Virginia Bass Federation
Conservation and Environmental News
For Immediate Release
May 12, 2011
Coalition to Keep the Ban on Uranium Mining in Virginia Growing Statewide
Coalition announces dozens
of supporting localities and groups, launches petition drive and website
Contact:
Cale Jaffe, Southern Environmental Law
Center, 434-977-4090
Mary Rafferty, Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, 804-225-9113, ext 105
Naomi Hodge-Muse, President of the Martinsville/Henry
County NAACP, 276-632-9674
RICHMOND, VA - The Keep the Ban Coalition today announced the support of 41 localities and organizations
that have joined the growing statewide movement urging the Virginia legislature to resist an industry push to lift the state’s ban
on uranium mining as early as next year. Local governments that have passed “keep the ban” resolutions range from the Town of
Culpeper to the City of Virginia Beach, and civic groups range from the Medical Society of Virginia to the Reston-based National Wildlife
Federation, whose membership passed a national resolution of support in April.
The coalition today also launched a statewide
petition drive, starting with 1,000 signatures of Virginians who support keeping the ban on uranium mining, and launched a new website,www.keeptheban.org, aimed at raising awareness of the health, environmental and socio-economic impacts associated with uranium mining,
milling and waste disposal. Uranium has never been mined commercially in the East, nor in a predominantly wet-climate region of the
U.S., like Virginia.
“Virginia has had a ban in place on mining uranium for nearly 30 years, and for good reason,” said
Naomi Hodge-Muse, president of the Martinsville-Henry County NAACP and leader of the Sierra Club Keep the Ban Team, Martinsville.
“There are just too many questions and potential risks of radioactive and toxic materials contaminating our streams, rivers and drinking
water. With all the storms and hurricanes we get, this is the worst possible place you could put a uranium operation.”
The uranium
industry is lobbying to lift the ban and begin mining uranium in Virginia, starting at a major deposit at a Pittsylvania County site
called Coles Hill, first discovered in the late 1970s. The industry also secured leases on other suspected deposits in Culpeper, Fauquier,Floyd, Henry, Madison, Orange, Patrick, and Pittsylvania counties. Potential uranium deposits were also detected in Franklin and Nelson
counties. Recently, Virginia Uranium, Inc. told Wall Street investors that it plans to introduce legislation lifting the uranium
mining ban in the 2012 session of the General Assembly.
Coalition partners note the well-documented links between exposure to
uranium waste and myriad health problems, including bone, liver and breast cancer, lung and kidney diseases, and birth defects. Another
concern is the severity and frequency of storms in the region, which could damage uranium facilities and potentially wash contaminated
storm water and uranium waste into nearby water resources. In the last 40 years, nine hurricanes and countless other major storms
have deluged Virginia. In 1969, Hurricane Camille dumped 31 inches of rain on central Virginia. This April, at least 30 tornadoes
were recorded in Virginia, including one in Halifax County about 20 miles from the Coles Hill site.
Virginia Beach, which
gets its drinking water from Lake Gaston, downstream of the Coles Hill site, recently released the findings of its $437,000 study
which concluded that a catastrophic failure of a uranium waste containment structure at the site could contaminate the city’s drinking
water for as long as two years. Roughly 1.2 million people in Virginia and North Carolina rely on the Roanoke River system downstream
of the Coles Hill site for drinking water.
Mary Rafferty with the Sierra Club’s Virginia Chapter said that nine local groups
have formed around the state in recent months to campaign for keeping the ban on uranium mining in Virginia (see list below).
“I’m
fielding calls every week from concerned citizens across the state with requests for more information and for ways to get more involved.
Mining proponents think this issue will be won behind closed doors in Richmond, but the people of Virginia are demanding it
be debated in town halls and onfront porches,” said Rafferty.
“If the ban is lifted, it will be lifted statewide, which means
Virginians throughout the state could potentially be affected by uranium mining, milling and waste disposal in their communities,
or miles upstream,” said Cale Jaffe, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The coalition website is designed
to educate the public on the risks posed by lifting the ban on uranium mining, milling and waste disposal in Virginia. The site
has fact sheets and press coverage on the issue, and visitors can sign a petition in favor of the ban and join a local volunteer group.
— continued —
Municipalities and organizations in support of the ban
City of Virginia
Beach, VA
Creedmor County, NC
Floyd County, VA
Halifax County, NC
Granville County, NC
Orange County, VA
Town of Culpeper, VA
Town of Halifax,
VA
Town of Henderson, NC
Town of Hurt, VA
Town of Franklinton, NC
Town of Warrenton, NC
Vance County, NC
Warren County, NC
Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League
Buggs Island Striper Club
Dan River Basin Association
Halifax County Chamber of Commerce (VA)
Keep the Ban,
Chesapeake
UBAN, Floyd County (VA)
Keep the Ban, Norfolk
Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments
League of Individuals for the Environment,
Inc.
Martinsville-Henry County Chapter of the NAACP
Medical Society of Virginia
National Wildlife Federation
North Carolina Roanoke River
Basin Advisory Committee
North Carolina Wildlife Federation
Roanoke River Basin Association
Piedmont Environmental Council
Piedmont
Residents In Defense of the Environment
Roanoke Group of the Sierra Club
Sierra Club Keep the Ban Team, Martinsville
Sierra
Club-Virginia Chapter
Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project
Southern Environmental Law Center
Southside Concerned Citizens
Virginia
Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
Virginia Bass Federation
Virginia Conservation Network
Virginia League of Conservation Voters