VIRGINIA BEACH
City officials are gearing up to oppose a uranium mine about 200 miles west in Pittsylvania County, arguing it could threaten the city's water supply.
A company has been formed to explore extracting what is considered the largest uranium deposit on the East Coast, valued between $7 billion and $10 billion. The mine would produce what is known as "yellow cake" to fuel nuclear power plants.
The City Council was told Tuesday that under a worst-case scenario, a hurricane or tropical storm could destroy the landfill-like containers that would hold radioactive mining waste. Thomas Leahy, director of public utilities, said that also would contaminate downstream waterways, including Lake Gaston, the city's water source, which lies about halfway between Pittsylvania County and Virginia Beach.
Lake Gaston also contributes water to Norfolk and Chesapeake and, during droughts, to Suffolk and Portsmouth.
Mining supporters said Tuesday that they are concerned about water quality and stressed that a state study will look at that issue.
"We drink the water here, and we wouldn't want a situation where a tailings system could be impacted by a hurricane or any other type of disaster," said Walter Coles, who owns the land where the mine is proposed. He has formed Virginia Uranium Inc. to explore mining the uranium.
Virginia lawmakers barred uranium mining 25 years ago when another company sought to tap Coles' property. However, a state panel - the Commission on Coal and Energy - voted this month to study the impact of mining.
"It seems that Virginia Beach is in position to be a big loser," said Councilwoman Barbara Henley, noting that the city would get the risk without the economic benefit.
Some also questioned the validity of the study, which has yet to be funded. "The way it's shaping up, the uranium industry is going to pay for it," City Manager Jim Spore said.
"It should be an unbiased study," Coles said. "We'll just wait for the study, and we hope uranium can be mined in Virginia just like it's being mined in other parts of the world today."
The City Council will consider an official resolution against mining next month.
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
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U R NEXT, SAY NO TO URANIUM MINING!
I live in SouthSide, the side the State of Virginia never pays attention to, we do not have an interstate, or High Tech jobs but the State of Virginia are willing to make us a bunch of Miners!!!
WELL, I DO NOT WANT MY CHILDREN TO BE URANIUM MINERS AND I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU WOULD WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO BE URANIUM MINERS!!!
I will take all you ProNuke People on:
1. Navy Guy: Ever been to Kittery, Maine where they build Nuclear Subs, the PORT is on one side of the road and the Clinic for Nuclear poisoning on the other side of the road!!!!
2. Nuclear Power Plant People: Nuclear Power Plants are too expensive to build and have accidents every other day!!! Just go to the NRC page and see the violations!!
3. Uranium Mining will be all over Virginia just not SouthSide, uranium is located up the Rt. 29 and from Richmond up to DC!!!
Our radiation particles blown by the wind will be VA Beach Wind!! (Remember the Fires in NC)
VUI flooded tail pond will be VA Beach drinking water - Oh by the Way, it floods here without Hurricanes, the rain systems sometimes get caught in our hills and just stay there and the favorite area for rain is White Oak Mt and Coles Hill (where the open pit
Mine =/= Power Plant
But we aren't talking about building a nuclear power plant in Chatham. Let's be perfectly clear: this is a uranium mine, NOT a power plant. There is a world of difference. The safety of nuclear reactors and power plants are not an issue here. And besides, are there any plans to build a nuclear power plant here in Southern Virginia? Will we see any of this energy diverted to us? I guarantee you Pittsylvania County won't, and it's these people that will be left to clean up the mess and suffer the worst of the health consequences.
Nuclear power may be clean, may be safe, but is the mining process for the yellow-cake ore that powers it as safe? You asked for examples of related deaths; if you talked to the people mining in Utah that lost their children, that suffered cancer and radiation poisoning, then I imagine they could give you some staggering numbers.
All I ask is that people not dismiss this as hype or 'scare stories.' Take a look at the cold, hard facts and it becomes obvious there are very serious ramifications to opening this mine. Honestly - there was a REASON Virginia passed a moratorium on uranium mining in the 1980's.
TAROUCHAN FOLLOW YOUR OWN ADVICE
Sorry, Tarouchan, I've already read up on the other disasters, so how about following your own advice and doing a little homework yourself.
First, read up on how much land you have to occupy with wind, solar, or a hydro plant (which requires you to interfere with a river ecosystem) compared with one nuclear plant. Read up on the petrochemical toxins and arsenic that are produced by production of solar panels and wind turbines - yes, you have to make them out of something, and most of that is from petrochemical products with a lot of other nasty stuff mixed in.
