RRBA report provides more evidence that Virginia regulators won’t effectively regulate u-mining

Research Director for Southwest Research and Information Center, Paul Robinson, helped confirm what many advocates for a uranium-mining free Virginia have long argued: the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) won’t adequately be able to “develop, promulgate, and satisfactorily enforce regulations regarding uranium mining in Virginia.”

On Monday, the Roanoke River Basin Association (RRBA) announced the release of the “Review of Records of Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy Uranium Exploration Permit 90484EX Issued to Virginia Uranium, Inc.,” and while the name might be long the information it contains is well worth the effort of reading.

As part of its press release, RRBA President Gene Addesso said the following, “Uranium mining proponents claim that DMME is capable of protecting the water resources related to mining operations.  However, this report tells us that DMME had the opportunity to protect the public interest during exploratory drilling at Coles Hill, and they failed to provide effective oversight.  This leads us to question how DMME could be expected to take on the regulatory responsibility of large scale uranium mining on thousands of acres in the headwaters of the Banister River.”

Indeed, as a first step towards even thinking about lifting the moratorium on uranium mining in the state, legislators and state officials have to demonstrate through concrete actions (e.g., hiring on additional regulators under the DMME) and long-term planning that Virginia’s government is serious about protecting the well-being of Virginians and our environment. But according to the report, the DMME has already failed a test of its ability and political will to effectively oversee uranium mining.

In response, state political figures, representatives of uranium mining companies, and state officials alike will no doubt call this outcome a fluke or swear that the problems (to the extent that any problems are acknowledged) will be fixed by the time uranium mining comes online in Virginia.

Virginia, let alone the rest of the country, has seen enough of these falsehoods and wishful forms of thought, however. We know that the government is too complacent and too buddy-buddy with their friends in Big Energy to take the political steps necessary to ensure that companies like Virginia Uranium Inc. follow the spirit and the letter of Virginia’s law.

Pro-uranium ore diggers can’t have uranium mining in Virginia because you’ve had your chance and you’ve failed time and again to assure Virginians that the law of the land and the interests of Virginians is your first and foremost priority.