Uranium Mining – The Virginia Battleground – Environmental Concerns vs. Corporate Interests

The Virginia General Assembly is expected to vote next year on whether to lift a 30-year moratorium on uranium mining in the state.  The issue has prompted an expensive lobbying campaign by the company that wants to mine a huge deposit known as Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County and an intense fight by environmentalists who want to stop it. The battle has pitted neighbor against neighbor in the county, in south central Virginia, an area known as Southside.

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Two Virginians, each offered money to allow uranium mining on their land, personify the debate that is raging through the state. One accepted. The other declined.

Connie Crider, a housewife, lives with her husband in Pittsylvania County, close to 119 million pounds of uranium ore, the largest deposit in the country and one of the largest in the world. Its worth has been estimated at $10 billion.

She is a neighbor of Walter Coles Sr., president of Virginia Uranium, Inc., which wants to mine the deposit. Crider and her husband have agreed to allow the company to mine on their property and plan to sell their home to it. They have already bought a new house a couple of miles away.

Crider says she took college classes in Richmond "that explained a lot of stuff about uranium." She is not worried about pollution or health risks and is convinced that mining can be done safely. Considering the depressed economy in Pittsylvania County, she says she is heartened by the jobs the mine will offer. The average pay will be $65,000 a year, according to the company, and annual pay will range from $39,000 to $163,000.

Article continues: http://www.dcbureau.org/201111186500/natural-resources-news-service/uranium-mining-%E2%80%93-the-virginia-battleground-%E2%80%93-environmental-concerns-vs-corporate-interests.html

^{Image shows a uranium mine in Australia. Image credit: John Carnemolla/Shutterstock}