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Uranium Mining foes dominate hearing

Mining foes dominate hearing
The News Record 9 Jan 09 All sides in Southside Virginia’s raging uranium debate had a chance Tuesday night to weigh in on a pending scientific study of uranium mining, but they were also cautioned that a decision on the fate of the Coles Hill project in Pittsylvania County is a long ways off……………The meeting at Chatham High School was held to gather citizen input on a scientific study of uranium mining that the Coal and Energy Commission will oversee……………………The capacity crowd was dominated by opponents of uranium mining at the Coles Hill site near Chatham, which is believed to contain one of the largest deposits of uranium in the nation.
More than sixty residents spoke to the subcommittee, mostly living in Chatham, Danville, Halifax and Mecklenburg counties, along with several residents of the Smith Mountain Lake community. Also addressing the committee members were several employees of Virginia Uranium Company.
Many speakers said they were concerned with health problems emanating from radioactive tailings left behind from the mining; others worried about the quality of downstream water and air quality…………………………….Gregg Vickrey, chairman of the Chatham/Pittsylvania County chapter of SCC, asked members how they could convince citizens that the study would be unbiased in light of the political contributions they have received from Virginia Uranium. “There’s been no referendum on this — only a request from a private for-profit corporation,” said Vickery. “Who are you representing, the people who you are elected to represent or the interests of a corporation that has contributed to your campaigns?”
Said Shireen Parsons, an organizer with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which is advising SCC: “It is we, the people, who decide. This is a travesty and mockery of democracy.”

 The News & Record

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

January 9, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics