Just a broken pump?

By Published by The Editorial BoardPublished: February 1, 2009

Pittsylvania County Administrator Dan Sleeper gave a common sense explanation as to why the community wasn’t notified about a corroded pump that allowed a small amount of leachate to leak at the county’s landfill in Dry Fork.

The leak was discovered on March 21, 2008, but apparently wasn’t made public until last month during a Board of Supervisors meeting. The county wound up paying a $1,300 civil fine for what Sleeper described as enough spilled leachate to fill a coffee cup.

Leachate is liquid that has passed through rotting garbage or other wastes, picking up contaminants as it goes. The leachate in question contained “metals and organic constituents.”

So what does this incident have to do with uranium mining and milling?

Pittsylvania County’s “sanitary landfill” is a closely monitored facility that is bound by the same set of state laws and regulations as countless other similar facilities around Virginia. While humans have been throwing away their garbage since the dawn of time, they’ve never had to contend with the complex and comprehensive regulations that are in place today for garbage dumps.

It didn’t take long for uranium mining opponents to draw parallels between the leachate leak and what they’re fighting. They drew those parallels because they saw a regulated, government-monitored waste handling system fail without the public’s knowledge.

What if the pump in question had been responsible for handling uranium mining and milling wastes?

What if it took almost a year for the public to learn about a spill at Coles Hill?

What if the public found out about it as a side note during a public meeting?

One of the arguments used by uranium mining opponents is that even a regulated, government-monitored activity can still run into problems that could potentially affect the community. In essence, they believe that even if the rules are followed, the rules themselves aren’t good enough.

It appears they want a margin of safety that’s either perfect or close to it because they believe that even a small amount of uranium mining and milling waste will be a big problem both now — and into the future.

But life isn’t perfect. Machines fail, liquids spill and solids break. Perfection is certainly not a human trait.

The county landfill leachate spill was a minor event with big overtones.

The questions raised by this incident at the landfill are valid — and deserve answers.