SCC would like to thank the article's author, John Crane, for including in the article the news that the Medical Society of Virginia has adopted a Resolution supporting the continuation of the Commonwealth's current moratorium on uranium mining.
The Danville-Pittsylvania Academy of Medicine submitted a resolution at the Medical Society's 2008 Annual Meeting & Educational Symposium in Williamsburg, VA on October 10-12, which encouraged continuing the moratorium on uranium mining. The state organization amended and strengthened the original resolution and voted to support the continued moratorium.
Published: October 30, 2008
Marie Towler was one of a handful of Hurt residents that showed up Thursday night at Hurt Elementary School to check out Southside Concerned Citizens’ anti-mining seminar.
Towler and her husband, who also attended the seminar, have heard conflicting opinions around town regarding plans by Virginia Uranium Inc. to mine and mill a uranium deposit six miles northeast of Chatham.
“We don’t know anything about the issue,” Marie Towler said before the presentation. “One’s got this opinion, another has another. I don’t know enough to have a view yet.”
Towler, however, said she doesn’t feel safe with the idea of a mining-and-milling operation in Chatham.
“Knowing what I know, I wouldn’t support it,” Towler said, adding she is concerned of the mining’s potential effects on her children and grandchildren.
VUI seeks a study from the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission to determine whether uranium mining can be done safely in the commonwealth. A proposal for a similar study was tabled by a committee in the General Assembly earlier this year.
Gregg Vickrey, head of SCC’s Chatham-Pittsylvania County chapter, showed photos of open-pit mining and a DVD of videotaped amateur footage of a 1996 flood in the Chatham area. The video shows flooding at Coles Hill.
Vickrey said the video gives a clue as to how heavy rains would cause a uranium mine’s holding ponds to overflow and contaminate the Banister River and water supply. In addition, VUI would not be able to stop rainwater from getting into open mining pits, seeping into groundwater and entering water sources from there, he said.
Vickrey also said The Medical Society of Virginia has adopted a resolution to support continuing the state’s moratorium on uranium mining. The moratorium has been in effect since the early 1980s.
Contact John R. Crane at jcrane@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7987.
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