Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Virginia Uranium Mining: Risks Outweigh Benefits



By Colleen Redman

When Deborah Lovelace first learned in 2008 that a small group of investors was planning to mine uranium about five miles from her Pittsylvania County home, she was interested in learning more. Because her grandfather and other family members had worked in coal mines, she thought uranium mining would be an opportunity for more jobs in the area.

Lovelace, a former real-estate agent and wife of a ninth-generation farmer, started doing research on uranium mining. She read information on the internet.

She attended meetings and symposiums, including one called “The Health and the Socio-economic Impact of Uranium Mining in Virginia,” hosted by Friends of the Earth in Richmond.

She quickly discovered that there was a big difference between coal mining and uranium mining because of the large amounts of radioactive waste that uranium mining creates. With a group of concerned citizens, she traveled to the Coal River Valley in West Virginia; that trip confirmed her worst fears about the mining industry. She learned about poor safety records and the lack of regard for regulations by mining companies. She saw economic depression in the form of closed schools and boarded-up businesses. She saw a creek flowing with contaminated yellowish water

Today, Lovelace heads up the nonprofit League of Individuals for the Environment (LIFE) and gives presentations in an effort to alert the public about a well-funded and politically connected campaign to lift a 29-year-old moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia.

In January, Lovelace and other organizers traveled from Pittsylvania County to Floyd County to meet with citizens there. A group of about 40 Floyd County residents learned that uranium mining in the U.S. has traditionally been limited to dry and lightly populated areas out West. With the price of uranium on the rise [at this writing], however, a Canadian-backed company called Virginia Uranium, Inc., is intent on bringing it to the East, specifically to Pittsylvania County, where a large deposit of uranium has been found.

The proposed mining site, Coles Hill, is situated on land owned by Walter Coles, Sr., the president and CEO of Virginia Uranium, Inc.

Lovelace gave a PowerPoint presentation outlining the uses and hazards of uranium and the logistics of mining operations. She explained that uranium is a radioactive metal found in the ground that is primarily used to make nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It’s toxic to humans and the environment.

“It takes 1,000 pounds of ore to produce one pound of uranium, which leaves 999 pounds of mill tailings,” Lovelace explained. “The mill tailings retain 85 percent of their toxic radioactivity for 300,000 years.” She added that exposure to uranium adversely affects the kidney, brain, liver and heart. It also increases the risk of birth defects and is damaging to neurological, genetic and reproductive systems.

A uranium mining operation commonly involves open-pit or underground mining, a pulverizing mill and a chemical plant, Lovelace said. She showed mining photos and displayed a United States Geological Survey map that highlighted potential uranium mining sites throughout rural Virginia and North Carolina and up and down the Blue Ridge.

Do we need uranium for energy? According to Lovelace’s research, the Department of Energy has sold excess uranium to friendly countries. “It’s stockpiled,” she said. “We buy it from Russia to keep it out of the hands of unfriendly countries. Of the 1,100 nuclear reactors in the world, only 430 are used to generate electricity.”

The environmental consequences of uranium mining in Virginia’s wet climate and the risks to groundwater and waterways also were discussed at the meeting.

Other frustrations raised included the lack of home insurance coverage for radiation contamination or damage due to mine blasting, the cost to taxpayers for radioactive cleanup and storage, and the concern that if the moratorium is lifted and mining is allowed in Pittsylvania County, it will open the door to uranium mining all over Virginia.

Several studies are underway that need to be completed and reviewed before the General Assembly will make a decision about the mining moratorium. A study funded by Virginia Beach already has determined that heavy rains and flooding near the proposed mining site in Pittsylvania County could flush radioactive waste into Lake Gaston, contaminating the city’s main water source. Another study currently being conducted by a National Academy of Sciences committee is funded by Virginia Uranium, Inc., the company seeking to mine. The Washington Post reported in 2008 that an estimated 110 million pounds of uranium worth almost $10 billion dollars is at stake for mining backers.

In early February, Robert Tohe, a field representative for the Sierra Club in Flagstaff, Arizona, and a member of the Navajo nation, visited Pittsylvania County to address the issue. He spoke to farmers, a pastor, two elected county officials, the local president of the NAACP and about 50 others about the devastation caused by uranium mining in the West, which began in the 1940s.

Tohe reported that the Navajo people and other indigenous communities are still living with the legacy of contamination from past uranium mining, including high rates of cancer. Although many of their communities are without electricity, Tohe said, “The people have sacrificed their lands and lives to uranium mining.” He reminded the audience that in the 1970s, the National Academy of Sciences coined the term “national sacrifice area” for the Four Corners area (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado) of the Southwest.

Tohe considers the hazardous nature of uranium mining to be a human-rights issue that disproportionately affects low-income people. He explained that huge amounts of water are used to mine uranium and that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has had to haul water into communities where drinking water is contaminated. Current efforts to use the judicial system to keep new uranium mining out of indigenous communities have been unsuccessful, and Congress has been dragging its feet on reclamation compensation.

“Waste is a huge issue,” Tohe said. “There is toxic waste in every step of the mining process. There’s really no place to hold this kind of waste, so why would you generate more if there is no place to store it? Is it need or greed?”

Tohe added that it’s the world market, primarily Korea and China, that will benefit from uranium mining. He warned of a large Canadian presence in U.S. mining and a web of partnerships that sell to global markets. “Once it gets into foreign-owned hands, we don’t know where it goes from there,” he said.

Tohe spoke of the boom-and-bust market cycles that hold hostage those residents near mines. Some short-term mining jobs can be expected, but water that is contaminated is changed forever. “You can’t pass regulations to address past hurts; it’s too late then,” he said. He advised that people look at the cumulative effects. “If there’s one mine, there will be two and three.”

During the question-and-answer portion of the meeting, Bob Martin, a pastor from Pittsylvania County, commented that The National Academy of Science does the studies but doesn’t make recommendations. “That’s up to the politicians and that’s who I’m worried about,” he said. He expressed frustration at those who didn’t go to the polls to support politicians who stand against uranium mining.

Naomi Hodge-Muse, president of the NAACP in Martinsville, suggested that each person in the room commit to speaking to his or her church and 10 other people, telling those 10 people to speak to their churches and 10 more people, and so on. “We are the people of Virginia,” she said. “Nobody has the right to come in and jeopardize our health and well-being. There are more of us than them.”

Mining moratorium supporter Karen Maute summed up the meeting, saying that Tohe’s message was clear.

“It’s better to avoid catastrophe than to deal with it after the fact,” she said. “We have the science behind us.

Lovelace remembers her initial hope that uranium mining might bring jobs to the area. Now, knowing what she knows, she thinks differently. “Jobs? What about the jobs lost?” she asks. “Who’s going to want to buy beef from us?”
Read more:
http://www.naswvamag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=432:virginia-uranium-mining&catid=101:features&Itemid=132