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CHATHAM — Members of the Pittsylvania County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People say they are concerned about how uranium mining will affect the area’s water.
The NAACP held a forum Thursday night to address concerns about the proposed uranium mining at Coles Hill, which is about six miles northeast of Chatham.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Coy Harville and Banister District Supervisor William Pritchett, who supervises the district where the proposed mining would take place, were at the meeting to answer questions posed by about 50 members of the NAACP and other interested members of the community.
One of the biggest concerns to many of the members was the question of water testing done by Virginia Uranium Inc., both before and after the core sample drilling was done.
Some residents felt minority homeowners were left out of the water sampling process, NAACP President Willie T. Fitzgerald said. They took those concerns to Pritchett, who contacted VUI.
VUI representatives Walter Coles and Henry Hurt told residents the testing was done at four ponds, wells at the site, 15 locations in nearby creeks and tributaries, as stipulated by the permit they received from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy to do exploratory drilling.
Coles said VUI went beyond those stipulations and did an informal study of wells at homes within a mile of the site. He said VUI representatives knocked on doors and, if they received permission, tested the wells.
The printed statement VUI handed out at the meeting stated, “At the conclusion of the program, more than 80 residential wells (of about 200 in the area) had been voluntarily tested, including the wells of those minority families who had granted permission.”
Several people attending the meeting asked how they could get copies of the results of those tests, but Coles told them privacy issues left it up to the individual homeowners to decide whether to make the results public.
One resident, Deborah Lovelace, said she had obtained one of the test results, which indicated lead levels rose from 2.83 before drilling began to 17.9 afterward, making the water unsafe to drink.
“I would like to see more water testing done before any more drilling is done,” Lovelace said.
Several members of the group asked that the Board of Supervisors authorize and pay for more testing.
Harville told the crowd that if the supervisors did testing, it would have to be done to every well in the county at a cost of $1,000 to $1,500 per well, which would result in a tax increase.
He did agree to ask the Virginia Board of Health if it would look into evaluating the water testing that has been done.
Harville said he plans to wait for results of the study before making any personal decision on whether uranium mining should be allowed — a process he said will take two or three years, with many public hearings along the way.
Pritchett agreed.
“Let the study go forth so we can make a decision on what’s right and what’s wrong,” he said. “If it is harmful, I will not support it.”
• Contact Denice Thibodeau at or (434) 791-7985.
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Reader Reactions
If the water samples are not showing something that VUI wants to hide, then why is VUI hiding the test results?
There would be no invasion of privacy in releasing the results since the entities that tested the water would have assigned an ID or sample number to each sample it tested. That number would not identify the address or the individual(s) at that address. No one would be identified by name or address and no privacy invaded. Ergo, VUI’s excuse is invalid and serving as a smokescreen. What might VUI be hiding?
The public should be demanding to see those test results NOW.
Again, you did not read all the articles!!
NAACP’s invited two County Supervisors to address questions about uranium mining.
The well problem come up after people had their own wells tested before and after drilling uranium cores.
After the problem of wells, then VUI, explain the well testing and one of the guys mention his well not tested by VUI!!
Some residents,white and black people not the NAACP, felt minority homeowners were left out of the water sampling process.
If you are going to complain about events, everyone was invited to all uranium meetings!!
What does the NAACP have in common with Native Americans?.....Nothing!
I am not doubting that it is dangerous….just like the radiation from cell phones that is kept hush because of the profits…I’m just not agreeing that anyone is targeting minorities as opposed to majorites in ref to mining. I think the NAACP just likes to put its name out there to make the heavily influenced minorities think that they are doing something for them , when in fact all they do is segregate themselves from other color, which the last time I checked was racist!
That’s all!!
Gasoline,
Where are you from, do you ever read about uranium mininig?
Uranium Mining Poisons Native Americans
I have included three shocking, detailed articles outlining these unintended consequences impacting the Native Americans in South Dakota and neighboring states—in particular the Cheyenne River radiation poisoning from nearby uranium mining impacting the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=336&Itemid=65
[Vancouver] No Uranium Mining on Stolen Native Land/Free John Graham
http://mostlywater.org/vancouver_no_uranium_mining_stolen_native_landfree_john_graham
Native title applicant ready to fight uranium mine
An affiliate of Heathgate Resources, Quasar, last week lodged an application for a mining lease just north of the existing Beverley mine in the South Australian outback.
A member of the Adnyamathana community, Gillian Anderson, says she is seeking legal advice to help prevent what she describes as a devastation of sacred land.
Ms Anderson has already been taken to court for not signing a lease for an extension of Heathgate’s Beverley mine and says she will take the matter to court if necessary.
“I will fight to the end because I think it’s time we stand up and say to these companies and the SA Government that we’ve got sites, and we need our customs still here because we still practise our customs,“ she said.
Representatives of the Tuareg nomads of Niger, Native Americans and Australian aborigines told of the ravages of uranium mining on their communities.
In Niger, French company Areva has been mining uranium for more than 40 years with “no regard for the environment, people’s health, animals,“ Sidi-Amar Taoua, a Tuareg who has lived for seven years in the United States, told AFP.
“Uranium mining has impacted every area and sparked a war between the Tuareg who took up arms to defend their land, and the government, which is complicit with Areva,“ he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090228/sc_afp/usminingenergynuclearhealth_20090228052244
How in the world does uranium mining affect minorities any different than majorities? Give me a break!
Oh wait, maybe there is something for free in the midst…..
Gasoline and Yankees1,
Go Back Under your Rocks!
Uranium mining has a long history of mistreating minority homeowners or land owners.
Just do research about uranium mining.
But VUI did leave out minority homeowners.
However, everyone was invited to the meeting, race did not matter.
Our lovely county is fighting for the right to continue to have a clean environment and it is the County Supervisors job to ban uranium mining!!
HECK NO WE WON’T GLOW!!!
BAN URANIUM MINING AND MILLING!!!!
Yankees1…amen brother. Why would the NAACP even get involved in this in the first place…and who are they to question anything….who gave them any authority to even be an organization?
What would people think if there was such a thing as a Pro White organization….....oh wait a minute they would swear that was racist!!
The days of the minority playing the race card and using it everywhere are over. We now have a half black/half white president, who had to be elected by whites and blacks otherwise he wouldnt have been elected, yet the NAACP swears we still live in a racist world. So lets over populate the earth that way they have to deal with us…..I believe Martin Luther said something like that. But remember, you have to be a Pastor to get into politics…lol.
Oh well, just venting!!!
Why does everything always end up being about “race”? Does the NAACP care about the white people who will also be affected by this? NO they do not. So, once again, they are going to start talking about “race”. This will affect many, many people. Come on now, this thing does not know the color of ones skin. It does not discriminate. So WHY does the NAACP have to bring up the “poor little black people”. And by the way, the blacks are no longer the “minority” in the Danville area. Have you been out in public lately?
Mr. Harville, maybe you should consider having the company that is contaminating the water pay for the samples and not taxing the people who will be contaminated, it seems these people will have to come up with money for drinking water as it is, or is the county going to add an additional tax to bottled water, hey thats an idea the county needs extra money doesn’t it????
Water contamination should certainly be a concern, especially when you look at one of the stories out of Australia this week about the Ranger mine (the one proponents put on a pedestal as a shining example of how uranium is mined ‘safely’ across the globe):
Polluted water leaking into Kakadu from uranium mine
BY Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin
March 12, 2009
The Ranger uranium mine inside the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park is leaking 100,000 litres of contaminated water into the ground beneath the park every day, a Government appointed scientist has revealed.
Alan Hughes, the Commonwealth supervising scientist appointed to monitor the mine’s environmental impact, confirmed at a Senate committee hearing that about 100 cubic metres a day — the equivalent of 100,000 litres or three petrol tankers — of contaminant were leaking from the mine’s tailings dam into rock fissures beneath Kakadu.
There have been more than 150 leaks, spills and licence breaches at the Ranger uranium mine since it opened in 1981.
The mine’s owner, Energy Resources of Australia, has been repeatedly warned about its management of the mine, with a previous government-appointed scientist declaring in 2004 that ERA was “complacent” about protecting workers and people living near the mine.
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