Will Virginia GOP Risk Uranuim Contamination of Major Drinking Water Supply?

I've noted before how some in the Republican Party are trying to turn safety regulations back to a level last seen in the 19th century when the robber barons flourished during the so-called "Gilded Age." An ongoing story relevant to this issue here in Virginia involves the efforts of a Canadian company and some members of the Republican party of Virginia to rescind a thirty year old ban on uranium mining in Virginia. The center of the controversy involves uranium deposits in Pittsylvania County that are upstream to the water supply sources for much of southeastern Virginia, including all of the cities on the south side of Hampton Roads: Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. Studies indicate that the area of the deposits is subject to flooding and could lead to radioactive mining wastes washing into the water supply system which, of course, would endanger hundreds of thousands of citizens (actually, well over a million) all so that a foreign owned company - and probably some bribed members of the Virginia General Assembly - could make some bucks. Not surprisingly, Attorney General Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli is missing from action in terms of protecting far over a million Virginians. Kookinelli would rather spend his time oppressing gays and denying global warming. Here are some highlights from a new study prepared by the BLUE RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE LEAGUE:

Roanoke, VA – Today the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League released a report documenting the presence of frequent and pervasive flooding at Coles Hill, the proposed uranium mine and mill site in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The report, titled, Historic and potential flooding at proposed uranium mine and mill site: Coles Hill, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, demonstrates not only that pervasive flooding regularly occurs throughout the Coles Hill site but also that flooding and other hydrological features would increase the risk of radioactive contamination, should the site eventually be used to store uranium mill tailings.

The principal finding of the BREDL’s report is: Above- and below-ground features at Coles Hill suggest that any uranium mill tailings storage operation there would create high risk of chronic and/or catastrophic release of radioactive contamination into the aquatic environment.

Virginia Uranium, Inc., the company proposing to mine and mill uranium at Coles Hill, has been providing Virginia legislators expense-paid visits to decommissioned uranium mine and mill sites in France and Canada. Ann Rogers, the author of the League’s report, criticized this practice, saying, “These company-paid junkets must not be substituted for hard science as the basis on which the Virginia General Assembly decides whether to keep the ban on uranium mining in Virginia.” A vote on the ban may occur as early as January, 2012.

The League’s report links evidence of flooding at Coles Hill with warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA contradicts many industry assurances that uranium mill tailing disposal sites are essentially maintenance free, stating, “There is no such thing as 'fail-safe' facilities for tailings management. Neither regulations, design specifications, nor management systems can be relied upon in isolation to provide assurance against containment failure: all three must be applied, in a framework of quality assurance and post-closure care and maintenance, to deliver a high probability of tailings containment security.”

BREDL calls for a systematic study of the hydrology at Coles Hill to determine whether mill tailings can be stored there with any assurance of safety throughout the 10,000 to 100,000-year period during which the tailings remain radioactive. This type of study has never been performed for Coles Hill.

Will common sense and proper scientific evidence hold sway with the Virginia GOP's members in the General Assembly? Sadly, I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile the cities in southside Hampton Roads need to be raising hell over this danger.