Uranium mining may get pushed back to study issues

RICHMOND

The intense debate over uranium mining may take a timeout if a group of state lawmakers succeeds in persuading Gov. Bob McDonnell to forgo trying to lift a longstanding mining moratorium this year. Instead, the legislators want state agencies to prepare draft mining regulations for consideration next year.

Such an approach, if McDonnell pursued it, would save legislators from having to vote on an issue that some say needs more time for review.

McDonnell's staff remained noncommittal Wednesday when asked where the governor stands, even as support seemed to build for a compromise to allow work on the issue to move ahead without formal action in this General Assembly session. The deadline for filing bills is Friday, and so far, no mining bills have been offered.

At the core of the debate is access to a rich deposit of the radioactive ore beneath a 3,500-acre tract in Pittsylvania County. Processed uranium is used as fuel in nuclear power plants.

The company behind the mining venture, Virginia Uranium Inc., has heavily lobbied the legislature, saying it would create hundreds of jobs and generate millions of dollars in economic activity.

But environmentalists call mining a serious threat to public health and safety.

"There's a lot to analyze and consider," said Del. R. Lee Ware, a Colonial Heights Republican who chairs the uranium mining panel of the state Coal and Energy Commission.

He and six other legislators, Virginia Beach Republican Sen. Frank Wagner among them, on Wednesday wrote McDonnell asking him to have agencies, including the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, develop a framework for the safeguards and standards that a state regulatory program should include.

That course is appropriate because the issue is too important to rush, Ware said.

Another lawmaker who signed the letter, Powhatan County Republican Sen. John Watkins, said he is ready to submit a bill to lift the ban, but will hold off if McDonnell directs state agencies to develop regulations.

But environmentalists who want to keep the ban oppose the idea, calling it "putting the cart before the horse."

Mary Rafferty, chief lobbyist for the Sierra Club of Virginia, said it seems "silly and more than wasteful" to spend money during a lean budget year on developing a regulatory framework that might never be implemented.

"We need to first decide whether we should or should not have uranium mining in Virginia," she said. "Let's make that decision first, in public, in the General Assembly. So everyone can see, everyone can have a say. We don't want to see this matter pushed behind closed doors."

Virginia Uranium continues to urge lawmakers to lift the ban.

"Our company agrees that there are many questions that need to be addressed before it receives a single permit or license to operate a uranium mine and mill in Virginia," said project manager Patrick Wales. "The ultimate lifting of the legislative moratorium on uranium mining would allow the adoption of regulations under which these questions can be answered."

Beyond environmentalists, the roster of mining opponents includes a roster of southside Virginia legislators and business officials who at a Wednesday news conference asked lawmakers to delay action this year.

Fears that mining waste, known as tailings, could contaminate local drinking water have likewise compelled leaders in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Norfolk to support keeping the moratorium.

Pilot writer Scott Harper contributed to this report.

Julian Walker, 804-697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com