By PATRICK LOVE Editor | Posted: Friday, April 13, 2012 12:21 pm
While Virginia officials face questions of transparency in their efforts to study regulating uranium mining, there are increasing calls for the other state through which the Roanoke River passes — North Carolina — to become more involved in the process.Several Lake Gaston residents have joined with other downstream stakeholders to form the North Carolina Coalition Against Uranium Mining, which is looking to raise awareness about the perceived threat to the state’s water resources by the proposed uranium mine north of Danville, Va., and urge North Carolina policymakers to take stances and actions concerning the issue.
The organization is also petitioning Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell to include North Carolina officials on the uranium working group he established in January to develop a regulatory framework for uranium mining in the state, which is being lobbied to lift the 30-year moratorium on uranium mining it put in place 25 years ago.
“Since North Carolina shares the waterway and is impacted to a great extent by whatever decision Virginia makes, we would like to participate in that discussion,” said Mike Pucci, the N.C. Coalition’s chairman. “We realize this is Virginia’s issue, but we are the recipients from any fallout of that decision, and we want to be at the table.”
Pucci is one of two Wildwood Point residents who are heading up the N.C. Coalition, along with vice chair Greg Veraa.
Pucci is uniquely qualified to take an active role as a leader among those opposed to the mining project. A Lake Gaston resident since 1992, he holds degrees in biology, secondary education and resource management, with a focus on water, and is currently senior vice president for PhytoChem Pharmaceuticals of Cary, N.C., while also operating a consulting firm in the healthcare field.
While the ultimate decision on whether or not to lift the uranium mining ban is Virginia’s alone, Pucci says the state’s policymakers should take North Carolina’s concerns into account when making their decision.
“We share the water and the resource, and the North Carolina side shares all the risks and none of the proceeds,” he said. “The risks are all on the downstream side.”
The 410-mile Roanoke River has headwaters in the Blue Ridge Mountains in southwestern Virginia and ends on the western side of the Albemarle Sound in northeastern North Carolina. It’s impounded five times, including a dam in Southside Virginia that forms Kerr Lake and another near Roanoke Rapids in North Carolina that forms Lake Gaston.
A Pittsylvania County site in the Roanoke River Basin between Danville and Chatham, Va., has been identified by a company called Virginia Uranium, Inc., for containing deposit of uranium, a radioactive element that is used in modern society for producing nuclear energy and weaponry.
The company is lobbying Virginia lawmakers to lift the state’s uranium mining moratorium and has gone to great lengths to show the public it can mine the “Coles Hill” site safely.
But Pucci and others, notably the Roanoke River Basin Association, which has been involved in activities concerning the Roanoke River Basin since the nonprofit organization’s formation in 1945, question whether safety could be guaranteed at this particular site.
The main controversy involves the storage of tailings, radioactive byproducts of uranium mining. Virginia Uranium would use below-surface tailings storage specifically designed to prevent the release of tailings into the environment, but opponents argue that one breach could contaminate the Roanoke River for thousands of years.
“If they could design it safely and do it without risks, everyone would shut up and go home and say, ‘Have at it,’” said Pucci. “But it’s a human endeavor.
One hurricane, one earthquake, one break of one of those 40-acre containment sites, and we’ll have a 300,000 year problem in our watershed.”
Opponents argue that the site lies within a floodzone and is just 90 miles away from the epicenter of a 6.1 magnitude earthquake last November.
“No uranium mine has ever operated without a breach or violation of the regulations designed to protect the public or its employees,” said Pucci.
There have been two studies conducted pertaining to the feasibility of mining the Coles Hills site, one by the National Academy of Sciences and another that was commissioned by the city of Virginia Beach, which draws water from Pea Hill Creek on Lake Gaston. Neither concludes safety could be guaranteed at the Coles Hill site, and both outline the risks involved if something goes wrong.
“Virginia Beach is our biggest advocate in this fight right now, because they’re a stakeholder,” said Pucci. “This is their water, and if you have uranium in the water, they shut down.”
Pucci said Raleigh could become a stakeholder in the future, since North Carolina’s capital has longstanding water issues.
“Raleigh is always on the brink of a drought,” he said. “They have grown beyond the capacity of the Neuse River to supply water to that population. One three-week drought, and all of a sudden Raleigh’s water supply is in trouble.”
This is one of the reasons he thinks North Carolina should become involved in this issue.
McDonnell’s uranium working group, which was formed after the governor urged Virginia lawmakers not to take up the uranium ban during the 2012 session, held a hastily called meeting April 4 to discuss criticisms that it’s not operating in an open and transparent manner.
Initially hailed by some opponents of the Coles Hill uranium mine as a step in the right direction, McDonnell’s directive to form the working group has since come to be viewed negatively by those who don’t want uranium mining in Virginia.
“It was a confusing situation, because we won — they didn’t have the votes,” said Pucci.
“So governor took it off the agenda and formed a working group to proceed with drafting regulations, which basically amounts to moving the conversation outside of public dialogue.”
Read more:
http://www.vancnews.com/lake_gaston_gazette_observer/news/local/article_44f75468-8585-11e1-a5fd-0019bb2963f4.html
