Monday, February 04, 2008
Safety the only issue in uranium debate
From the RoundTable blog
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Bill Speiden
Speiden is a member of the Orange County Planning Commission and is legislative director of the Orange County Farm Bureau.
The commentary from Walter Coles of Pittsylvania County ("Uranium mining: Can it be done safely?" Jan. 6) gives us common ground for the start of discussion.
Coles owns much of the land and his family and fellow stockholders stand to benefit the most financially from the mining and milling activity. In 1980, my family stood to gain much from uranium activities as, according to the syntilometer tests, I owned the most radioactive hill in Northern Virginia.
Some of the same men who are working with Coles approached me nearly 30 years ago. But my family would not take on the responsibility of potentially contaminating neighbors' wells and the Rapidan River, possibly for generations, for personal benefit.
Safety is the issue. The current moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia says it is up to the industry to prove it can be done safely before mining and milling is permitted in Virginia.
A "study committee" set up by the state legislature might sound like a good idea. The problem is that every year the state legislature approves many studies and appropriates little or no money for their execution. Therefore, most legislative studies are superficial, less than scientific and, in this case, may just allow the elephant's trunk inside the tent without proper scrutiny.
A proper, impartial scientific study would be a good thing, but it needs to be conducted and peer reviewed before the General Assembly gets involved in a debate over whether to lift Virginia's longstanding ban on uranium mining.
Here are some important facts to consider before removing our moratorium on uranium mining:
n We are dealing with radioactive exposure to our miners, air, water supplies and neighbors. Underground uranium miners are under constant exposure to radioactivity while they work. In the American Southwest, uranium miners have historically had a much higher incidence of lung cancer than the normal population. As recently as November 2007, job deficient Navajo Reservation in Arizona resisted renewed uranium mining interests because of previous experience of cancer rates, livestock deaths and water contamination.
n Never in this country has uranium been mined in an area with a climate as wet as Virginia's. In the semi-arid West (10 to 15 inches of rain a year) radioactivity and associated toxic metals have shown up miles away from the mining site in time. Our rainfall averages four times what is seen out West. As a result, tailings ponds and piles could leach into the water table much faster and with more dire consequences. Once leaching starts, the consequences can go on for generations. Tailings ponds overflowing is almost a certainty in Virginia as we have more rainfall than evaporation rate.
n Never in this country has uranium been mined in a community with such a dense population near the mine site. This is not to say uranium can never be mined safely anywhere. In fact, I know of a mine in Utah that was doing it right in the 1980s. The rainfall there was less than 18 inches a year, the outflow from tailings ponds was processed to the point that trout lived in the streams below, and the nearest house was about 25 miles away. Contrast that to the situation in Pittsylvania County, where homes and a private girls' school are within close vicinity of the proposed mine site.
n Again, safety is the issue. Legislation and regulations will change neither our population density nor our rainfall levels. Before it is mined, uranium is like a coffee bean -- a relatively harmless mass. But when crushed, and mixed with water, that bean becomes a cup of coffee. More than 95 percent of the radioactivity associated with uranium ore is retained in the tailings and its by-products. Their radioactive half-life is 500,000 years or forever, whichever comes first.
I would suggest that those concerned with making Virginia and our citizens guinea pigs in this potential experiment oppose a legislative study on uranium mining and milling until it has been properly studied independently and scientifically -- without politicians in Richmond getting into the mix. In the meantime, we need to maintain the moratorium on mining and milling uranium.