Now read up on the precautions that are taken in uranium mining. Tell me where, in all the years we have been mining uranium, there has ever been one death or even an injury from drinking water contaminated by uranium tailings. Tell me where there has been a single death or injury caused by a power reactor in this country.
And by the way, there is a Naval base in town - and on any given day about a dozen reactors are operating right in our harbor, and people fish in the same harbor. Should we get rid of those carriers and submarines? Are they causing contamination disasters?
Yes, do a little reading up, th
It doesn't matter what the
It doesn't matter what the Beach thinks. The pipeline was a bad idea. They stepped on a lot of toes in the process. Now they want to take money from a valuable industry? That pretty rich. We need nuclear power to advance more than the beach needs Lake Gaston. Besides, we all know they likely put very little thought into this. At best it should have been kept quiet since tourist might be bothered by the idea of a news article discussing uranium in a resort cities tap water.
This is NOT a scare
This is NOT a scare story.
This is a big decision that will affect the whole of Virginia, and it needs to be looked at with utmost caution. Why would anyone think that a study funded by Virginia Uranium Co. would be unbiased? Do you really think, with billions of dollars at stake, that our health and the health of all our future generations are really their primary interest?
Read up on the uranium mining disasters in Utah: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,250010691,00.html
Read up on Love Canal. Read up on the other disasters that come with poor handling of toxic waste, and look at what becomes of mining towns in other cities and countries. There is no 'economic boom' to be had there. The fact of it is, no matter how many regulations and security measures there are, human error does occur - and can we really risk the health of our entire area that way?
There are so many other viable options for energy (wind, solar, hydraulic) that there is no real reason to mine in Chatham. I hope that all of Virginia will join us in Southside in saying "NO" to uranium mining.
WELL THEN....
"It seems that Virginia Beach is in position to be a big loser," said Councilwoman Barbara Henley.
Elvis seconds that!!!...and is laughing
What I Know
I am a former nuclear reactor operator for the U.S. Navy and I am a member of the Power and Engineering Society for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). From an operational standpoint, nuclear power is extremely safe and has very strict safeguards for the transportation and storage of nuclear fuel and waste. I do not know what the regulations are on the actual mining of uranium, but I can only believe based on what I know that it is very strict and that there are a lot of environmental protection processes that will be involved.
THIS IS A SCARE STORY
It's criminal to promote a scare story like this when the technology is safe. The regulations on containers for mine tailings require that they withstand far more shock than a hurricane or earthquake could generate. Even if the containers were breached, tailings are heavy elements and are insoluble in water, so they wouldn't travel very far. This is a myth, and I hope that City Council doesn't fall for it.
take our water back from norfolk
lakes and water supply lakes in the city of virginia beach like stumpy lake , lake smith , redwing lake , , all the water in these lakes came from runoff in virginia beach , , city of virginia beach directs all runoff from streets and storm water into these lakes and then the city of norfolk get to sell it , all the money city council spent on getting water piped here from lake gaston could have been better spent on desalineation plants to tap the ocean , all our democratic leaders all say drill baby drill, might as well say drill,dig ,drill dig baby, maybe one of our city leaders will come up with a bright idea to buy this guys mine and put the city into a 8 to 10 billion dollar shortfall instead of just a mere 82.5 million dollar shortfall ,
One Way or the Other Way
How can VA be against the mining of uranium while at the same trying to promote the expansion of nuclear power within the state (i.e. Lake Anna)? Let me guess, VA will also be against the storage of nuclear waste too.
How quick the tune can change
Henley's comment referring that the city would get the risk without the economic benefit. I bet if Va Bch received some monetary compensation, they would chagne their tune and agree to the mining.
Hey Va Bch, an earthquake may hit the area and open up a fisure thus contanminating the water or the same area can be hit by an asteroid and do the same.
Review weather history and you will see that the area seldom if ever had signifiacnt weather that the Bch is concerned happening.
Learn More!
As a former long-time Norfolk resident(50 years)who moved in retirement to Halifax County, I read a lot of scare articles in our local newspapers(they have little, other than social stuff, to talk about)and watch TV segments on this Chatham, Va. water scare. The state of Virginia has long blocked this mining in Pittsylvania County with little other than fear hysteria to account for it. You may recall the (former) Volens weather radar (which is about a half mile from me); it is about 35 miles east of the Chatham area. On good weather days Tidewater military jet fighters use Volens (on route 501 and about the same latitude as Willoughby Spit) as a turnaround for flight certification runs.
The state of affairs here is to wait on a study of ground-water effects of mining and then make decisions as to whether to allow it. Out here in this rural tobacco county all of us have water wells plus septic tanks with drainage fields and are concerned about possible effects to our lives. Give the inquiries time to get it right.