Take a stand against uranium mining
DEBORAH FERRUCCIO, Afton | Posted: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 9:08 am
To the editor:
For several years the people of Chatham, Va. have been mounting an opposition to a plan to mine uranium in their county if a 30-year ban on uranium mining is lifted by the Virginia Legislature next month, and now more than ever they need the help of North Carolinians. After a year-long assessment of the pros and cons of lifting the ban on mining, the Virginia Uranium Mining Working Group, appointed by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and comprised of government and uranium industry-connected members, has submitted its findings and draft regulations to the governor who will soon make his recommendation to the Legislature about whether or not members should pass legislation to lift the ban on uranium mining.
The people of Chatham, Va. are not alone. A coalition of local governments and civic and environmental organizations such as Virginia Against Uranium Mining, the Roanoke River Basin Association's North Carolina Coalition, and the Sierra Club has joined the Chatham uranium mining opposition and been working hard to educate the public on the issues, but the coalition needs the attention of the North Carolina news media and the active support of the broader public.
Because democracy functions through the will of the people, and the will of the people is determined by an informed and free press, it is paramount for the North Carolina news media to do its part in promoting the general welfare of both states by utilizing in-depth, unfettered investigative journalism in the uranium mining issue and by spotlighting the contentious environmental, scientific, health, ethical and economic issues, while giving equal coverage to mining opponents and proponents.
"Keep the Ban" proponents also need the active help of citizens and local governments in North Carolina who are passionate about healthy air and water and about property that they can deed to their children with a clean title, one without a permanent radioactive lien. They need the help of communities whose economies are dependent on agriculture and tourism and a reputation for a safe and clean environment.
What can and must the growing opposition do? Through a concerted education campaign conducted in churches, county courthouses and in civil halls, the opposition must explode several myths promoted by mining proponents. First, it must explode the myth that uranium mining "best practices" (plastic and clay liners, leachate collection systems and monitoring wells) could ever contain the radioactive waste and guarantee environmental protection and public safety. Next, the opposition must explode the myth that "robust" regulations (a euphemistic term used by the government and industry officials) are nothing more than inflated words on paper written by biased, conflicted, highly educated and highly paid government officials to legalize a commercialized radioactive regime that would rule Virginians, North Carolinians and others with impunity and in perpetuity.
In addition, the opposition must explode the myth that public hearings actually facilitate meaningful public participation. Public hearings are tightly controlled, cosmetic in nature, and are intended as mechanisms for gradually cowing mining opponents through intimidation into a state of subservience to the rules. Mining opponents must explode the myth that "good" citizens abide by the rules, no matter how ill-conceived and ill-intentioned the rules are. Finally, the mining opposition must explode the myth that demonstrations, protests, and civil disobedience are extreme measures that belong to left-wing extremists, blacks, women, paranoid liberals, tree-huggers, and eco-terrorists. Instead, they are measures of resistance to tyranny that are Constitutionally-guaranteed to ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
Over the past three decades, numerous North Carolina Piedmont and other communities, including Warren County where the Environmental Justice Movement was built and launched, have exploded these myths and successfully stopped toxic, hazardous, nuclear and deadly disease facilities that threatened the state. So, it's not surprising that the Uranium Working Group did not schedule any public hearings on the issue in North Carolina. Clearly, the collective experience of North Carolina citizens can help to make a difference as citizens speak out and stand together with Virginians in their opposition to uranium mining.
Public sentiment matters, so before officials take holiday leave, citizens can contact: NC Governor-elect Pat McCrory and tell him that radioactive contamination in North Carolina waterways will not help the state "come back" and that North Carolina unequivocally opposes uranium mining. They can contact: Governor-elect McCrory at governor.office@nc.gov or 919-855-4400 and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell at Virginia.gov (click on governor) or 804-786-2211. They can also contact Virginia and North Carolina State and U.S. Congressional Representatives.
http://m.vancnews.com/mobile/t
NC Draft resolution opposing uranium mining in Virginia
12.14.2012
Legislators Worry About Va. Uranium Mining
By Catherine Kozak
CHATHAM, Va. -- A state legislative commission, in a letter to Virginia's governor, expresses "significant concern" about the possible adverse effects uranium mining in Virginia will have on rivers and lakes in northeastern North Carolina.
