Uranium would be biggest 'eyesore' of all

Amen, Jesse...amen!

Chatham Star-Tribune
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 9:08 AM EDT

If Ben Davenport and Chatham Town Council are so concerned about the appearance of Chatham and how it is perceived by visitors to the town, it seems only logical that they would be more concerned about the potential uranium mine and mill that Virginia Uranium Inc. and its Canadian partners are planning rather than getting themselves into a sweat over a couple of dilapidated buildings.

It seems odd that Mr. Davenport, the driving force behind this "eyesore" cleanup campaign, has to this point remained completely silent about the issue of uranium mining and milling, and yet he describes an abandoned building as "a real shame."

The real shame will occur when the blasting begins at Coles Hill and Chatham becomes known as the most radioactive place on the East Coast.

It is also telling that Virginia Tech would be willing to provide "planning support" for the sanitizing of Chatham when they are at the same time planning massive support for VUI's toxic adventure which will take place a mere six miles from the center of town.

If the town cannot afford to remove an old mobile home from Whitehead Street, how do they think they will be able to pay for cleaning up 30 or 40 years of a uranium mine spewing poison onto its streets and rooftops?

They can plant all the flowerbeds they want, but if uranium mining becomes a reality for Pittsylvania County, all the flowers in the world will not attract anyone to Chatham, with the exception of the unemployed uranium miners from other states who will descend on the town.

Rather than panicking about the mouse running across the floor, Davenport and the town council would be wiser to make a plan about the thousand-pound gorilla sitting in the room with them.

Which one poses the greater threat?

Jesse Pyrant Andrews

Halifax

http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2009/10/28/chatham/opinion/opinion02.txt

You're Invited! Talk to Rep. Tom Perriello!

Rep. Tom Perriello

"Tom In Your Town"

(open topic...private Q & A)

Thursday, August 06, 2009

6:00 - 8:00 pm

Chatham Middle School

11650 Highway 29 N.

Chatham, VA

"Tom In Your Town" is a chance for constituents to meet one-on-one with the Congressman to discuss policy issues, give suggestions, or to get help with federal programs like Medicare, Social Security, or veterans’ benefits. Everyone who attends a “Tom in Your Town” meeting has a rare opportunity: ten minutes, one on one, with your federal representative. (from http://www.appomattoxnews.com ) First come, first served...arrive early to get signed up!

CBS News Films Story on Uranium Mining in PittCo

By TIM DAVIS/Star-Tribune Editor
Wednesday, June 3, 2009

CBS News was in Chatham Thursday filming a story on uranium mining.

Reporter Dean Reynolds and producer Erin Lyall flew in from Chicago, Ill., and spent most of the day talking to supporters and opponents of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County.

Reynolds, who got the idea for the story after seeing an article on uranium in the "Economist" magazine, visited Coles Hill, about six miles northeast of Chatham.

Discovered 30 years ago, the Coles Hill uranium deposit is believed to be one of the largest uranium deposits in the United States.

Two years ago, the Coles and Bowen families formed Virginia Uranium Inc. in hopes of eventually mining the deposit, which is worth an estimated $8 billion.

CBS News spent about two hours at Coles Hill, which also is the name of Virginia Uranium founder and chairman Walter Coles' ancestral home.

Reynolds, accompanied by a film crew from Atlanta, Ga., toured Coles' farm and home and looked at core samples from recent test drilling.

The reporter also interviewed Coles, who talked about the history of his home, family and farm, how the uranium was discovered, and the vision behind Virginia Uranium.

http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2009/06/04/chatham/news/news53.txt

Time For an Update: Chatham to Reconsider Uranium Mining Issue

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: March 16, 2009

Chatham Mayor George Haley believes the town’s official position on uranium mining and milling is “a sort of neutral type thing” that needs to be changed.

For a while, Haley wanted Chatham to follow the town of Halifax and enact a chemical trespass ordinance, basically making it illegal for pollution from VUI to enter the town. But an official opinion by former Attorney General Bob McDonnell found that chemical trespass ordinances were unconstitutional.

Haley now believes that Chatham’s town council should pass a resolution that reflects the growing consensus that uranium mining and milling shouldn’t cause problems for Pittsylvania County.

“I think people are beginning to awaken to the fact that this is a very dangerous situation,” Haley said. “… I really believe that people are beginning to take notice. We need to really look at this matter.”

To its credit, the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Mining Subcommittee — which is developing the state’s study — has come to Chatham to ask local people what questions should be answered.

