Monday, January 14, 2013

Finance Committee:Undecideds URGENT to call NOW! / Legislators, do right by Southside / New Va. uranium mining study set for release / Elizabeth Ward /

Finance Committee:Undecideds URGENT to call NOW! / Legislators, do right by Southside / New Va. uranium mining study set for release / Elizabeth Ward /

We need to get this information to the undecideds immediately. It looks like the Finance Committee might be the first one to vote on this issue. I have added the Senators that are on the Finance (F) committee that were not on the Agriculture (A) or Commerce and Labor (C/L) at the top of the list with their contact information.

Please only call the undecideds marked in red and the unknowns marked in blue and ask to speak to their legislative aide. Tell the aide that you oppose uranium mining and then ask if the Senator has a position on the issue. Report back to stonecart1@gmail.com if the aide tells you if the Senator is opposed or supports uranium mining. 7 Senators have been identified as crucial undecided swing votes if the bill gets to the floor and they are identified in the list below in Large Bold Red Italics in the list below.

Let's go team!

Freeda Cathcart
Founder of Mothers United Against Uranium Mining
540-598-7231

Finance Committee:
Undecideds URGENT to call NOW!
Report back if they take a position:
Marsh, F [D] (804) 698-7516 district16@senate.virginia.gov Richmond won’t tell position
Try to talk to these Senators’ aides to see if they have a position if you get answering machine leave message opposing uranium mining and milling along with your locality.Report back if you talk to the aide and find out their postion:
McDougle, F, [R] (804) 698-7504 district04@senate.virginia.gov Mechanicsville
These Senators firmly support Keep The Ban and oppose uranium mining.They don’t need thank you calls and prefer for us to concentrate on the undecideds:
Norment [R] F C/L 804-698-7503 district03@senate.virginia.gov Gloucester County (All);Hampton City (Part); Isle of Wight County (Part); James City County (Part); King and Queen County (All); King William County (All); New Kent County (All); Poquoson City (All); Suffolk City (Part); Surry County (Part); York County (Part)
These Senators firmly support Keep The Ban and oppose uranium mining.They don’t need thank you calls and prefer for us to concentrate on the undecideds:
On record for being for uranium mining in Virginia:
________________________________________________________________________________
Undecideds URGENT to call NOW!
Report back if they take a position:
Colgan [D] C/L, F 804-698-7529 district29@senate.virginia.gov Manassas City (All
Stosch C/L, F 804-698-7512 district12@senate.virginia.gov Hanover County (Part); Henrico County (Part)
Newman [R] F C/L 804-698-7523district23@senate.virginia.gov Bedford City (All);

Wagner [R] F, C/L 804-698-7507 district07@senate.virginia.govNorfolk City (Part);Virginia Beach City (Part)
Stuart [R] Ag, C/L 804-698-7528district28@senate.virginia.gov King George County (Part);Prince William County (Part); Spotsylvania County (Part); Stafford County (Part); Westmoreland County (Part)

Miller [D] Ag 804-698-7501district01@senate.virginia.gov Hampton City (Part); James City County (Part); Newport News City (Part); Suffolk City (Part); Williamsburg City (All); York County (Part)

Barker [D](804) 698-7539 district39@senate.virginia.gov

Alexandria City (Part); Fairfax County (Part); Prince William County (Part)Blevins [R] (804) 698-7514 district14@senate.virginia.govChesapeake City (Part); Franklin City (Part); Isle of Wight County (Part); Portsmouth City (Part); Southampton County (Part); Suffolk City (Part); Virginia Beach City (Part)
Puller [D](804) 698-7536 district36@senate.virginia.govFairfax County (Part); Prince William County (Part); Stafford County (Part)
Black [R] Ag 804-698-7513 district13@senate.virginia.gov Loudoun County (Part); Prince William County (Part)
Obenshain [R] Ag C/L 804-698-7526 district26@senate.virginia.gov Harrisonburg City (All);Page County (All); Rappahannock County (All); Rockingham County (Part); Shenandoah County (All); Warren County (All)
Peterson [D] Ag 804-698-7534Fairfax district34@senate.virginia.govaide is our side Fairfax City (All); Fairfax County (Part)
Puckett [R] C/L and Ag 804-698-7538district38@senate.virginia.gov land County (All); Buchanan County (All); Dickenson County (All); Montgomery County (Part); Norton City (All); Pulaski County (All); Radford City (All); Russell County (All); Smyth County (Part); Tazewell County (All); Wise County (Part)Blevins Ag 804-698-7514); Manassas Park City (All); Prince William County (Part)

