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Potential for environmental catastrophe with uranium mining in Pittsylvania

digging up and processing the uranium will create 28 million tons of radioactive waste – enough to fill 145 Super Walmart stores – that could poison local wells and seep into the Roanoke River, contaminating the drinking water for nearly 2 million people downstream of the mine.

A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the dust from uranium mines can spread up to 50 miles, which would include Smith Mountain Lake and parts of the Roanoke Valley.

Uranium in Pittsylvania County: buried treasure or threat?, By Laurence Hammack and Michael Sluss The Roanoke Times, 13 Dec 11“….. a potential public health and environmental disaster. Do the risks of uranium mining outweigh the benefits? That will soon be a question for the General Assembly, which is expected to decide at its upcoming session whether to lift a 30-year moratorium on the practice.

Opponents say digging up and processing the uranium will create 28
million tons of radioactive waste – enough to fill 145 Super Walmart
stores – that could poison local wells and seep into the Roanoke
River, contaminating the drinking water for nearly 2 million people
downstream of the mine.

The mining leftovers, called tailings, would be stored on the site and
maintain their radioactivity for more than 1,000 years.
Do we want to manage radioactive waste in perpetuity?” asked Cale
Jaffe, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“Is that the legacy we want for Virginia?”

At least two studies have predicted widespread water contamination in
the event of a flood or other catastrophe. Any day now, the National
Academy of Sciences is expected to release the most detailed report to
date on the issue….
Motley worries that containment ponds, where radioactive tailings the
consistency of sand would be mixed with water and stored for
centuries, could be breached by one of the hurricanes or tornados
that’s sure to come.

“I personally don’t see any way on earth to contain what they’re going
to do,” he said. “I just don’t see it.”

Earlier this year, his concerns were confirmed by a study for the city
of Virginia Beach, which draws its drinking water from Lake Gaston –
part of the Roanoke River basin that is downstream from the proposed
uranium mine. The lake also supplies water to Norfolk and Chesapeake.

If a storm, earthquake or other disaster were to disturb the tailings,
toxic runoff into Kerr Lake would lead to radiation levels “many times
greater” than what is allowed by the Safe Drinking Water Act, the
study found. Kerr Lake, which is directly upstream of Lake Gaston,
provides drinking water to three counties and a town in Southside…..
A second study, released last month by the Roanoke River Basin
Association, found the mine could cause “long-term, chronic
degradation of water quality” in the area.

Undiluted tailings at the site could contain up to 1,460 times the
Safe Drinking Water Act standard for uranium, according to the
study…..
things have already gone wrong in the western United States, where all
of the nation’s eight or so uranium mines are located, according to
the Southern Environmental Law Center.

One operation in Colorado has been leaking for 30 years and was
declared a Superfund cleanup site, costing anywhere from $50 million
to $500 million, the group says. It also cites two cases in Canada
where more than 500,000 gallons of tainted water escaped from the
mines.

“Everywhere you look, there seems to be contamination with these
mines,” said Motley, who lives on a 102-acre hay farm that’s been a
part of his family for seven generations.

Another concern is that dust from the operation, possibly carrying
radon and other carcinogens, could be carried by the wind to faraway
places.

A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the
dust from uranium mines can spread up to 50 miles, which would include
Smith Mountain Lake and parts of the Roanoke Valley.

On his tour of the area, about 5 miles northeast of the county seat of
Chatham, Motley drove by roadside signs his neighbors have put up in
opposition of the mine.

There are 250 private wells within 2 miles of the Coles Hill property,
Motley said, and some people worry that groundwater contamination will
force them to move….
Virginia Uranium has been laying the groundwork to win the fight. The
company has 16 lobbyists from four different firms registered to
represent it during the upcoming legislative session. They include
Whitt Clement, a former state delegate and state transportation
secretary, who is Walter Coles’ brother-in-law.

Virginia Uranium also has paid to fly some state lawmakers to France
to tour a reclaimed uranium mining site and tailings facilities and to
Canada to visit a working mine and meet with government regulators.
Some opponents of uranium mining have criticized lawmakers for
accepting the company-paid trips and questioned whether they received
objective presentations…

December 14, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Uranium, USA