But public opinion on uranium mining — through the passage of these tougher local government resolutions — appears to have changed over the past year.

The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors and the towns of Gretna and Hurt have all updated their resolutions.

The local consensus of support for the state’s study of uranium mining and milling remains. At this point, most county residents are probably still taking a wait-and-see approach to VUI’s plans. They want more information, and the company certainly hasn’t lost the public relations battle by any stretch of the imagination.

But if the resolutions are a reflection of public opinion — and it’s obvious that they are — the bottom line now appears to be a desire that uranium mining and milling not take away from what the community has today.

Chatham Town Council has picked a good time to reconsider uranium mining. Local people, through their elected representatives, need to speak loudly on this issue — no matter what position they’re taking.

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/opinion/editorials/danville_editorials/article/time_for_an_update/9718/

Chatham Town Council to Draft New Uranium Resolution

In addition to discussing the apparent success of the "screamers" to rid Chatham of the flocks of vultures that had been circling the town and the latest nuisance of clogged water lines due to bored inmates flushing everything and anything down their toilets, the Chatham Town Council also gave mention to the uranium issue (from the Register & Bee):

The town also approved a suggestion by Mayor George Haley to draft a more “comprehensive” uranium mining resolution than the town currently has and present it at the April meeting.

He called the current resolution, drafted a year ago, “neutral.”

“It doesn’t really say much of anything. It’s not as comprehensive as I believe it should be,” Haley said. “Then you can vote it down, approve it or change it.”

The next meeting will be held April 13.

Contact Denice Thibodeau at dthibodeau@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7985.

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/chatham_faces_new_nuisance/9615/

Chatham Mulls Updating Uranium Resolution

By John Crane

Published: February 11, 2009

The towns of Hurt and Gretna have passed resolutions on uranium mining this month, and now Chatham is mulling a resolution of its own to replace the previous one the town passed a year ago.

Chatham Mayor George O. Haley said he wants to bring the town’s resolution up to par with the other towns’ more detailed documents.

“Their resolutions were a little more comprehensive than ours,” Haley said.

Virginia Uranium Inc. wants to mine and mill a uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill six miles northeast of Chatham.

Chatham passed a simple resolution on Feb. 11, 2008, asking the state’s General Assembly not to consider scrapping Virginia’s moratorium on uranium mining unless a thorough, independent study finds uranium mining and milling safe.

A year later, the situation has changed. Senate bill 525, which called for a study, was tabled in the House Rules Committee in March 2008. The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission approved a study in November to be conducted by the National Academy of Sciences or a comparable institution.

Also, Gretna and Hurt have passed resolutions calling for the study to meet certain criteria. Both request the entire process be open to the press and public and that the respective towns be allowed to participate in the study. Both also call for a peer-review group separate from the parties conducting the study and made up of representatives from agencies in environmental public health, water supply and resources, air quality and the Army Corps of Engineers to monitor and critique the study. In addition, the towns want ample time and adequate funding for the study. And the study must be thorough, unbiased and conducted by an agency outside the mining industry.

Eloise Nenon, a founding member of Southside Concerned Citizens, asked the Chatham Town Council during its regular meeting Monday night to pass a resolution calling for a study to determine whether uranium can be mined safely in the commonwealth, as well as a companion study to examine issues other than scientific aspects.

Nenon wants the resolution to be broader than those passed in Gretna and Hurt and to include a request for a parallel study by the National Trust for Historic Preservation or other comparable institution. Nenon would like to see a study cover quality-of-issues separate from “hard science” aspects.

Haley said he would discuss Nenon’s request with the town manager and report back to the council. Haley said he is anti-uranium mining but supports a study to determine whether it can be done safely. Chatham’s original resolution was “not as comprehensive as I would like for it to be,” he said. However, “it was a step in the right direction,” Haley said.

Besides public health and environmental issues, Haley said he is also concerned about the aesthetic effects uranium mining and milling would yield.

“What are we going to look like physically when this takes place?” Haley said.

Delegate Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, who heads the Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Subcommittee, said the study process will be open and honest. Ware said the towns’ resolutions will not fall on deaf ears.

“There is no question that we are highly interested in and attuned to the views of those who are the most directly affected,” Ware said.

Ware said the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research will present the scope of the study at the subcommittee’s next meeting. A date and time have not been set. The NAS would examine the study’s language next, Ware said. The NAS would probably designate about a dozen or 15 internationally known scientists to conduct the study, Ware said.

The study will take about 18 months.

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/chatham_mulls_updating_uranium_resolution/8991/