Mining Foes Dominate Hearing

All sides in Southside Virginia’s raging uranium debate had a chance Tuesday night to weigh in on a pending scientific study of uranium mining, but they were also cautioned that a decision on the fate of the Coles Hill project in Pittsylvania County is a long ways off.

“This is very early in the process,” state Sen. John C. Watkins of Chesterfield County said to a standing room-only audience of some 450 citizens who attended a public hearing of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission’s uranium mining subcommittee. The meeting at Chatham High School was held to gather citizen input on a scientific study of uranium mining that the Coal and Energy Commission will oversee.

Katie Whitehead of Chatham, who helped compile an exhaustive list of questions that the Halifax County Chamber of Commerce wants answered in any study, said she had hoped to hear more about how the subcommittee planned to proceed. Whitehead said she wanted to know how the information contained in the eventual study would be made public.

In particular, Whitehead asked if the public would be able to review the guidelines for the study’s scope — which the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech would compile before submitting to the National Academy of Sciences, which will be asked to conduct the review.

“Will a draft of the scope of the study be available for review before a contract [with Virginia Tech] is signed?” she asked.

The study “will be very transparent and will cover all parts of Virginia,” said Watkins. He promised that when the subcommittee receives input back from Virginia Tech, that information will be made public.

Before any mining of uranium can be done in the state, Watkins pointed out, legislation must pass the state legislature lifting a statewide moratorium dating back to the 1980s prohibiting such activity.

Then, Watkins said, an agency must be set up to develop regulations for uranium mining — a process that could take as long as two years, he said. Following the establishment of such an agency, federal and state permits would have to be obtained and issues identified that could affect those permits.

“It’s got a long, long way to go and it will all be available for everyone to see,” Watkins promised.

The capacity crowd was dominated by opponents of uranium mining at the Coles Hill site near Chatham, which is believed to contain one of the largest deposits of uranium in the nation.
More than sixty residents spoke to the subcommittee, mostly living in Chatham, Danville, Halifax and Mecklenburg counties, along with several residents of the Smith Mountain Lake community. Also addressing the committee members were several employees of Virginia Uranium Company.

Many speakers said they were concerned with health problems emanating from radioactive tailings left behind from the mining; others worried about the quality of downstream water and air quality. Several speakers also touched on the fact that not a single member of the subcommittee lived anywhere near the proposed mine.

One speaker asked, “Isn’t there somebody (in this area) who is qualified to do this study to make a decision about my welfare, that of my children and grandchildren? I have to ask you fellows, how would you vote if this mine was within a couple of miles of your homes?”

While several speakers said they welcomed the mine project because it would bring economic opportunities and new jobs, others questioned just how many jobs would actually be created. Others asked if those jobs would be filled by local residents or by others brought in from elsewhere.

The first speaker to address the issue was Gary Fountain, rector of Chatham Hall, a private boarding school for young women in grades 9-12. He told members he worries about the impact that a uranium mine five miles from the school will have on his enrollment. Private schools, he said, “are highly competitive. Safety is a major factor and the public’s attitude could diminish our chances.”

The next speaker, Andrew Lester of Pittsylvania County, advised that he felt the subcommittee should include concerns from Virginia Beach, and North Carolina cities, Raleigh and Henderson, which are looking to expand their water supplies from Virginia waters, as well as the US Army Corps of Engineers to make the study more effective.

Virginia Uranium vice president Mick Mastilovic urged the committee not to be “focused on uranium mines, mills and tailing disposal areas.” He explained there is a wealth of history related to uranium processing facilities on the East Coast, such as the weapons complexes at Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Savannah River, S.C., as well as the uranium milling site at Cannonsburg and Apollo, Pennsylvania, and nuclear fuel facilities in Lynchburg, Wilmington, N.C. and Aiken, S.C.. Another Virginia Uranium employee noted that nuclear industry firms in Virginia have announced hundreds of new jobs over the past several years.

Walter Coles Jr., the son of the mine’s principal owner, asked about the risks to the country if the mining isn’t allowed. He noted that the US produces only about 10 percent of its annual uranium consumption.

“What happens if Russia, India and China stop selling their uranium to us? Will our government come in and take over this mine, leaving us with no controls? “ he asked.

Two leaders of the opposition spoke harshly of any efforts to open the mine site. Jack Dunavant, chairman of the Halifax County chapter of Southside Concerned Citizens (SCC), asked why the state of Virginia should be partnering with a Canadian company to operate a mine in Pittsylvania, and why Virginia Tech was chosen to participate in the study since it is a for-profit university with a department specializing in nuclear engineering. Dunavant also asked about political contributions that have been made by Virginia Uranium to legislative members of the subcommittee.

“Listen to my people,” Dunavant told the senators and delegates on the stage. “We put you there. We will not tolerate Richmond shoving this down our throats. We will fight to the bitter end, till the last man falls.”

His counterpart, Gregg Vickrey, chairman of the Chatham/Pittsylvania County chapter of SCC, asked members how they could convince citizens that the study would be unbiased in light of the political contributions they have received from Virginia Uranium.

“There’s been no referendum on this — only a request from a private for-profit corporation,” said Vickery. “Who are you representing, the people who you are elected to represent or the interests of a corporation that has contributed to your campaigns?”

Said Shireen Parsons, an organizer with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which is advising SCC: “It is we, the people, who decide. This is a travesty and mockery of democracy.”

Another speaker presented the committee with a self addressed, stamped envelope, asking that they each sign a pledge that they had not received political contributions from Virginia Uranium and mail it back to her.

Terry Andrews, who lives 15 miles downstream of the mine in Halifax County, said she understands that Virginia Uranium is a limited liability company. With 320,000 people living downstream of the mine, Andews asked how residents would be compensated if there was radioactive seepage into the groundwater and who would pay to clean it up.

Yet another speaker asked how the study could put give people “peace of mind. It’s a large responsibility for people who live close by and who get their supply of water from the nearby rivers. We’re guinea pigs, none of you live here,” she said.

She chastised the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors for not taking a stand on the matter, as well as the Danville/Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce for ignoring a request to study the issue.

“Just show us one mine where it’s been done safely,” Allen Gross told panel members.

From Clarksville, Barry Carter, a representative of the Native American Occoneechee tribe, called the mining proposal a “brutal rape of Southside Virginia and a spiritual desecration.”

Another Mecklenburg County resident worried about how any mining effort would be effectively monitored. She said she had spoken with federal agency personnel back in April 2008 and was told that staff personnel had been cut, which had reduced the monitoring effort of the agency. With more state and federal budget deficits looming, she wondered how many more positions would be cut, thus reducing monitoring of all agencies.

In addition to health and transportation problems, Joseph Cole said land values are already depreciating in the area. “Realtors won’t take prospects within four miles of the proposed mine,” he said.

Katherine Mull of the Dan River Basin Association called for a full disclosure of all funds associated with the project and the legislative panel. She added that any feasibility study should take many years and funding to support it should not be limited.

An Altavista geologist, Roger Eubank, added, “Whatever studies are undertaken, the results will be with us for many years since there may be other deposits of uranium in the state. Please be mindful of the long-term results.”

Larry Ford asked that “the study results be written in laymen’s terms” so all could understand the findings.

The subcommittee chairman, Del. Lee Ware of Powhatan, announced that his group welcomes written comment of the scope of the study and has extended the deadline for such public comment through Monday, January 19.
Comments may be sent to:

Coal & Energy Commission
c/o Ellen Porter, Division of Legislative Services,
910 Capitol Street,
Richmond, VA 23219

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