June 22, 2012
Daniel Carawan
Richmond Progressive Examiner
Colorado-based Wright Environmental Services[1] had a big payday on Tuesday as it hauled in two separate uranium mining related contracts, one from the Virginia Department of Health and the other to assist the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy (DMME). The two contracts were worth $520,000 and $513,000, respectively.[2]
The contract awarded by the Virginia Department of Health is part of the McDonnell administration’s effort to assist Virginia’s multi-agency “work group” in their information gathering process to create a “conceptual regulatory framework” for lawmakers to review in the case of a lift to the three decades old ban on uranium mining.
The second contract will go towards assisting DEQ and DMME[3] analyze licensing, permitting, and engineering regulations.
Two teams have been assigned by Wright Environmental Services to work on the two studies with some overlap expected.
The bottom line, however, is that over $1 million in additional taxpayer money has been spent on a pair of contracts, the results of which may never benefit Virginians by way of energy from uranium ore. Why? Because uranium mining in Virginia is not safe enough to be conducted due to the lopsided ratio of rainfall to evaporation, among many other reasons.[4]
For one reason or another, proponents of mining uranium in Virginia have claimed that the process would be safe, but relative to what, on what grounds has this conclusion been based?
Virginians and Americans in general have seen this movie one too many times. Big natural resource is found. Big company(s) and their political friends attempt to take financial advantage of the discovery. Local community and workers adversely affected.[5]
But those incidents were in the past, right? Those incidents were in another country, or another part of the country, or the technology wasn’t as “up to date” as the technology which exists today. The same responses have been given to the same concerns and Virginians therefore have every reason to be apprehensive.
[1] http://www.wrightenvironmentalservices.com/
[2] http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2012/jun/19/state-group-tasked-developin...
[3] http://www.dmme.virginia.gov/
[4] http://www.pecva.org/index.php/our-mission/energy-solutions/virginias-ur...
[5] http://www.energy-net.org/01NUKE/UM-3a.HTM
Read more:
http://www.examiner.com/article/over-1-million-uranium-mining-contracts-handed-out-by-mcdonnell-admin
The contract awarded by the Virginia Department of Health is part of the McDonnell administration’s effort to assist Virginia’s multi-agency “work group” in their information gathering process to create a “conceptual regulatory framework” for lawmakers to review in the case of a lift to the three decades old ban on uranium mining.
The second contract will go towards assisting DEQ and DMME[3] analyze licensing, permitting, and engineering regulations.
Two teams have been assigned by Wright Environmental Services to work on the two studies with some overlap expected.
The bottom line, however, is that over $1 million in additional taxpayer money has been spent on a pair of contracts, the results of which may never benefit Virginians by way of energy from uranium ore. Why? Because uranium mining in Virginia is not safe enough to be conducted due to the lopsided ratio of rainfall to evaporation, among many other reasons.[4]
For one reason or another, proponents of mining uranium in Virginia have claimed that the process would be safe, but relative to what, on what grounds has this conclusion been based?
Virginians and Americans in general have seen this movie one too many times. Big natural resource is found. Big company(s) and their political friends attempt to take financial advantage of the discovery. Local community and workers adversely affected.[5]
But those incidents were in the past, right? Those incidents were in another country, or another part of the country, or the technology wasn’t as “up to date” as the technology which exists today. The same responses have been given to the same concerns and Virginians therefore have every reason to be apprehensive.
[1] http://www.wrightenvironmentalservices.com/
[2] http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2012/jun/19/state-group-tasked-developin...
[3] http://www.dmme.virginia.gov/
[4] http://www.pecva.org/index.php/our-mission/energy-solutions/virginias-ur...
[5] http://www.energy-net.org/01NUKE/UM-3a.HTM
Read more:
http://www.examiner.com/article/over-1-million-uranium-mining-contracts-handed-out-by-mcdonnell-admin
