Uranium Mining: SCC Members Make Excellent Points; Ask Important Questions

Excellent Letters to the Editor from SCC members:

Chatham Star-Tribune

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: January 23, 2009

Would anyone tell us if there was a leak at Coles Hill?

To the editor:
Going to the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors’ meeting Tuesday was an eye-opener!

I attended hoping to see Supervisor Marshall Ecker’s proposal adopted to limit the board chairman to a one-year term. But through an off-hand remark by a county resident during the meeting, the audience learned there had been a liner breach at one of the county landfill’s cells. The remark came and went, but some of the uninformed audience members did some sleuthing.

Mmmm ... seems the landfill leak was discovered in March 2008, but the first discussion of it turns up four months later. Supposedly, the problem was addressed and there was a paltry $1,300 levied that the county taxpayers had to pay.

County residents are just learning of this landfill leak in January 2009? Why wasn’t the public informed about the landfill liner breach and its subsequent land and groundwater contamination, especially since the amount — “a significant volume of leachate” — contained “metals and organic constituents?”

The public (the county taxpayers) had to pay the fine. Why were they not informed of this landfill leak? Why wasn’t their input sought? Why weren’t they notified that a potential health and environmental danger was being investigated?

Was the Board of Supervisors afraid that going public would reflect poorly on their handling/enforcement of the county’s waste ordinances?

What happened to the “facility personnel” who were responsible for the “periodic checks” of the landfill site? Were they dismissed? Did they attend workshops to sharpen up their environmental contamination detection skills?

There are many unanswered questions that the board should retroactively address to allay public fears (unfounded or not).

Where is the exact location of the landfill leakage? How much land and groundwater contamination actually occurred? What were the “metal and organic constituents” and in what amounts? Did the county use a Band-aid approach to remediate the leak, or did it actually contain and remediate the contamination?

Scary thought: Would the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors be as forthcoming with information regarding the breach of a uranium mine tailings liner that had been leaking radioactive and heavy metal contaminants into the surrounding land and groundwater for four months? When would they notify the public of such a leak? Would we find it out after reviewing the upcoming agenda in a supervisors’ meeting packet?

Oh, that’s right. Maintenance of uranium mining tailings are “regulated,” and the DEQ and other oversight agencies would notify the public immediately about a liner leak.

Right?

ANNE COCKRELL

Danville

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They’re off to a bad start

To the editor:

Did the Danville Register & Bee accuse concerned citizens as vilifiers of politicians, “Bought and paid for?” (Jan. 18, page A10)?

Forgive us if we have grave reservations regarding the proposed uranium mining study. The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission came through the back door in order to give Virginia Uranium Inc. what it lobbied for — and was denied — during the last General Assembly. The news media has reported that all commission members are recipients of contributions from either VUI, their lobbying firms or both. This information is factual and not a vilification of anyone.

In the absence of meaningful public discussion and debate, we are left to speculate about the intent and actions of the self-appointed overseers of the uranium study. The public hearing allowed us to ask questions that the Coal and Energy Commission is under no obligation to explore. It appears that the Coal and Energy Commission, in its motion to circumvent the General Assembly, is unanimous in encouraging two studies.

One mandate of their motion urges the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research to enter into an agreement with (we know not whom) to conduct a wide-ranging study on the impact of uranium mining in the commonwealth. Notice how easily the Coal and Energy Commission outsourced the responsibility for technical and engineering aspects to the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research? Why involve the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research? Perhaps funding is involved.

The 1985 Coal and Energy Commission report to the General Assembly notes, “At a meeting held on Nov. 2, 1984, in Blacksburg, the Subcommittee was taken through the offices and laboratories of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research Center and the Mining and Engineering Department at VPI & SU. At times, during the tour, Subcommittee members noted the inadequacy of financial support given these important research programs. Some of the equipment being used was 30 years old or older. It seemed to the subcommittee members that there is a pressing need for more funds for these research programs.”

Let’s do the math — 1984 plus 30 years ... it must be funding time again.

A second mandate in the Coal and Energy Commission’s motion to initiate a uranium study addresses human health concerns. It resolves, “That the Commission, through its subcommittee, with assistance if necessary, of the Center (for Coal and Energy Research) undertake the study of other economic, environmental, public health and social issues affecting nearby communities, the region and the commonwealth as a whole ...”

To which nearby communities are they referring? Since only Virginia Uranium is lobbying to mine at Coles Hill, that would be us! So much for a statewide study.

I, for one, do not feel members of the Coal and Energy Commission and their subcommittee members have the expertise to determine the economic, environmental, public health and social issues resulting from uranium mining and milling in Pittsylvania County — and most certainly, not for the whole of Virginia.

If the Coal and Energy Commission wishes to earn our trust and respect, they’re off to a bad start. The Danville Register & Bee can call that vilification if they like.

KAREN B. MAUTE

Mount Cross

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/danville_letters/article/uranium_mining1/8632/