Dan River Region lawmakers want to push uranium debate to 2013

Because there are still unknowns about uranium mining in Virginia, local lawmakers would like a way to get more answers.

A key question is how exactly to move forward. Delegate Don Merricks of Pittsylvania County plans to introduce a bill to ensure that lifting the state’s moratorium — if it happens at all — doesn’t come first.

The National Academy of Sciences study released Monday presented the health and environmental risks from uranium operations and ways of mitigating some of those risks. But lawmakers continued to question exactly what would happen at Virginia Uranium Inc.’s proposed Coles Hill site in Pittsylvania County, and how those risks would be mitigated.

NAS uranium study chair Paul Locke told members of the uranium mining subcommittee of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission on Monday in Richmond that many of their questions would need to be answered by site-specific studies. The NAS panel’s charge, as determined by the Coal and Energy Commission, was limited to a statewide nature.

While lawmakers and the public would like a defined mining plan, Virginia Uranium says it is waiting on state regulations to know how to plan according to the rules, and that a regulatory licensing process would require site-specific assessments.

But lawmakers like Merricks, who still needs to be convinced that uranium mining would be safe, don’t want to decide on allowing uranium mining without knowing that site-specific information.

Subcommittee member Onzlee Ware said he would like to know what the state’s regulations would be to assess how risks would be mitigated, but added regulation-writing requires studying the site. He said it would be difficult to get those site studies without lifting the moratorium.

Ware said he hasn’t taken a stance on whether to allow uranium mining, but he believes it warrants a look, as jobs and revenue from the project could help economically depressed Southside.

“This is a question each individual legislator is going to have to answer for themselves,” Ware said.

Merricks and Delegate Danny Marshall of Danville disagree that lifting the moratorium would be necessary to draft regulations or study the site. They are pushing the General Assembly to wait until 2013 to debate lifting the moratorium to give time for the public and lawmakers to digest the NAS report and other uranium studies.

“We almost have an information overload, to be honest with you,” Merricks said.

Merricks said he plans to introduce a bill that ensures a moratorium stays in place until regulations are approved. The bill would not ask to start regulation-writing.

Marshall and Merricks also want to see the mining plan before voting on lifting the moratorium.

“What happens when we go that route, and the mining plan isn’t up to where we think? Then what do we do?” Marshall asked.

“How can you vote to allow something if you don’t know what they’re going to be doing?” Merricks asked.