Staying informed key to safeguarding water, experts say

Sooner or later, uranium mining issues are always about the water, one hydrogeologist said.

And the key to safeguarding local water is prevention, as restoration is hard, said Robert Moran, a water quality and geochemical expert who spent more than 39 years working with investors, industry, government agencies and community groups.

“There’s nothing more valuable than water even if it does not have monetary price,” added Paul Robinson, an environmental expert and research director of the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, N.M.

Both advised attendees of the Roanoke River Basin Association Board meeting on Saturday on the need for stringent regulations and enforcement if Virginia lifts its moratorium on uranium mining.

Robinson, a Harrisonburg native, addressed the General Assembly before it adopted the moratorium in 1982. The Code of Virginia states that the state shall not accept any uranium mining permit applications “until a program for permitting uranium mining is established by statute.”

Robinson hopes that such a program would be robust, well-funded and established — not just authorized — before the moratorium is lifted. Typically, licensing and permit fees fund monitoring, but the state would have to put money into enforcement in case of violations, he added.

He would also like to see the state collect water samples and not just rely on industry self-monitoring.

Attendee and Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, said he would want a full-scale program before the moratorium is lifted, and that establishing such a program would take years, not one session. Marshall said he plans to push the General Assembly not to consider any uranium bill until 2013.

“I’ve never seen a mining site, modern or old, that didn’t have serious impacts,” Moran said.

Moran leaves it up to the community to make its own decision on whether to mine, but said, either way, people need to get informed and ask to see real-world data and not presentations or computer model analyses.

On that note, the Coles Hill site, where Virginia Uranium Inc. would like to mine and mill uranium, was studied extensively three decades ago, he said. At that time, Moran worked for a contractor who did water work for Marline Uranium and Union Carbide, which were developing the uranium project.

While radiation is oft-talked about, uranium is a toxic heavy metal that when ingested can cause kidney damage, he said.

Additionally, a Marline report shows that the Coles Hill deposit has the presence of other heavy metals, like radium, thorium, strontium, vanadium, copper, lead, mercury and even rare elements, Moran said.

Residents need to think about the site’s wastewater discharge, especially given not all elements have EPA standards, he added. Additionally, the operations will use processing chemicals and mining itself leaves behind explosive residues, like ammonia, which dissolved, can be harmful to fish, Moran said.

VUI project manager Patrick Wales, who added Moran wasn’t a lead on any Marline studies, said the Coles Hill site, compared to other uranium deposits, is unique in that it’s considered “mono-mineralic,” or that uranium is the only metal of significance. Any soil or rock would have “measurable” amounts of different elements, but not “appreciable.”

Even so, the Coles Hill site isn’t as concentrated in uranium as Canadian uranium sites, which could see 200,000 parts per million, as on average the local deposit is 600 parts per million, he added. Because they’re in the uranium decay series, the site has radium and thorium, but in lesser amounts than the uranium.

According to a recent VUI presentation, the site would require 110 million gallons per year and would have a water treatment plant with a capacity of 158 million gallons a year.  The plant would return water to drinking water standards, Wales said.