Learn more:
Uranium Mining in Virginia - Fact Sheet
Uranium Mining - A Risky Experiment
Uranium Mining in Virginia - Legal Backgrounder
>> Click here for a full length article by former SELC senior attorney Kay Slaughter, published in the "Virginia Environmental Law Journal."
>> Click here for a letter of dissent from a member of the 1985 "Uranium Administrative Group" objecting to the group's recommendation to allow uranium mining
Virginia currently has no regulatory program for uranium mining, milling or waste disposal associated with those activities. Virginia's current moratorium (in place since 1982) can be lifted only if the General Assembly enacts enabling legislation to allow for development of such regulations. Virginia does allow exploration of uranium by permit from the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.
Who regulates uranium mining and milling?
- In situ leach mining is the only mining method regulated by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Underground and open pit mining are regulated by the states.
- Under the federal Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act, the NRC regulates uranium milling (the process of extracting uranium from mined ore) and mill tailings (the radioactive wastes produced by the milling process).
-- NRC requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for any proposed mill, under the National Environmental Policy Act.
-- If Virginia were to lift its moratorium and developed NRC-equivalent regulations, it could apply for "Agreement State" status.
-- An Agreement State replaces NRC as regulator of uranium mills and waste. Agreement States are not required to conduct an EIS for mining activities.
-- Existing Agreement States such as Arizona, Utah and New Mexico have experienced severe problems with environmental impacts from mining.
- Under the federal Clean Water Act, a mining company would be required to get a stormwater permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to control rainwater runoff from the site.
What are some potential impacts of mining and milling uranium in Virginia?
- Pollution of groundwater and surface waters from waste rock and ore, including acid drainage, tailings impoundments and other substances in drilling wastes, brines, solvents, etc., used in the extraction or processing of ore.
- Virginia would be the first state east of the Mississippi to allow mining. Virginia has significantly higher precipitation rates, more extreme weather events, including hurricanes, higher groundwater levels, larger watersheds of interconnected streams and rivers, and greater populations living in relative proximity than sites in western U.S. or Canada where uranium has been mined.
- The impact of significant storm events on uranium mining is one of the concerns yet to be adequately addressed.
-- In August 2004, Tropical Storm Gaston dropped 14 inches of rain across Central Virginia over a few hours, causing major flooding in low-lying areas. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, areas near the James River in Richmond had as much as 6 to 8 feet of standing water.
-- During 1996 Hurricane Fran flooded areas near Coles Hill, Pittsylvania County, the site of the current proposal to mine uranium in Virginia. Local citizens recorded the event with video, including flooding downstream from Coles Hill that reached to top of fence posts, washed out bridges and inundation of Frith's Field, a possible mill and tailings disposal area.
- Polluted substances in the air and dust caused by extraction.
- Radon from underground mines, drill holes, surface extraction and processing operations.
- Migration of radionuclides and soil disturbances due to loss of vegetative cover.
- If Coles Hill produces 25 to 109 million pounds of uranium, according to industry measures, it will generate 15 to 65 million cubic yards of waste material. This would translate into a volume equivalent to 75 to 325 SuperWal-Marts (each having a volume of 200,000 cubic yards).
- If the moratorium on uranium mining were lifted, the impacts would not be confined to Coles Hill. Without a moratorium, uranium mining and milling could occur statewide. In the 1980s, exploratory leases were obtained for many sites in the Northern and Central Piedmont of Virginia.