Del. Hogan Seeks Formation Of Chamber Work Group To Develop Questions For Uranium Study

Gazette-Virginian
August 15, 2008

Del. Clarke Hogan has asked the Halifax County Chamber of Commerce and the Danville/Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce to form a joint work group to develop questions the community would like to have answered when a study is conducted on whether or not uranium can be mined safely in Pittsylvania County.

Hogan is asking area chambers to put together a work group composed of four to six persons from each chamber to determine “some of the things people living in this area want to have considered in a uranium study.”

The uranium mining issue resurfaced last fall after 25 plus years when Virginia Uranium Inc. formed to mine and mill a huge uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County.

Instead of having Virginia Uranium Inc. write a study, Hogan is suggesting the area chambers form this committee to determine what the community wants studied.

Once this committee has arrived at a consensus on what questions need to be answered in the uranium study, Hogan said the committee recommendations can be presented to the General Assembly.

Part of his request of the area chambers will be to ask the community to submit individual questions so everyone will have an opportunity to voice their concerns.

The work group will then filter through all of the questions and concerns expressed, and encapsulate those to construct the study.

In asking the area chambers to undertake this task, Hogan said he is looking for “a well-respected institution in both communities that can serve as a vessel for this process.”
Halifax County Chamber President Nancy Pool and Danville/Pittsylvania County Chamber Executive Director Laurie Moran have both agreed to take this task on, Hogan explained.

Pool is expected to present Hogan’s proposal to the Halifax County Chamber when it meets August 28.

“We’re trying to create some consensus around what we want to have studied, and what we want to know about this process,” Hogan added.

Although the chamber boards have yet to commit to this task, the delegate said he feels good about the project.

“We know we can’t kill this study forever,” Del. Hogan said, adding, “I am very, very skeptical about uranium mining. I am very, very doubtful whether it can be done safely, but I do not believe that opposing a study is a long-term sustainable position.

“To the extent that we are going to study it,” Hogan said, “I want to make sure that this study is fair and objective and answers the questions that affect this community.”

Hogan said personally he would prefer if this mining issue was not before the community.

“It is, so given that, I feel we have to take hold of it as a community so that we’re setting the agenda, so that we’re deciding what’s studied and what questions we want answered. When that study comes back, we can live with the results if it meets those standards.”

Regardless of what the study says, Hogan said he cannot imagine ever voting to lift the moratorium “under any circumstances.”

However, he realizes he is only one delegate out of 104 and is well aware of the democratic process.

Hogan anticipates the chamber task force beginning its work gathering community input together this fall with the committee making its recommendations to the General Assembly in 2009.

“Then we will come up with a study that asks the right questions. This thing will work its way through the process for a year and a half or so, and it should be relatively objective in that time frame. People will ask good questions, make sure they get reasonable answers, do their homework, and work this out. At that point maybe the fireworks will start again,” Hogan said.

“I’m trying to find something that will settle this issue definitively for a generation,” he added.

Virginia Uranium Inc. was formed by the Walter Coles and Henry Bowen families, who own the land where one of the richest uranium deposit in the United States was discovered some 25 years ago.

The deposit is located on Coles Road between Chalk Level and South Meadows roads in the Sonans and Sheva communities of Pittsylvania County, about six miles northeast of Chatham.
It includes two ore bodies and an estimated 110 million pounds of uranium worth $10 billion.

Virginia Uranium tried to convince the General Assembly last session to adopt a study resolution on uranium mining and milling, but in March a legislative committee rejected the proposed study of whether uranium can be mined safely in Virginia.

Del. Watkins Abbitt, House District 59 of Appomattox, offered the motion to table the bill with a second by Del. Hogan.

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