Response to Coles P/R Efforts for Uranium Mining

A Response to Virginia Uranium Chairman Walter Coles Sr. Your December 23rd column in the Danville Register and Bee is the first public presentation I have seen inyour words about your proposal to mine uranium at Coles Hill and other sites in Pittsylvania County. I would like to respond to your words.
You say, "An unbiased, independent study could address the question of whether this deposit can be mined safely." There is ongoing, heated debate among health physicists about the effects of long-term exposure to low level radiation. Assumptions made in any study of potential health risks from uranium mining, milling, and tailings disposal in Virginia will be debatable, as will the conclusions of the study.
Your own prospectus acknowledges a long list of "risk factors" for investors. Some of these are also risksfor the workers, the community, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Law requires that you disclose to potential investors that investment in Virginia Uranium is a high-risk venture.
Similar disclosureseems appropriate for others who will be affected by this high stakes business. You say, "According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 240,000 workers were employed in mining in 2006, with an injury rate lower than workers in the retail industry."
The Department of Labor distinguishes between "occupational injury" and "occupational illness", and compiles statistics only for injuries and illness affecting current workers. This statement tells us nothing about the potential hazards of uranium mining to workers who have retired or moved on to other occupations, or to the community in general.
It doesn't even address the danger of illness to current miners caused by the mining. What about the long-term problems of leukemia, lung cancer, kidney disease or other cellular damage? Harm from inhalation or ingestion of heavy metals may not show up for many years, and is difficult to detect and to measure. There may well be insufficient data to evaluate the health risks posed by uranium mining for Pittsylvania and Halifax County residents and those living further downwind and downstream.
You say, "Today, mining technology and federal regulations governing mining are light years beyond methods used 25 years ago."
Why dramatize? Mining technology and regulations are exactly 25 years beyond methods used 25 years ago. Furthermore, technology and regulations depend on human beings who are essentially no different than they were 25 or more years ago.
Many problems in the nuclear industry have been caused not by lack of knowledge or regulations, but by failure to follow or enforce existing regulations. You say, "We believe that this company is best run by and for the benefit of Virginians." A more accurate statement would add "and Canadians."
Virginia Uranium, as acknowledged in your prospectus, is both a U. S. company and a Canadian company. The Gazette-Virginian on October 11th quoted your estimate of "31 local investors . probably 17 in Pittsylvania County/Danville." These numbers have allowed the company to use the phrase "mostly local" to describe investors. What percentage of dollars invested are local?
You say, "And we're in no hurry." This statement is puzzling.
The reality of doing business - responding to investors and competing with others now rushing to open mines - must put some time pressure on you. At 69 years of age, if you personally want to control development of Coles Hill and uranium deposits, you have to do it now.
If there is no hurry, why not make the site available for research? Why disrupt the area when its greater value may be as an undisturbed geological research laboratory? If there is no hurry, why not see what can be achieved by energy conservation and alternative energy sources?
You've stated that, "Perhaps nuclear energy will emerge as a clean, low cost answer." If there is no hurry, why not wait a bit and see, rather than gambling on this highly controversial industry?
Nuclear power has drawn some favorable attention lately because of growing recognition of the damage caused by coal-fired power plants, not because nuclear power has redeemed its history of accidents and financial losses. You say, "Ultimately, (the question of whether this deposit can be mined safely) is the only question that matters.
"I understand your emphasis - you do not want to do anything to harm your home place and community. I believe you. At the same time, I disagree with your statement.
Whether the deposit can be mined safely is not the only question that matters. The Virginia General Assembly, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors and Board of Zoning Appeals, and other governing bodies have a broader responsibility. To the extent possible, they should be considering all of the costs and benefits of uranium mining.
A broader study may not be in your company's interest, but it is certainly in the interest of towns, cities and counties near Coles Hill and other uranium deposits in Virginia. In your words, "Mining pays back to its communities in very measurable ways."
I would ask that those making decisions for Virginia communities look closely at the measurable ways mining pays and at the easy-to-measure and hard-to-measure ways mining threatens its communities.
Not everyone's interest is served by uranium - mined safely or not. Few people have the expertise to weigh in on the health effects of mining, but many people can weigh in on the potential effects of mining on their homes, schools, farms and businesses. A study should consider the possibility that uranium mining may radically change the character of our area.
Your lobbyist is writing legislation requesting a study of mining safety issues and asking that regulations be developed for uranium mining. Why not a truly meaningful study?
I ask for a study that looks at the full range of risks and benefits, subtle and long-term as well as obvious and short-term. I ask for a study that recognizes that potential costs and benefits cannot be estimated with certainty, depending as they do on such volatile factors as the market, the weather, human error, and people's perception of uranium mining towns.
I call upon Virginia's state delegates and senators - particularly General Assembly members from Southside - to ensure a debate framed in terms that consider the health and well-being of all of their constituents.

Katie Whitehead, Chatham