Martin [R] C/L 804-698-7511district11@senate.virginia.gov Amelia County (All); Chesterfield County (Part); Colonial Heights City (All)

Hanger F, Ag 804-698-7524 district24@senate.virginia.gov Augusta County (All); Culpeper County (Part); Greene County (All); Madison County (All); Rockingham County (Part); Staunton City (All); Waynesboro City (All)

These Senators firmly support Keep The Ban and oppose uranium mining.They don’t need thank you calls and prefer for us to concentrate on the undecideds:

Ebbin [D] Ag 804-698-7530Marsden [D] Ag 804-698-7537
McEachin [D] Ag 804-698-7509
McWaters [R] C/L 804-698-7508Bedford County (Part); Botetourt County (All); Campbell County (Part); Craig County (All); Lynchburg City (Part); Roanoke County (Part)
Northam [D} Ag 804-698-7506

Ruff F, Ag 804-698-7515
 
http://www.newsadvance.com/go_dan_river/opinion/editorials/article_ef02b39c-5c5a-11e2-9c07-001a4bcf6878.html
Posted: Sunday, January 13, 2013 6:00 am





The General Assembly returned to Richmond last week, and one of the biggest issues the 100 delegates and 40 senators will decide is uranium mining in Pittsylvania County.
Virginia Uranium Inc. wants the state government to begin writing the regulations that would govern the way their proposed mine and mill would operate. For the company, it’s the next logical step. For the Dan River Region, it would be a disaster.
Over the past five years, our representatives in Richmond have heard the arguments, they’ve read the reports and they’ve weighed the consequences of this project. A month ago, they wrote to the other 134 members of the General Assembly.
"Let US be clear. We are united in our opposition to lifting the ban on uranium mining. We urge all of our colleagues in the General Assembly to stand with us in doing the right thing."
The letter is less than two pages long and was signed by Dels. Danny Marshall, Don Merricks, James Edmunds and Tommy Wright, as well as state Sens. Bill Stanley and Frank Ruff.
Of all the things that have been written about uranium mining over the past five years, it’s one of the shortest and most heartfelt. But it lays out the strong case against uranium mining in Pittsylvania County.
"A substantial majority of the people in our region don’t want uranium mining. They are concerned about dangerous radioactive tailings. They do not wish to be part of a uranium mining experiment to determine if a mining and milling operation can be operated in this kind of climate, this close to tens of thousands of people. They are concerned about the negative impact this small industry will have on our overall economy for the long term," the letter reads.
In terms of population and political influence, we’re a small part of Virginia. But as the other delegates and senators consider the uranium mining bills before the General Assembly, our best hope is that the words of their colleagues — the ones representing the people who will be most affected by uranium mining — will ring relevant.
Virginia Uranium Inc. is like nothing this community has ever seen before.
Since 2008, the company has made campaign contributions in our state totaling $216,650 to Republicans, Democrats and PACs, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. They have hired 20 lobbyists — one for every seven members of the General Assembly.
Against that, we have Danny Marshall, Don Merricks, Bill Stanley, Frank Ruff, James Edmunds and Tommy Wright.
We need that to be enough. We need the other 134 members of the General Assembly to listen to our elected representatives and vote against uranium mining — before it is too late.



http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/latest-news-ap/new-va-uranium-mining-study-set-for-release/article_cf777328-5e2b-11e2-bec5-0019bb30f31a.html
Posted: Monday, January 14, 2013 4:21 am
New Va. uranium mining study set for releaseAssociated Press |
RICHMOND — The drafting of proposed uranium mining legislation is expected to be completed this week in Richmond as yet another study on the subject makes its debut.
Sen. John Watkins has proposed legislation that could open the door to the mining of a 119-million-pound deposit in Pittsylvania County. The legislation is needed to end a decades-long moratorium on the mining of the radioactive ore.
Meantime, Gov. Bob McDonnell's Uranium Working Group expects to issue its final study, this one on the socioeconomic impact of allowing uranium mining.
Virginia Uranium Inc. has proposed mining the Southside deposit of the ore. Environmentalists and groups that include the NAACP and the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation want the 1982 ban to remain in place.
The issue is expected to be fiercely debated in the General Assembly.

http://greenrisks.blogspot.com/2013/01/uranium-mining-in-virginia-treat-to-our.html

Elizabeth Ward


Last week the winter session of the Virginia General Assembly was called to order. Scheduled to be decided this winter is whether or not to lift a 30-year-old moratorium on uranium mining within the state. Senator John Watkins has introduced a proposal to require the state to draft uranium-mining regulations, essentially ending the 30 year moratorium on Uranium mining in the Commonwealth. Senator Watkins, from Powhatan and Senator Richard Saslaw, from Fairfax will carry the legislation in the Senate, and Delegate Jackson Miller, from Manassas, will introduce similar legislation in the House of Delegates. Now is the time to make your voice heard.

