Posted: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 2:27 pm
Del. James E. Edmunds II/House of Delegates, 60th District
In the second week of the General Assembly session, the pace quickened. I would like to report on several items of interest that occurred last week.
Last week, I mentioned the prospect of a bill being introduced to lift the 30-year ban on uranium mining in Virginia.
This week, I participated in a press conference on Wednesday with senators Frank Ruff and Bill Stanley and delegates Don Merricks, Danny Marshall and Tommy Wright, calling for Gov. McDonnell to direct that no action be taken on lifting this ban during the 2012 session.
Also speaking at this press conference were local business and industry leaders Chris Lumsden of Halifax Regional Health System, Ben Davenport of First Piedmont Corp. in Chatham, Charlie Majors from American National Bank in Danville and Tom Leahy, public utilities director from Virginia Beach. All of these diverse parties share grave concerns over the prospect of the detrimental effects that uranium mining in Pittsylvania County would have on the rest of the state.
As a result, on Thursday Gov. McDonnell called for the establishment of a Uranium Working Group composed of staff from the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, Department of Environmental Quality and Virginia Department of Health "to provide a scientific policy analysis to help the General Assembly assess whether the moratorium on uranium mining in the commonwealth should be lifted, and if so, how best to do so."
I am pleased that the governor had the foresight to recognize that there were far too many questions rather than answers after the release of the NAS study. My opinion is that allowing uranium to be mined in Southside will adversely affect all future economic development efforts and place a stigma on our area due to the health risks associated with it. We must continue to work hard as a region to insure the ban is not lifted.
I want to personally thank the members of the Virginia Coalition and the Alliance for Progress in Southern Virginia for their hard work on this issue.
Read more:
http://www.wpcva.com/altavista/opinion/article_ef3a7db2-478a-11e1-8caa-001871e3ce6c.html
Del. James E. Edmunds II/House of Delegates, 60th District
In the second week of the General Assembly session, the pace quickened. I would like to report on several items of interest that occurred last week.
Last week, I mentioned the prospect of a bill being introduced to lift the 30-year ban on uranium mining in Virginia.
This week, I participated in a press conference on Wednesday with senators Frank Ruff and Bill Stanley and delegates Don Merricks, Danny Marshall and Tommy Wright, calling for Gov. McDonnell to direct that no action be taken on lifting this ban during the 2012 session.
Also speaking at this press conference were local business and industry leaders Chris Lumsden of Halifax Regional Health System, Ben Davenport of First Piedmont Corp. in Chatham, Charlie Majors from American National Bank in Danville and Tom Leahy, public utilities director from Virginia Beach. All of these diverse parties share grave concerns over the prospect of the detrimental effects that uranium mining in Pittsylvania County would have on the rest of the state.
As a result, on Thursday Gov. McDonnell called for the establishment of a Uranium Working Group composed of staff from the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, Department of Environmental Quality and Virginia Department of Health "to provide a scientific policy analysis to help the General Assembly assess whether the moratorium on uranium mining in the commonwealth should be lifted, and if so, how best to do so."
I am pleased that the governor had the foresight to recognize that there were far too many questions rather than answers after the release of the NAS study. My opinion is that allowing uranium to be mined in Southside will adversely affect all future economic development efforts and place a stigma on our area due to the health risks associated with it. We must continue to work hard as a region to insure the ban is not lifted.
I want to personally thank the members of the Virginia Coalition and the Alliance for Progress in Southern Virginia for their hard work on this issue.
Read more:
http://www.wpcva.com/altavista/opinion/article_ef3a7db2-478a-11e1-8caa-001871e3ce6c.html
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