The letter that the state Environmental Review Commission voted yesterday to send to Gov. Bob McDonnell is the first official state reaction to Virginia’s proposal to lift a 30-year ban on uranium mining at a huge deposit of the radioactive ore on Coles Hill in southeastern Virginia. The mining site is in the Roanoke River basin.
The river, a drinking water source for more than 100,000 North Carolinians, flows south into Albemarle Sound.
"At its December 13, 2012 meeting, the Commission expressed significant concern regarding the potential lifting of the existing legislative moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia," the letter to McDonnell notes. "The Commission requests that you consider the possible adverse impacts to Kerr Lake, Lake Gaston and many communities in northeastern North Carolina if the existing legislative moratorium on uranium mining is lifted and mining activities commence..."
The commission also asked Gov-Elect Pat McCrory to meet with McDonnell to discuss North Carolina's concerns.
The Virginia legislature is expected to take up the issue when it convenes next month.
It makes sense for North Carolina to get more actively involved, said Ryke Longest, the director of the Duke University School of Law’s Environmental Law and Policy Clinic.
“The state of North Carolina would be foolish not to challenge actions by Virginia that threaten water resources of both states,” he said,
Longest said that the law clinic is representing the Roanoke River Basin Association in evaluating a response to the mining proposal. Unlike other U.S uranium mines, which are in arid locations, he said, the site Virginia is considering in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains is vulnerable to intense storms and heavy rainfall.
“This is a particularly dangerous spot,” Longest said.
A 104-page report issued on Nov. 30 to McDonnell by the Uranium Working Group, an ad-hoc group he appointed in January, offered little comfort to uranium mining opponents in both states.
“There are no assurances or reclamation plans, or provisions for damages for anyone in North Carolina in the VA. governors’ working group draft regulations,” Mike Pucci, chairman of the N.C. Coalition Against Uranium Mining, said in an e-mail. “In fact, North Carolina was not even consulted during the process or invited to participate. The Virginia governor will now hand this nuclear time bomb off to the energy commission to push it through to the General Assembly for a vote.”
A meeting was held Tuesday in Chatham to hear a presentation about the report from the General Assembly’s Coal and Energy Commission. Members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were also on hand to answer questions, said Andrew Lester, executive director of the Roanoke River Basin Association.
Numerous questions concerned the uranium tailings, the waste product of uranium cake processing, Lester, who attended the meeting, said in an interview. The tailings, which would be stored onsite, contain a substantial level of radioactivity that studies say could contaminate local waters.
“I asked ‘Can you tell me anywhere in the U.S. where there’s a uranium mine or mill operation located in the midst of a major river system with one million or more people downstream?,’” he said. “And the answer was ‘No.’”
A statement from the association released after the meeting said that the report failed to mention the threats posed by severe weather, terrorism, thousands of years of required monitoring, maintenance costs or the effects on downstream communities in the Roanoke watershed and the quality and quantity of its water.
“No one can predict whether promised benefits of uranium mining would materialize, as no one can predict where the price of uranium is going to be in 10 to 40 years from now,” the statement said. “But what is certain here is that the radioactive waste resulting from the proposed operations will remain here in Virginia forever.”
Lester said the uranium deposit stretches all the way to Washington.
“So if the Coles Hill area is mined in the state,” he said, “that area can be mined, too.”
An informal delegation that includes state Rep. Michael Wray, a Democrat whose new district includes Northhampton and Halifax counties, plans to meet with McDonnell on Friday to discuss concerns about lifting Virginia’s uranium mining ban.
“There’s still a lot that’s unforeseen,” Wray said in an interview. “I think the proposal is detrimental to North Carolina and our watershed.”
Wray, who has served in the N.C. House for eight years, is a member of the Roanoke River Basin Bi-State Commission, which opposes the mining.
“Of course,” Wray said, “our issue is we have one of the cleanest river basins there is.”