In 1978 a particularly rich deposit of Uranium was discovered at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County in south central Virginia. This was followed by a flurry of exploration for uranium deposits in Virginia. In 1982 the Commonwealth placed a moratorium on uranium mining. In recent years, as the price of uranium reached $140 around 2007, and two families living in the vicinity of Coles Hill formed a company called Virginia Uranium, Inc. to begin exploring the uranium deposit once again. Though the uranium spot price has fallen to around $40, that is still more than twice the historical price, and Virginia Uranium and their supporters have called for the Virginia legislature to lift the uranium mining moratorium either statewide or just on Coles Hill. As this was all percolating in state politics, in 2009 the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission requested that the National Research Council convene an independent committee of experts to review all the literature and develop a report to identify the scientific, environmental, human health and safety, and regulatory aspects of mining and processing Virginia’s uranium resources. In addition, Fairfax Water commissioned a white paper on uranium mining and ended up with the Fairfax County Water Authority opposing uranium mining in Virginia and supporting the continuation of the moratorium on uranium mining in the Commonwealth.

After reviewing these reports and as a voting member of the Potomac Watershed Roundtable I voted with the majority to maintain the moratorium on uranium mining. The Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts with which I am also affiliated (through my volunteer work at the PWSWCD) also supports maintaining the moratorium. The Virginia Municipal League, the Virginia Association of Counties, the Virginia Farm Bureau, the Fauquier Water Authority, and local governments from Halifax and Virginia Beach, oppose lifting the ban. Last week Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who serves as the tie-breaking vote in the Senate if the vote falls to party lines (Sen Watkins is a Republican and Senator Saslaw is a Democrat so that does not seem likely), announced that he supports maintaining the moratorium on uranium mining. Let me tell you why I do not want to see the moratorium lifted at this time.
Geological exploration has identified more than 55 locations within the Piedmont and Blue Ridge regions of Virginia where uranium is found. Uranium occurs in the Lovingston rock formation at a fraction of a percent. In order for a uranium occurrence to be considered a commercially exploitable source of uranium ore, it must be of sufficient size, be at least 0.1% uranium to the other rock components in the deposit and be able to be mined and processed with current technology. So far only the uranium deposits at Cole Hill have been proven to meet these requirements. Even the “rich deposits” at Cole hill will produce 1,000 pounds of waste called tailing for every pound of uranium extracted. The waste, the mine tailings, is the problem.
There are several methods to mine and process uranium. The choice of mining method depends on the quality and quantity of the ore, the shape and depth of the ore deposit, the type of rock, and a wide range of site-specific environmental conditions. Because of the geology in the Commonwealth of Virginia, it is likely that only open pit or underground mining would be viable. While there are risks inherent in mining to worker the uranium miners would also face the additional risk of dust containing radiation.
 
During uranium ore processing, several waste products are created, including tailings, leached residue and waste water. Tailings consist of everything that was in the ore except the extracted uranium. Tailings from uranium mining and processing operations contain radioactive materials remaining from the radioactive decay of uranium, such as thorium and radium as well as heavy metals also present in the rock. The real risks to Virginia are the risks of contamination to our water resources from the waste water and tailings. Uranium tailings are a source of radioactive contamination for thousands of years, and therefore must be controlled and stored carefully away from water which will erode and carry the radioactive materials into the ground and surface water.

Over the past few decades, improvements have been made to tailings management systems to isolate tailings from the environment. The long term effectiveness of these management systems has not been tested and uranium mining is typically carried out in arid environments. Virginia is subject to relatively frequent storms that produce intense rainfall. Natural events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, intense rainfall, or drought could lead to the release of contaminants into the waters of Virginia. It is questionable whether modern-engineered tailings containment could be expected to prevent erosion and surface and groundwater contamination for as long as 1,000 years. In Coles Hill alone the tailings waste will amount to over 118,888,000,000 pounds of pulverized rock with radioactive materials that can slowly leach into our groundwater through failure to prevent percolation of precipitation into the tailings containment or through accidents be released from impoundments to surface waters. Though Virginia’s rainfall averages 42 inches a year in past few years alone rainfall has varied from under 30 inches to a high of 82 inches of rain a year. Water is a great solvent and in Virginia it would seem impossible to keep such vast quantities of tailings permanently isolated from water.

