Friday, November 30, 2007
Editorial: Keep the state ban on uranium mining
Until a thorough study of health and environmental impact is conducted, the state won't know if mining can be done safely. The ban must remain.
From the RoundTable blog
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State officials say uranium mining doesn't pose a public threat in Virginia.
But it might. The Southern Environmental Law Center cites alarming enough threats: groundwater and surface water contamination, along with an increased cancer risk for workers and the public.
Officials should be rushing to determine how real the threat is before continuing with a process that could reopen the door to uranium mining in Virginia.
They do not seem to be.
Determining rock type and thickness? Those wheels are in motion.
The Virginia Department of Mines and Minerals this month approved a permit for Virginia Uranium Inc. to begin taking core samples on a site near Chatham. Work is expected to begin next month.
The company was formed by Walter Coles, whose Pittsylvania County farm sits on one of the largest uranium deposits in the country.
The prospect of tapping a gold mine should not distract the need for study to determine the risk of health and environmental harm.
Gov. Tim Kaine, in his energy plan, supported relaxing the 25-year state ban on uranium mining to help the state become more energy independent.
But his support came with caution that "significant work to assess the risk from mining and need for regulatory controls must be completed before any decision can be made."
It must.
The law center, a nonprofit environmental organization, says most drilling for uranium deposits in the United States has been in arid, sparsely populated regions out West.
In Virginia and other densely populated Eastern states, uranium mining would put more people at risk. A wetter climate increases the chance of radiation contaminating streams and groundwater, the center says.
Those are legitimate concerns. Yet discussion about mining uranium, milling it and selling it to nuclear power plants continues, with only passing mention of the impact.
The public is left with the message that all's well with the whole idea.
Coles told The Virginian-Pilot that he and generations of his family have managed just fine in the 200-year-old house on the family's Pittsylvania County farm, made from bricks that register high levels of radioactivity.
The public needs more than a wry comment from the man who stands to benefit most to assuage fears -- some of the same fears that prompted the state to issue the ban in 1982.
State officials must study the impact, in depth, as the governor says.
And if a thorough examination concludes that uranium cannot be mined safely in Virginia, the ban must remain.
