Worst-case spill study released by Virginia Beach

Drinking water systems upstream of Kerr Reservoir (Buggs Island Lake) would be more significantly impacted than those downstream in the event of a worst-case storm and tailings release from a potential uranium mill site in Pittsylvania County, according to a Virginia Beach-commissioned study.

Thomas Leahy, director of public utilities for Virginia Beach, summarized the preliminary findings of the $437,000 study for the Virginia Beach City Council during a work session Tuesday night. The Danville Register & Bee watched the presentation remotely from a webcast.

The study simulates the effects of a disaster where the waste byproduct of uranium milling — radioactive tailings — would be released from containment cells.  It does not address if there would be such a disaster.

 Leahy told council members such an event would be rare, but disasters do happen, like with the BP oil spill.

If tailings or contamination entered the water system through the region’s rivers on to Kerr Reservoir and then Lake Gaston, which supplies Virginia Beach’s drinking water, it would take between two months to two years to completely flush the dissolved radioactive contaminants out of Gaston, Leahy said. For a period of months, the radioactivity in the water would be many times greater than what’s allowed by the Safe Water Drinking Act.

Additionally, there would be radioactive sedimentary contamination, which would settle on the riverbed and would be trapped by Kerr Reservoir, the study summary stated. That’s why environmental and water quality impacts upstream of Kerr Dam would be greater and longer lasting.

The sediments would also be prone to re-suspension during large flows or flood events.

The study performed by engineering firm Michael Baker Corp. incorporated assumptions about the characteristics of the tailings, radioactivity levels and containment cell dam heights. The study did not model Lake Gaston, but assumed similar impacts as Kerr Reservoir is 93 percent of Gaston’s inflow.

The study also modeled Kerr Reservoir as a one-dimensional channel, or river, as opposed to a lake. This is a common practice for this level of modeling, but would have implications for long-term results, the study summary stated.

Because of the assumptions and limitations, Leahy recommended further investigations, possibly with information from Virginia Uranium Inc. — the company that would like to mine and mill a 119-million-pound uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County.

The model does show that the region’s hydrology is adequate to move contamination downstream, Leahy said. Leahy suggested possibly investigating the capacity of water treatment plants to remove contamination.

“This doesn’t surprise us at all,” said Executive Director Andrew Lester of the Roanoke River Basin Association, who attended the presentation.

“It doesn’t look good for the area if uranium mining occurs and some of these scenarios occur,” Lester said, adding North Carolina residents should also be concerned.

Extreme weather events and flooding are likely in the region, he said, adding that flooding problems led to the founding of the Roanoke River Basin Association.

VUI criticized the basis of the study and its assumptions.

“I would characterize this as a very expensive exercise in fantasy,” said Patrick Wales, project manager for VUI. “It’s making an unreal assumption that a failure of this magnitude would occur.”

Because the report isn’t out yet, the assumptions are unclear, including how the tailings specifically would leave the containment facility and enter the Banister River, as the river doesn’t flow through the VUI’s proposed containment site, Wales said.

VUI would have to model effects on its tailings management facility to show the Nuclear Regulatory Commission it could withstand extreme weather events, he added. The study didn’t take into account those stringent standards and regulations, Wales said.

Wales also questioned why Virginia Beach paid for a study that didn’t study its water source, Lake Gaston. Wales said the study only completed two-thirds of the journey.

VUI would work with Virginia Beach for its studies and would have been happy to provide information for this one, Wales said.

Complete results of the study will be available on Friday at the Virginia Beach Department of Public Utilities website at www.vbgov.com/pu, according to a city news release.

Leahy will also present the results to the uranium mining study committee of the National Academy of Sciences at a meeting in Richmond on Feb. 7.

Bozick reports for the Danville Register & Bee.