By John Crane
Published: March 19, 2009
The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors already passed one uranium mining resolution last month, so there’s no need for another one, said one supervisor who voted against a more strongly worded substitute resolution that was shot down Tuesday night.
By a 4-3 vote, the board rejected Chatham-Blairs Supervisor Hank Davis’ resolution calling for the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Mining Subcommittee, which is overseeing a study on the safety of mining, to not accept “experimental or unproven mining practices” as evidence that uranium mining and milling are safe.
Virginia Uranium Inc. seeks to mine and mill a 119-million-pound uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill, about six miles northeast of Chatham. Virginia has banned mining since the early 1980s.
The county unanimously approved a resolution in February that requests that a study finds no harm to the county, “its businesses, institutions, environment, and citizens by uranium, as opposed to a cost/benefit approach to this issue or simply accepting minimal damages.”
“I don’t see the need for another one,” Tunstall Supervisor Tim Barber said Thursday of his opposition to the most-recent proposal.
Davis, who also proposed last month’s resolution, said he introduced a new resolution because he feels he is voicing his constituents’ concerns and those in the rest of the county. The county should not become a laboratory to determine whether uranium can be mined and milled safely across the state, he said.
“We don’t want to be guinea pigs,” Davis said.
The failed resolution, backed by Davis, Callands-Gretna Supervisor Fred Ingram and Staunton River Supervisor Marshall Ecker, requested that the subcommittee avoid basing the safety of uranium mining and milling on the practice in “environmental, demographical, topographical, geographical, and meteorological environmental conditions inconsistent with those at the proposed Pittsylvania County mine site.”
Chairman Coy Harville said one resolution is enough and added that the county has no jurisdiction in the matter.
Patrick Wales, geologist and spokesman for Virginia Uranium, said the county already has taken appropriate steps to address the issue in the past. In addition, problems the county faces, including having to increase taxes to pay debt and balance its budget, could be alleviated by tax revenue and economic growth generated from uranium mining, Wales said.
The subcommittee’s study results will determine whether mining is feasible, he said.
“Let’s wait and see what the study comes back with and then we can make informed decisions,” Wales said.
The subcommittee is holding another hearing on the study Tuesday in Richmond.
• Contact John R. Crane at jcrane@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7987.
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