with the law center. "What are the costs to the community and the state of a BP Gulf oil spill-type disaster?"
Jaffe and other skeptics have questioned the wisdom of uranium mining in the Southeast, which is subject to tropical storms and hurricanes that churn up the coast and can turn inland. Most domestic uranium mining occurs in the arid West. They are fearful a powerful storm blowing through Virginia or North Carolina would scatter uranium tailings through the region and onto crops or into water supplies.
Tailings are the waste rock separated from the uranium ore in the milling process, which uses a chemical agent.
Jaffe has argued as well that the socio-economic study should be conducted after the more technical study conducted by the National Academy. He said findings of that study would inform the socio-economic study. Both are being done simultaneously.
The SELC also will closely watch who successfully bids on the contract, which is valued at $200,000, to ensure it has no industry ties. Proposals are due by Nov. 15.
The independent technical study is being conducted by a National Research Council panel, which was reviewed by the National Academy of Science. It has scheduled meetings this year in Washington, D.C., and the Danville area.
Read more:
http://www.wtkr.com/news/dp-va--uraniumstudy1002oct02,0,4047109.story
