Chesapeake joins chorus over possible uranium mine

Posted to: Chesapeake Environment News
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By Aaron Applegate
The Virginian-Pilot
© January 8, 2009

City officials have joined Virginia Beach in raising concerns about a proposed uranium mine in south central Virginia.

In a letter to the state Coal and Energy Commission, the agency tapped to oversee a study on uranium mining, City Manager William Harrell said Chesapeake is worried the mine could contaminate part of the city's water supply.

Chesapeake and Virginia Beach officials say a flood caused by a big hurricane could flush radioactive materials into the cities' water supply. Chesapeake gets up to half its water from Lake Gaston, which is about 100 miles downstream of the proposed Pittsylvania County mine. Virginia Beach gets most of its water from Lake Gaston.

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Earth and Water

Submitted by verdai on Thu, 01/08/2009 at 7:57 pm.

Before Any one contaminates us further, may all the people and all the host consider the coming centuries and just what they are likely capable of bringing.

uranium mining in Virginia

Submitted by recycling on Thu, 01/08/2009 at 9:37 am.

If the moratorium is lifted by the General Assembly, uranium will be mined near Charlottesville and Fredericksburg where other deposits have been discovered. Many people in other parts of VA might be willing to let Pittyslvania County bare the burden but it could happen all over the state.
I lived in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado for years and saw the devastation from Uranium mining on the Navajo Reservation, esp. the men dying from small cell carcinoma of the lung attributed only to radiation exposure. I personally knew of subdivisions where tailings were used for fill dirt that resulted in numerous cases of leukemia in infants and children living in these homes. Mining along the Banister River will destroy our most valuable resource....water! You can't live without it.

How can the Attorney General of Virginia allow the legislators on the Coal and Energy Commission to make decisions on uranium mining when so many of them accepted political contributions from Virginia Uranium, Inc.? I see this as a conflict of interest in any realm of government. Apparently, money can buy influence while the taxpayers will bare the brunt of the catastrophe.

Not In My Backyard... Why Not?

Submitted by Goldfinch on Thu, 01/08/2009 at 2:16 am.

We are still fresh from the campaign trail where shouts for domestic energy sources rang from the anti-renewable and anti-environment conservatives. The neo-cons talked about nuclear power and denounced wind power along with other domestic renewables like wave and solar. How more domestic can you get then to actually mine the uranium in central Virignia and then to use it across the Commonwealth in places like Lake Anna and Surry? Or, should we get the uranium from some third world country in Africa or from the power hungry Russians?