Feb 2 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Laurence Hammack The Roanoke Times, Va.


A proposal to mine uranium could contaminate drinking water from the Roanoke River, an environmental group warned Monday as it placed the river basin on a top 10 list of endangered areas in the South.

The Southern Environmental Law Center is concerned about a push to mine uranium in Pittsylvania County, and the possibility of similar projects in the Piedmont region of Virginia.

Although uranium mining is currently banned in Virginia because of environmental concerns, the General Assembly has asked for a study of the topic by the National Academy of Sciences.

The study -- which is not expected to be completed until at least next year -- comes as Virginia Uranium Inc. is expressing interest in mining a vast uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County that is believed to be the country's largest.

 "The [uranium] mining that has taken place in the United States, largely in the arid Southwest, has some pretty big horror stories associated with it," said Jeff Gleason, the law center's deputy director.

The fear is that in the more lush and rainy setting of southern Virginia, radioactive waste unearthed by mining could more easily find its way into streams and leach into groundwater.

Millions of people draw their drinking water from the Roanoke River and the Dan River downstream, which is also included on the center's endangered list. Mining for uranium would pose the greatest risk to the heavily populated areas of Virginia Beach and Norfolk and smaller communities in northeastern North Carolina, the Southern Environmental Law Center said.

The Roanoke Valley, which is upstream of the proposed mining, would not be directly affected.

In Pittsylvania County, developers of alternative energy sources want to tap a deposit that is estimated to hold 119 million pounds of uranium, with a value estimated at $7 billion to $10 billion.

Elsewhere in Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay also made the center's list of the most endangered areas in the South. The southern Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and Tennessee, where mountaintop removal for coal mining is a controversial issue, were also included.

Areas on this year's list share common themes: uncontrolled growth, flawed energy policy and lax environmental enforcement, especially in regard to the heavy reliance on coal to produce electricity, the SELC contends.

If viewed as a separate country, the six states covered by the Southern Environmental Law Center -- Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia -- would rank seventh in the world for carbon dioxide emissions.

"As ice melts and sea levels rise, it's the South's low-lying coastal zone that will be the hardest hit," Gleason said. "We hope that our Top 10 list will serve as a wake-up call -- a powerful reminder of what we stand to lose."

Online: www.southernenvironment.org/topten_2010

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