SAFETY FIRST: State panel frames Virginia uranium mining study

Comment: Several Articles about our County's Fate left to the State of Virginia, money is the point of this illegal uranium study!!!

Va. committee discusses safe uranium mining

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/va._committee_discusses_safe_uranium_mining/14610/


By Ray ReedPublished: March 24, 2009

RICHMOND — A state panel studying uranium mining agreed on a framework Tuesday for a scientific study of whether uranium can be mined safely in Virginia.

Three members of the Uranium Mining Subcommittee argued, however, that a recommendation to include the mineral’s price as part of the study should wait until after scientists determine whether uranium can be removed safely from the ground.

About two dozen residents of Pittsylvania County also voiced their opposition to digging up a deposit in the county.

Deborah Lovelace told the committee, which includes nine members of the General Assembly, that she had “some very disturbing information” about changes in wells at homes near the site outside of Chatham where ore samples were drilled last year.

Tests of the wells, which were paid for by Virginia Uranium Inc., produced several results showing levels of metals and minerals, including lead, in the water had increased after the drilling, Lovelace said.
About 80 wells were tested. Lovelace mentioned results from 18 of them.

Patrick Wales, a spokesman for Virginia Uranium, said the company’s drilling for core samples didn’t cause the effects reported in the wells.
“
We have reviewed the data and can state categorically that our permitted drilling activities have nothing to do with these lead levels,” Wales said.

“Wells with reported lead levels in the water are all in geologically and hydrologically isolated areas that are unaffected by activities conducted by our company,” Wales said.

Lead in water can come from many sources, including household plumbing, he said.

Allen Gross, who lives about a mile from the uranium site on Walter Coles’ farm, said the levels of 17 metals increased in his well, and the amount of lead rose above federal safety levels. Gross said he wondered why that happened.

“We’re not saying Mr. Coles did this,” Lovelace said, but she said a cause should be found.

Coy Harville, chairman of the Pittsylvania County Supervisors, told the commission the county needs new jobs that a mine would bring. He also said, “I want to commend the people of Pittsylvania County on their mannerisms today.”

The atmosphere in the Richmond room was quiet. Harville said a meeting of the subcommittee in Chatham on Jan. 6 had a more outspoken atmosphere, as people talked about polluting streams and air and damaging the region’s farms and other assets.

Mick Mastilovic, a vice president of Virginia Uranium, urged the committee to let science, not emotions, direct the study.

“Mob-ocracy was raised in Chatham” during the Jan. 6 meeting, Mastilovic said.(Most of the people of this county knows and understands the science of uranium mining, it has never been mined safely anywhere in the world, we demand this county to ban uranium mining!!!)

Members of the subcommittee debated how the study should proceed, and said the framework they adopted can be altered.

The study’s framework was presented by Michael Karmis, a professor of mining engineering at Virginia Tech.
“The whole idea is to go the the experts” in the field of uranium mining, Karmis said.

Those experts can be found by contacting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Karmis said. The NRC can recommend impartial scientists to evaluate the Coles Farm deposit, whether it can be mined safely and how, Karmis said.

If those answers were to indicate safe mining is feasible, a second study by another group should be done to evaluate the socio-economic impacts mining on Pittsylvania County’s quality of life, jobs and property values, Karmis said.

The next step in the process involves Karmis contacting the NRC to set up talks with scientists about how the study should proceed.

Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan and chairman of the subcommittee, said it has the authority to proceed with having the scientists do the actual study.

The scientists would be members of the National Academy of Sciences, Karmis said.

The committee’s own debate focused mostly on Karmis’ assertion that uranium’s price should be included in the study. He said mining won’t occur unless the mineral’s value exceeds the cost of mining.

Del. Watkins Abbitt, I-Appomattox, objected immediately, saying “I thought our first charge was to find out whether it can be mined safely.” Prices should be discussed afterward, he said, suggesting that the prospect of profits could override safety.

Del. William Janis, R-Richmond, also argued against making price a key part of the study. “We’re wasting our time looking at other things if we find it can’t be mined safely,” he argued.

State Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, said the study should look at all mining factors, including economic viability.

“I’m not looking to slide safety the least bit in terms of price,” said Wagner, who led a study two years ago that helped place uranium high among priorities in Virginia’s energy policy.

Both Wagner and Janis were Navy officers who served on nuclear submarines.

SAFETY FIRST: State panel frames Virginia uranium mining study

By STEVE SZKOTAKAssociated Press Writer

RICHMOND — Virginia took a small step Tuesday toward tapping the richest U.S. deposit of uranium as a state panel tentatively approved the framework of a scientific study.

Despite the incremental step, the action by a subcommittee of the Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy drew two dozen speakers, many of them residents of Pittsylvania County, where the deposit is located hours south of Richmond.

Speakers on both sides of the issue said safety should be the No. 1 priority of the study and that the rural region’s double-digit unemployment should not sway a scientific analysis of the impact of mining.(Well, since most uranium miners are laid off at this time because uranium price in the toilet, well, we may have triple digit unemployment because all the business are closed because the county has been ruin from uranium mining problems! Sort of strange, Corning in Wilmington, NC are recalling their laid of employees!!)

