(Posted in the Sierra Club’s newsletter, the Old Dominion Sierran, in fall 2013.)
Earlier this month, reports revealed that Virginia Uranium, Inc., the company responsible for unrelenting efforts to lift our state’s 30-year ban on uranium mining, spent $572,607 lobbying Virginia officials last year – the most of any group in Virginia, and as much as the next two top spenders, Dominion Power and Altria, combined. And this doesn’t include hundreds of thousands more in sponsorships to Southside Virginia Little League teams and paid interns standing outside businesses with misleading petitions promising jobs.
All that cash, despite the fact that this summer, uranium prices have spiraled to a seven-year low of about $35 per pound – lower than the $45 per pound price used to predict an $11 billion loss statewide under a worst-case scenario of uranium mining in an analysis authorized by the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission. Potential water contamination with radioactive materials from mining could also cripple downstream communities – including Southside’s $360 million and Virginia Beach’s $1.3 billion tourism industries that are reliant on clean water.
Sierra Club, through the Keep the Ban coalition, has continued to counter VUI’s dirty money with powerful citizen voices hailing from the Blue Ridge to the beach. We’ve traversed the state, collecting thousands of petition signatures, drumming up support of local businesses, and churning out letters to the editor.
In July, we worked with the Southside organization We the People of Virginia to turn out hundreds to a screening of a new documentary, Hot Water (www.zerohotwater.com), which portrays the harrowing stories of citizens across the country whose families have been decimated by cancer in the aftermath of uranium mining. Filmmaker Liz Rogers was so inspired by the fervor in those fighting to protect Virginia that she brought along her film crew to capture a segment that will be inserted into the film and screened around the state later this fall.
This month, Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms joins us at an event to reinvigorate our efforts in South Hampton Roads, where the risk of water contamination is so great that each city has passed a resolution supporting the ban. As VUI continues to exert pressure on the governor to create a regulatory framework for mining, we are solidly cementing the support of our allies for the battle ahead.
If you haven’t already, please give Governor McDonnell a call at 804-786-2211 and urge him not to draft regulations for uranium mining. You can also reach out to local businesses and organizations and ask them to sign on to help defend the ban. Contact me at Laura.Cascada@sierraclub.org to get involved!