by: Kathy Gerber
Tue Nov 18, 2008 at 04:34:44 AM EST
Virginia Uranium, Southside Cattle Company or whatever they call themselves this year say that they want to proceed with uranium mining in the Chatham area only if it can be done safely. Excellent.
Assuming this claim is authentic, their full support of strong water protection legislation will be welcome. At the very least Virginia deserves a bill that ensures reasonable environmental protections by requiring mining companies across the board - including potential uranium mining companies - to clean up after themselves and restore groundwater quality. Restore it completely.
We deserve laws that carefully define "abandonment" and other catchy terms. Laws that contains timelines. Laws crafted intelligently enough to preempt loopholes and escape clauses where the key players behind a made-in-Virginia storefront create a hopeless mess, declare bankruptcy, pack their carptetbags and aim their sites on greener global pastures.
It wouldn't be the first or even the second time this pattern has played out. We can learn from other states out west that have already been led down this road, a road that ends up with the public shouldering the responsibility for hazardous sites that can't be cleaned up. Over the span of decades those sites suck up millions of dollars of taxpayers' dollars to cover just the bare bones of disaster containment.
Taking out ads and running a full throttle media blitz for the fast track is not enough. And studying safety in an unprecedented scenario is no more than hypothetical modeling. We need to insist on safety protections. And we need to require those protections well ahead of saddling Virginia with the speculative risk of high flying prospectors. Do our legislators have what it takes to insist on safety and responsibility now? Or will they wait until it's too late and Chatham becomes Virginia's own Little Summitville?
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