“I think our first charge is: can it be done safely,” said Del. Watkins M. Abbitt, an independent from Appomattox and a member of the subcommittee.

“We’ve got to decide first whether it’s safe to do.”

Any decision to lift a 1980s-vintage ban would likely be years away.

The proposed independent study could take 1 1/2 years, then the General Assembly would have to approve the mining.

The legislature last year refused to even study the idea.

Virginia Uranium Inc. has proposed tapping the 119-million-pound deposit located beneath 3,000 acres near the North Carolina border in Southside Virginia. The deposit is believed to be the largest deposit in the nation, with a value estimated anywhere from $7 billion to $10 billion.The U.S. is amid what some call a “nuclear renaissance” as the world looks to more climate-friendly fuels.

The speakers who attended Tuesday’s hearing voiced concerns that a mining operation could foul streams, produce toxic tailings or depress property values.

Children, farmers and retirees spoke.

Tom Zoellner, the author of “Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World,” said in an interview with The Associated Press after the meeting that uranium mining is much safer than it used to be.

Still, he said, “No method is perfect and all have the potential, if done carelessly, to leave permanent scars on the land, both visible and invisible.”

The panel gave tenative approval Tuesday of a study approach to examine environmental, health and other issues related to mining.

The outline was developed by Michael Karmis, director of Virginia Tech’s Coal and Energy Research Center.

He would serve as a go-between with the National Research Council, which is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences.

“We want to make this based on reliable scientific data, not myth folklore, legend, fear or hysteria,” said Del. Bill Janis, R-Henrico and a member of the panel.

First, however, the state must find a funding source for the study, which Del. R. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan and the chairman of the subcommittee, put at seven figures.

First phase of of study approved unanimously


By John CranePublished: March 24, 2009

The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Mining Subcommittee took a critical step Tuesday toward a study to determine whether uranium can be mined and milled safely in the commonwealth.

The subcommittee unanimously approved a draft of the study’s first phase outlining the technical and scientific aspects of the analysis that Michael Karmis, director of the Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech, said would take about 18 months.

However, the second portion of the study that would address the socioeconomic aspects of uranium mining and milling will be decided upon at a later date, Delegate Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, said after the meeting held in the General Assembly Building.

More than 100 people attended the 2 1/2-hour meeting, including opponents of uranium mining and representatives of Virginia Uranium Inc., which seeks to mine and mill a 119-million-pound uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill, six miles northeast of Chatham.

Before the subcommittee approved the study draft, Karmis said he would take it to the National Research Council for discussion. The NRC is under the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.

The NRC would seek and identify nationally renowned scientific experts to perform the study, Karmis said.

He said the technical half of the study will look at global, national and state supply/demand trends and projections, as well as costs and market aspects. Study topics also will include uranium mining and milling technologies, local groundwater and surface-water monitoring, mine-site monitoring, and post-mining land use and monitoring.

Economic benefits vs. safety

Delegate Kristen Amundson, D-Mount Vernon, questioned giving the economic aspects of the issue priority when safety and environmental matters should be the main focus.

Delegate Watkins Abbitt, I-Appomattox, said the marketing aspects of uranium mining should be left for the private sector to study and if mining uranium is found to be unsafe, examining its costs and benefits would be a waste of time.

Karmis said it’s important to develop a background of uranium and milling as it’s been conducted in other places.

Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, said the economic part of the study is important.

“I think we have to ensure there is a market for it (uranium)” he said.

Karmis said he would get technical input from the NRC and report back to the subcommittee.

More than 20 people, including residents of Pittsylvania County, aired their concerns about uranium mining and milling at Coles Hill.

Pittsylvania County resident Sue Poe, whose ancestors settled in the county in the mid-1700s, asked the subcommittee not to let the county become an experiment. Uranium may be harmless in its natural state, but it becomes hazardous when it’s removed from the ground and mined and milled, Poe said.

Virginia Uranium spokesman and geologist Patrick Wales pledged the company’s cooperation with the NRC.

Corning’s upcoming closing at the end of the year in the Danville area will leave 200 more people jobless in a region already suffering from high unemployment, Wales said, illustrating the need for uranium mining’s economic benefits.(Wales, how many uranium miners are laid off at this time all over the world, uranium prices fall, no jobs, mines shut down)!!

‘Uncover everything’

Three representatives from the Dan River Region also expressed their concerns.

Sen. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, whose father, Henry Hurt, is an investor in VUI, asked Karmis to consider the role of federal eminent domain in the issue.

He wanted to know what would happen if the federal government decided to come and take the property. In addition, Hurt said there are a lot of unknowns surrounding the issue, and it’s critical to look at the issue from a statewide perspective.

“It’s important to identify what we don’t know,” he said.
Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, said safety is paramount.

“Everything else is secondary,” he said.

Delegate Don Merricks, R-Pittsylvania County, said this study is one instance where micromanaging can be a good thing.

“Uncover and hear every concern,” Merricks said. “Uncover everything, but also address economic concerns.”

Ware agreed and said the study must remain free of undue influence.

“It’s important this study is done without the glare of politics,” he said.

Contact John R. Crane at jcrane@registerbee.com
or (434) 791-7987