By John Crane
Published: December 12, 2008
A study to determine the safety of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County must be extensive and transparent, answer concerns from area residents and include a public hearing, local legislators told a uranium mining subcommittee Friday in Richmond.
Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, and Delegate Don Merricks, R-Pittsylvania County, attended a meeting of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Mining Subcommittee held at the Capitol.
The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission approved a study in November to determine whether uranium mining would be safe in the commonwealth. A bill calling for the study was killed in a House committee in March. Virginia has had a moratorium on uranium mining since the early 1980s.
Virginia Uranium Inc. hopes to mine and mill a uranium deposit at Coles Hill, about six miles northeast of Chatham.
In a letter to subcommittee Chairman Lee Ware, Marshall presented a list of 10 questions he said should be answered in the study. Marshall’s chief queries include whether mining will be safe for county residents’ health, not only today, but three or 30 years from now, and what the site will look like 300 years later.
His other questions include the effects of mining and milling on real estate values and local cattle and crops, and whether the process will hurt economic development efforts.
“What happens when we have large rainstorms and the run off goes downstream?” Marshall asks in the letter. “What happens when we have dry conditions and dust blows to the farms?”
The Danville delegate also questions what impacts tailings will have on the air, water and land. For every 2,000 pounds of rock mined, a half-pound is uranium and the rest is tailings that have to be stored, Marshall said during an interview Thursday. He said the presence of Hargrave Military Academy and Chatham Hall just five miles from the uranium site at Coles Hill must be considered.
In addition, Marshall asked the subcommittee to hold a public hearing in Pittsylvania County at a convenient time and place before the study begins.
“We don’t want it at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday,” he said.
Marshall said Friday that a public input meeting will be scheduled in the county later this month or in January.
Henry Hurt, an investor in Virginia Uranium, said the company was “pleased” with Friday’s meeting.
“We’re particularly happy that they spoke of having a public meeting here in Pittsylvania County,” Hurt said.
Virginia Uranium officials have said they support a study of the mining.
Merricks said he wants to know the economic positives and negatives of uranium mining and the potential effects on dairy farms. If the study doesn’t prove beyond a doubt that mining and milling can be done without harming the public health, Merricks said he will vote against lifting the state’s moratorium on mining. He said he wants a transparent and unbiased study.
“I’m not going to vote to fuel America at the expense of Pittsylvania County,” Merricks said.
The Coal and Energy Commission is not a legislative body and cannot lift the moratorium, Marshall pointed out. Both bodies of the General Assembly would have to approve the move and the governor would have to sign legislation lifting the ban, he said.
Marshall said the study would take a minimum of 18 months.
• Contact John R. Crane at jcrane at registerbee.com or (434) 791-7987.
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