Comment: Keep the Uranium Mining Ban!
RICHMOND, Va. — In a preview of what could be the top issue before the General Assembly in 2012, supporters and opponents of uranium mining in Virginia offered starkly different views Thursday of opening one of the world's largest known deposits of the radioactive ore.Proponents said tapping a 119-million-pound deposit in Southside Virginia
The arguments, offered at a daylong forum sponsored by the Garden Club of Virginia, were made about one month before a highly anticipated scientific report examining the statewide impacts of lifting a 1982 state ban on uranium mining and allowing the mining and milling of the radioactive ore.
"I don't think there are examples of this occurring safely anywhere," countered Christopher Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council.
The mine would be located in an Environment that is subject to hurricanes and drenching rains, which have the potential to wash radioactive tailings downstream, Environmentalists said. The city of Virginia Beach, which draws its water from the region, has conducted a study that raises the possibility of the mine and its radioactive waste fouling city waters during a catastrophic storm.
Paul A. Locke, who chairs the NAS uranium study panel, said the primary regulation of the mine would fall to the state. The miners who would extract the ore would be overseen by several federal agencies.
Opponents questioned whether Virginia has the resources to oversee a type of mining that has never occurred east of the Mississippi. Most domestic uranium mining occurs in the southwest.
"Make no mistake, mining of uranium is a major industrial process producing large levels of waste and radioactive Materials," Miller said. "This has to be managed into perpetuity."
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/05efe33fd32b426c9d22e5bb011e3087/VA--Uranium-Mining/
Supporters, critics of uranium mining face off in Richmond
The advocates tried to retain their civility at the forum, sponsored by the Garden Club of Virginia at the University of Richmond, but things blew up at a lunchtime news conference, with each side accusing the other of distorting facts and hiding information.
“You don’t think this is a billion-dollar enterprise?” asked Patrick Wales, project manager for Virginia Uranium Inc., the company that wants to tap one of the largest uranium deposits in the United States.
“No, I do not,” replied Olga Kolotushkina, policy director for the Roanoke River Basin Association, one of many environmental groups fighting the business venture.
"All we get from this company are promises in press releases and newspaper ads.”
For Hampton Roads, drinking water is perhaps the biggest concern. The mining of the radioactive resource, along with the storage of tons of waste materials known as tailings, would occur 100 miles upstream of Lake Gaston, a reservoir supplying much of the water to Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Chesapeake.
Joe Bouchard, a former state delegate from Norfolk, told the packed audience Thursday that Lake Gaston also provides drinking water to military installations throughout Hampton Roads. The risks of an accident contaminating water for downstream communities and the military, he said, are immense.
“National security risks are profound with this project and cannot be ignored,” said Bouchard, a former commanding officer of the Norfolk Naval Station.
Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council, said the state has a poor track record of regulating industries and spends only 1 percent of its budget on agencies that protect natural resources.
“We want to rest our hopes on that?” Miller asked the audience.
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/11/supporters-critics-uranium-mining-face-richmond
