She Experienced Uranium Environments

(From the Danville Register and Bee 09/08/2007)

To the editor:
Since I can speak from the experience of living in twoplaces that had the misfortune of having uranium, Imust urge the citizens of both Danville andPittsylvania County to vehemently oppose the idea ofuranium mining in our area.
When I worked for the Public Health Service inShiprock, N.M., I was amazed at the deaths of many45-year-old Navajo men who all had small-cellcarcinoma of the lung from working in uranium mines.
When I moved slightly north to Durango, Colo., I foundout about the uranium smelter on the edge of downtownthat left literally a mountain of uranium tailings,which leached into the Animas, San Juan, and thenColorado rivers of the Southwest. Inadvertently - orperhaps from stupidity - some of these tailings wereused for fill dirt for subdivisions in the 1950s. Inone small cul de sac, three children died fromleukemia due to exposure to uranium.
When I returned to this area in 1985, I opposedMarline's efforts to mine uranium and felt secure thatthe 25-year moratorium would protect this area fromthe devastating health care issues associated withuranium mining.What must be considered is who will work at theuranium mine, and will uranium be processed on site inPittsylvania County? Then the question arises of wherewill it be transported - and by what means - if it isprocessed elsewhere?
Can you imagine closing the Danville Expresswaybecause a tractor-trailer load of uranium turned overand dumped its contents on that important andexpensive transportation link to future Interstate785? Who is going to pay to clean up this spill . ofcourse, the American taxpayers!
Danville and Pittsylvania County have come a long wayin the past 21 years, which makes me proud to havereturned to my native roots here. The future of thisarea is quality of life so that the type of people wehope to recruit here will be glad to move to SouthsideVirginia. I don't know of any educated person orcorporate CEO who would select this area forrelocation if uranium mining is allowed.
This is a cheap, Third World fix for economic recoveryand robs our citizens of our most valuable resources,which are our rivers, forests, farms and people. Whatwill happen to the uranium mine when it's completed?The federal government can't even pay for the pastSuperfund sites, so why create a new one in ourbackyard? Please contact Gov. Timothy M. Kaine,Delegates Danny Marshall and Robert Hurt and membersof the Board of Supervisors to ask some of theseimportant questions.
I look forward to hearing their answers - before it'stoo late.

SUSAN STILWELL
Danville