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I have attended uranium education meetings and found disturbing circumstances.
People are not attending the meetings or taking an interest and I wonder why? Do they think if you do not live near the mines that they will be safe? The answer is no.
Winds from open-pit uranium can blow uranium-laced dust up to 50 or more miles away.
Floods can wash uranium tailings into our rivers, and radon gas can be carried by the winds.
Remember the fires in North Carolina; the smoke made it as far as Roanoke.
The winds will carry the uranium particles to all parts of the county and the City of Danville, plus Halifax County, North Carolina, etc.
Water contamination, heavy rains will flood the uranium tailings ponds, which means overflow will happen.
This means the Banister River will be polluted. The river flows toward the drinking water for Halifax and Bugs Island, which goes to Virginia Beach and Kerr Lake for the Raleigh- Durham area. Eventually it makes its way to the sounds of North Carolina and the Atlantic.
The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission is doing a study about mining uranium to do away with a moratorium on this type of mining.
It will be mined unless the local people stand up and say no, it can be done.
Once it is mined on Coles Hill, Callands could be next. There are huge deposits of uranium located in this area.
In addition, the Sandy and Banister river headwaters start in Callands. Open-pit uranium mining in the area will destroy the rivers.
The destroyed rivers provide water for cows and the Town of Halifax, plus potential for contaminated water making its way to the Dan River and Buggs Island.
This type of radical mining will lower property values and discourage future business development in the Pittsylvania County and Danville.
Uranium is located along Route 29 highway, points west, east and deposits continue to Maine and Georgia.
Once open-pit uranium is allowed to start in Virginia, the whole East Coast could be mined if localities and states do not hear the call to action.
Therefore, people of Southside Virginia please get involved and stand up for our right to protect ourselves against this very destructive assault on the lands that must sustain us all.
Please write all your government representatives and everyone you know and tell them to ban uranium mining in Virginia.
The great and innovative people of our country can rise to our energy problems without decimating our environment, communities and future generations.
Sue Pruitt
Chatham
http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2008/11/13/chatham/opinion/opinion11.txt
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