Support Grows to Maintain Virginia’s Longstanding Uranium Ban

Controversial efforts to lift Virginia’s 30-year ban on uranium mining have met with growing opposition in recent days as leading legislators, municipalities and utilities, and newspapers have taken stances in support of the ban.

In the past two weeks, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and State Senator Mark Herring, a candidate for Attorney General, were the latest legislators to announce their opposition to lifting the ban; Fairfax Water, Virginia’s largest water utility, passed a resolution opposing uranium mining and North Carolina’s Environmental Review Commission sent a letter to Governor McDonnell expressing concern about adverse impacts if the ban was overturned; and The Virginian-Pilot and Roanoke Times published editorials in support of maintaining the ban.

These are the latest voices to join over 40 local governments, more than 16,000 citizens who delivered a petition to the Governor, and groups such as the Virginia Farm Bureau, Virginia Municipal League, and the Virginian Association of Counties in opposing efforts to lift the ban on uranium mining.

“All across Virginia, we’re seeing legislators from both sides of the aisle and organizations representing diverse interests on everything from farming to Southside economic development reach the same conclusion: The risks of uranium mining on Virginia’s public, environmental, and economic health are far too great to lift this ban,” said Cale Jaffe, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Additional information about Virginia’s ban on uranium mining and the organizations fighting to preserve it is available at www.KeepTheBan.org.