The hopes of studying the estimated $10 billion Pittsylvania County deposit are at stake.
No one seems to know how much a uranium study might cost.
There is little clarity about who, aside from Virginia Uranium, would help pay for a "comprehensive, objective study" to determine whether the company could safely mine and mill radioactive uranium ore from an extensive deposit in Pittsylvania County.
Finally, it's not certain whether legislation approving such research will emerge during this session of the Virginia General Assembly.
Virginia Uranium's mining proposal, and the study itself, has fired some fierce opposition. The ore body, described by the company as the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the U.S., might be worth about $10 billion, according to Virginia Uranium.
On Monday, the House Rules Committee will discuss a bill passed by the Senate that would establish a uranium mining commission. That meeting could make or break the study for this session as all General Assembly committees face a Monday deadline for action.
"If it doesn't report out of the committee Monday, it should be, for all practical purposes, dead," said Del. Watkins Abbitt, I-Appomattox County, of the House Rules Committee.
Or the committee might recommend something akin to a study about doing the study, acknowledged Del. Clarke Hogan, R-Halifax County, another committee member.
"That may happen," he said. "That's all being poked around right now."
Hogan, whose constituents in Halifax County could be downstream from the project, has expressed serious concerns about the mining and milling proposal.
He is concerned that legislators could approve a study that might trigger lifting a state moratorium on uranium mining without adequate input from the public and General Assembly.
...
Nathan Lott is executive director of the Virginia Conservation Network, an organization that has expressed opposition to Wagner's bill.
Lott said there is little chance state environmental organizations would contribute money to a uranium study. Instead, environmental and conservation groups would be "willing to put a lot of time and effort in reviewing a study" and in ensuring that any study conclusions would receive extensive public input.
If the bill dies in committee Monday, will it really be dead for this session? Almost certainly, Abbitt said.
"But down here, nothing is over until it's over, and even then it's not over," he said wryly.
Continue reading article here: http://www.mediafire.com/?x0vyldgfnmd
No comments:
Post a Comment