The only use for uranium is for weapons and nuclear powered reactors. The United States currently has 104 nuclear reactors in operation supplying about 20% of U.S. electricity, and in 2011 these reactors required 20,256 short tons of concentrated enriched uranium and this is not expected to change significantly in the future. In 2010, the United States imported 92 % of the uranium that it needed to fuel its nuclear power reactors. There appears to be adequate world supply for our limited number of nuclear power plants at this time.
 
 Uranium mining and processing represents unique risks to source water supplies from toxic and radioactive byproducts. The half-life of the uranium 238 and its isotopes is thousands of years.
 
A containment failure will risk the groundwater and surface water supply of the Commonwealth. With current technology, the risk is too great.
http://www.newsadvance.com/go_dan_river/news/pittsylvania_county/article_1fd3255e-5c53-11e2-9b43-001a4bcf6878.html




Posted: Sunday, January 13, 2013 7:57 pm
Marshall Ecker: Chairman of the boardBy JOHN R. CRANEjcrane@registerbee.com(434) 791-7987newsadvance.com
GRETNA — Marshall Ecker, who just took the chairmanship of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, says he will continue to focus on serving the county’s constituents.“I’m still doing what I normally do — working for the citizens, and I’ll continue to do that,” Ecker, 67, said during an interview at his Gretna home Thursday afternoon.Ecker’s top priorities as chairman include improving relationships with Chatham, Gretna and Hurt town councils and other boards, including the county school board, he said. He wants the board to hold joint sessions with those governing bodies.
“It has never really been addressed,” Ecker said, adding he wants to continue the board’s working relationship with Danville City Council.
Also, a lot of people from other areas are moving into Pittsylvania County and it’s time for the board to progress, said Ecker, who represents the Staunton River magisterial district.
“We have to be open to new ideas, new technologies and new ways,” Ecker said.
A Maryland native, Ecker moved to Gretna with his wife, Ann, in 2000. He has a son, Jason, 36, who lives in Tarboro, N.C., and two grandchildren.
He was first elected to the board of supervisors in 2007 and re-elected in 2011.
He’d like to see more small businesses come to the county, in addition to larger industries to the Berry Hill industrial mega park in southwestern Pittsylvania County. The combination would diversify the workforce and the economic base, Ecker said.
Though supervisors mostly from southern Pittsylvania have occupied the chairmanship in recent years, Ecker said he wants to eliminate a perceived north-south split on the board. He also wants to erase the board’s “us-versus-them” mentality when dealing with other boards and councils.
“If we don’t row in the same direction, we’re going to go around in a circle and we’ll get nowhere,” Ecker said, adding he is willing to negotiate.
As for Virginia Uranium Inc.’s plans to mine and mill uranium at Coles Hill, Ecker remains opposed.
He also disagrees with state Sen. John Watkins’ idea to funnel half of uranium tax revenues to Pittsylvania County. Under the proposal, half the money would go to the state’s general fund while the rest would be deposited into a newly established local Economic Development and Environmental Trust Fund.
“I do not feel that is a good proposal,” Ecker said. “They’re hanging this carrot in front of us.”
Also, the policy — if it were to become law — would stipulate how the county spends the money, Ecker said. The county would possibly be unable to use it for other purposes, such as schools, law enforcement or the county’s general fund, he said.
Crane reports for the Danville Register & Bee. Staff Writer Mary Beth Jackson contributed to this story.
 

AFTER A DECADE, THIRD REACTOR STILL A PLAN
Dominion says Unit 3 still on track, though opponents aren't too sure
Date published: 1/12/2013
By RUSTY DENNEN
Not far from the towering concrete-and-steel domes that enclose North Anna Power Station's two nuclear reactors, workers are preparing the way for a third unit. Today, 10 years since Dominion Virginia Power filed its initial application for Unit 3 on Lake Anna near Mineral, the project is far from a sure thing, though the company insists it's still on track.
Opponents, meanwhile, argue that the ballooning cost of new reactors, coupled with ongoing delays in the approval process, low natural gas prices, and the fallout from the Fukushima disaster in Japan, make Unit 3 an unsure bet.
Eugene S. Grecheck, vice president of nuclear development for Dominion, says the plan has not changed: