What would heavy rains do to uranium operations?
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Heavy rains from Ida last week left standing water less than two miles from Coles Hill. Submitted photo
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Heavy rains from Ida last week left standing water less than two miles from Coles Hill. Submitted photo
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Heavy rains from Ida last week left standing water less than two miles from Coles Hill. Submitted photo
By JOHN R. CRANE
(434) 791-7987
Uranium mining opponents say flooding like the type that occurred in Pittsylvania County last week would pollute the water supply if uranium mining and milling take place at Coles Hill.
But officials at Virginia Uranium Inc., who want to mine and mill a massive ore deposit at Coles Hill near Chatham, say tailings management would ensure an environmentally-friendly operation there.
“This will be done in a safe and sustainable manner,” said Patrick Wales, geologist and spokesman with VUI.
VUI hopes to mine and mill a 119 million-pound uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill, about six miles northeast of Chatham. The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is considering whether to conduct a study to determine whether mining and milling can be done safely in Virginia.
The study, if approved, would take about 18 months. Jennifer Walsh, NAS spokeswoman, said Tuesday the agency has no comment on the matter.
“They’re still working out the scope of the study,” Walsh said.
Last week, Pittsylvania County officials declared a state of emergency after heavy rains and flooding forced the closure of dozens of roads, including parts of Coles Road — which bisects the VUI project area.
Jack Dunavant, head of Halifax-based Southside Concerned Citizens, which opposes uranium mining, said alpha radiation from tailings, which contain 86 percent of the radiation found in natural uranium, would be washed downstream in a flood and be deposited in fertile low lands where animals graze and crops grow.
“All the animals would be subject to it,” Dunavant said.
Alpha radiation is “the most insidious and dangerous of all” types of radiation that causes birth defects and affects the genetic code, Dunavant said. It can be ingested when consumed in food, drank from water or breathed from mist while a person takes a shower, he said.
VUI would build a tailings-management system meeting stringent guidelines under the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and other agencies, Wales said.
Tailings-management facilities have separated the tailings from interaction with the environment at locations all over the world, Wales said. Tailings are typically covered and lined underground with multiple layers of synthetic and clay liners to prevent interaction with surrounding groundwater, Wales said.
“These facilities are designed for severe weather,” Wales said.
A few feet of water can also be kept on top of the tailings to prevent dust.
Area farmers have built primitive ponds to successfully contain water with no government oversight, Wales said. In addition, rains have occurred for hundreds of millions of years and VUI’s operation would not increase the amount of radiation already in the rock, Wales said.
Wales said VUI will select its tailings-management method based on regulations under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“At this point, we’re a few years…from having a specific, finalized design,” Wales said.
Walter Coles, Sr., VUI chairman, said the operation would have a water-treatment plant similar to that of a municipal facility, treating the water before sending it back into the system. Also, flooding that took place last week occurred downstream from Coles Hill, Coles said.
Karen Maute, a county resident and uranium mining opponent, said last week’s flooding should “give pause” to people downstream and give notice to everyone of the consequences of the long-term storage of waste.
Mining and milling will be a finite operation, but the resulting waste will be around for thousands of years, she said.
Crane is a staff writer with the Danville Register & Bee.
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Reader Reactions
This was not just a little bit of water!
The flash flooding happens mostly at night and it was a lot higher than the pictures.
Plus, uranium mining will be all over the county, Virginia and the Bannister River in Tightsqueeze was flooding the industrial park, only with 5-6 inches of rain!
As far as the study, it is not an independent study when the uranium corporation is passing out money to all the senators and representatives in Virginia.
Just my thoughts!
How you ever watched the video “Hard Rain”?
Did you see Cherry Stone Creek on Rt 29 flood in Pitts. County?
Again, the people fighting uranium mining are not being paid, they just love their land and homes and uranium mining will ruin this area!
Comment: Yes to Wind Power and Solar Power! No to Nuke Power! How much does it cost to decommission a Wind Mill or Solar Panels, not as much as a nuke plant!
acethecat: SouthsideCentral is not a news agency. It’s my blog written by me and totally my opinion.
There are no facts on this potential uranium mining. Time, terrain & technology mean that we have to have an objective study on whether it can be done safely here.
A flooded roadway or a field with standing water can not be logically correlated with a potential environmental disaster. That is the exact kind of “scare tactics” that I was talking about.
I’m not in favor of uranium mining. I’m in favor of an independent study that will tell if uranium mining can be done safely.
Well, one thing that might be wrong with that “coastal Virginia” seawater replacing contaminated water for Virginia Breach would be the fact that the Roanoke River runs into the Albemarle Sound which adjoins the Atlantic Ocean. So, over time, the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina probably would be contaminated too.
The VA Beach can take care of itself, they have enough money!
What about the poor families along the Bannister River who going to take care of their water supplies, the county and the state of VA does not have the money for well protection!
I guess the State of VA can tell the people in Halifax, don’t drink your water today, the tailing ponds are flooding!
The state of VA can phone North Carolina and say, by the way, the hurricane dump 27 inches into the Roanoke River basin and flooded the uranium pits and the tailing ponds are flooding, hey Raleigh, Roanoke Rapids and coastal plains of Down East NC, don’t drink your water, do not eat the fish and tell the flounders in the ocean, they should hold off eating the glowing stuff in the water!
Just look at the facts on the listed in the other Comments by ACE!
Since the concern here seems to be the fresh water supply to Virginia Beach, let’s solve that issue. In Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (and possibly more mideast countries) for years they have supplied much of their drinking water through the use of desalination plants. Without getting all wrapped up in the technology, that is basically taking seawater, extracting the salt and other impurities out of it, and making it fit for human consumption. If this issue is such a “national security threat” I would think that coastal Virginia could use some of those Obamabucks from the stimulus package to invest in the construction of several of these plants to support that population. It’s not like they don’t have plenty of salt water supply. This would solve this “concern” over polluting these water sources during a flood.
There, a solution to a problem…..if there really is a problem.
I love people to call facts scare tactics and make comments like the people will not learn!
What makes SouthCentral so one sided, as a news agency, you need to stop spinning and give us facts about uranium mining!
The so call Wales facts are weak and theory about the linings, there are no open pit mining in the US!
Who controls the sludge ponds that Coal Corporation has, no one, not EPA, it is an unregulated procedure!
There are open uranium mining in Canada and Australia, just look at the links with problems of flooding in Aussie and the links of the uranium mining tailing ponds (or by the way, a lot the mining companies are Canadian, therefore, modern uranium mining):
Probe into uranium mine leak continues
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/20/2719474.htm
Waste leak site clean: BHP Billiton
Uranium mine water leak concerning, govt says
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/15/2516584.htm
Uranium mine water leaking into Kakadu
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/13/2515907.htm
Cloncurry creek ‘caustic’ after mine leak
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/21/2576607.htm
Green group says Govt knew of radioactive leak
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/24/2524910.htm
Rio Tinto investigates chemical leak
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/20/2719474.htm
Crackdown targets mine water management
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/18/2745933.htm
Toxic clean up to start at Caves Creek mine
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/27/2581834.htm
Mine sale to fund creek clean-up
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/11/2566029.htm
Govt warns of Ensham Mine water release
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/07/2461046.htm
This is just a few, a lot more in the paper!
The above is facts plus a lot of mining corporations are fine if caught for failing to obey mining laws.
Will post if needed!
My apologies for overlooking the site address for this article from the newspaper:
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/columnists_news/article/JEFF05_20090404-220007/249158/
Also, I have no idea how the first sentence of the second paragraph of my posting became so mixed up. Just ignore that sentence fragment.
And, please, do not allow Mr. Bouchard’s expertise to influence your views.
Here are my facts.
The following article was abstracted from the on-line edition of the Richmond, Va.,newspaper and is my source for the comments on uranium mining in Pittsylvania County being a threat to National security.
THE POLITICS OF MINING URANIUM
JEFF E. SCHAPIRO, RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Published: April 5, 2009
As a former commander of Norfolk Naval Base and a nuclear weapons officer who worked on Russian atomic secrets at the National Security Council, Joe Bouchard knows something about uranium.
enviromental environmental and
As a Ph.D. and Democratic delegate from Virginia Beach who works on environmental and scientific issues on two important House committees, Bouchard also knows something about the politics of uranium.
Bouchard is a skeptic on a proposed uranium mine in Pittsylvania County that foes fear will, among other things, poison the water supply of Virginia Beach, about 100 miles downstream. He favors a study of the proposal but insists it be free of influence by either side.
That Virginia’s government, because of the right-to-work law and sky’s-the-limit political contributions, is gamed for big business is old news.
So, too, is the occasional result: Virginia can be an inattentive steward of the environment. A reminder these days is the slow suffocation of the Chesapeake Bay.
In his presentation, Bouchard touches on environmental and safety concerns, including disposal of radioactive detritus and the peril to water pumped through a pipeline from Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach.
But the health-and-environmental argument that is dismissed as the preoccupation of greens in jeans plays into an issue that perhaps only a Joe Bouchard, a man schooled in war and peace, could appreciate.
The water that originates in Lake Gaston slakes the thirst of sailors, Marines and their families at bases across South Hampton Roads. Bouchard’s command from 2000-03, the Norfolk Naval Base, is home to 65,000.
Should harm come to the water supply, that “would be a severe threat to national security,“ says Bouchard.
And so another front opens in the battle over uranium mining.
You don’t have to worry about facts when you use scare tactics against the people that won’t learn.
Making this situation a national security issue is a real stretch. What these pictures prove is that heavy rain causes localized flooding. The people who run these type of mines are well aware of and prepared for that risk. I mean, come on, this is not junior varsity stuff here. These guys are pros. The concern expressed here is completely unwarranted.
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