Business leaders, legislators worry about uranium mining's impact

Businessmen, hospital administrators and Southside Virginia legislators said they’re worried uranium mining could hurt efforts to rebuild the region’s economy.

Halifax County hospital executive Chris Lumsden said a scientific study of a uranium deposit near Chatham indicates “ill health and death will be a byproduct of uranium mining.”

Lumsden and other Southside leaders spoke at a state capitol news conference they organized to express opposition to mining the Coles Hill uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County.

Several scientific and economic reports on the estimated $7 billion deposit have been submitted the past three months to a General Assembly committee reviewing Virginia’s moratorium on mining.

Ben Davenport, chairman of the First Piedmont banking group said lawmakers should take another year to review the reports, and Gov. Bob McDonnell should appoint a panel to summarize them.

Patrick Wales, project manager for Virginia Uranium, which wants to mine the estimated $7 billion deposit, said the company hopes Virginia will write “robust regulations for uranium mining that ensure the protection of public health and the environment, including air and water quality.”

Everyone who spoke at the news conference operates their business under state-written regulations, Wales said afterward, adding Virginia should write a set of rules for uranium mining.

 “Currently, the only way to determine these standards and whether they can be met is by instructing the state agencies to develop regulations,” he said.

 State Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Clarksville, who represents nearly a dozen Southside counties and Danville, told the news conference that while some studies show mining would create jobs in the region, other employers might leave or decide not to move to Southside.

 “International companies and national companies that are focusing on Southern Virginia at this time may decide that uranium mining is the one factor that makes it more attractive for them to be in North Carolina or South Carolina or Tennessee,” Ruff said.

 Lumsden hit the same theme as Ruff, saying the presence of a uranium mine would make it harder for his hospital to recruit young doctors and health professionals.

  “These adverse health effects involving contaminated water, soil and air are facts. They are not speculation,” Lumsden said at the news conference, which was attended by a few doctors and 16 medical students from Danville Regional Hospital. All of them wore white coats for a day of lobbying in the General Assembly.

 Legislators who participated in the news conference in addition to Ruff, were: Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Moneta; Del. Danny Marshall, R-Danville; Del. Don Merricks, R-Chatham; Del. James Edmunds, R-Halifax; and Del. Tommy Wright, R-Victoria.

 Other participants included: Andrew Lester; John Cannon of Halifax County; Ted Bennett of Halifax County; Jessie Barksdale of Pittsylvania County.

 Another participant was Tom Leahy, director of public utilities for Virginia Beach, which draws water from the Roanoke River downstream of the Coles Hill site — as does five other localities including Halifax.

 Leahy said Virginia Beach hired an engineering firm to analyze what affect a major storm of up to 30 inches of rain in a few hours could have on mine waste being flushed into the river.

 “Our model does show the consequences to water-supply intakes of such an event would be very great,” Leahy said. “For Halifax in particular, the model shows it would have tremendous issues for many years.”