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North Carolina will fight proposal for uranium mine in Virginia

NC opposition builds to proposed Virginia uranium mine, WRAL.com, 8
Jan 13,  MANSON, N.C. — As legislation that would allow uranium mining
in Virginia advances through that state’s legislature, opposition to
the move is growing in North Carolina.

A group of Virginia lawmakers voted Monday to approve a bill that
would lift a 31-year-old ban on uranium mining and allow the practice
in Chatham, Va., where a 119 million-pound deposit of uranium – the $7
billion vein is the largest in the U.S. – is located.

The bill now goes to the full legislature, which convenes Wednesday.

“North Carolina will be fighting this,” Deborah Ferruccio, who lives
near Kerr Lake in Warren County, said Tuesday.

The uranium mine would be about 40 miles from the headwaters of Kerr
Lake, and residents fear waste could flow into the lake, which is also
used as a drinking water source….. Jay Lehr, science director of
libertarian think tank Heartland Institute [right wing front], which
has called for lifting the mining ban, dismissed the concerns of Kerr
Lake residents as overblown…..
Members of the General Assembly’s Environmental Review Commission sent
a letter last month to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell expressing
“significant concern” about the potential for environmental damage.

“The commission requests that you consider the possible adverse
impacts to Kerr Lake, Lake Gaston and many communities in northeastern
North Carolina,” commission leaders Sen. David Rouzer, R-Johnston,
Rep. Ruth Samuelson, R-Mecklenburg, and former Rep. Mitch Gillespie,
R-McDowell, wrote in the letter.

Virginia Uranium has said the expected life of the uranium mine would
be 35 years – the waste would have to be stored for years after that –
and it would employ about 350 people.

“I’ve always believed in life before money,” said Tommie Harris, of
Warren County.

Harris and other Kerr Lake residents said they want their concerns
heard before the Virginia legislature takes up the mining bill.

“The legal public hearings have been held in Virginia – not one in
North Carolina,” Ferruccio said.

Even if the bill is approved, officials said it would take at least
five years for Virginia Uranium to obtain all required permits to
begin mining.http://www.wral.com/nc-opposition-builds-to-proposed-virginia-uranium-mine/11955458/

January 9, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Uranium, USA