Uranium mining poses threat to Virginians
By Bill Speiden
My family and I have farmed in Orange County for 76 years. I owned the most radioactive site in Northern Virginia, according to the industry’s syntilometer tests when the uranium interests came to lease my land in Orange County for mining and milling in 1979.
Despite riches promised, a visit to Colorado and Utah mines and mills convinced us it was not worth the risk to our land and our neighbors downwind and downstream.
Speiden is a farmer, citizen and land owner. He is legislative director of the Orange County Farm Bureau and past chairman of the Orange County Planning Commission.
January 17, 2013 - 12:06 AM
Thank you for your candid account of your family’s involvement in the debate over uranium mining and milling in Virginia. Just look at the energy industry’s track record for safety and environmental impact: mountaintop coal removal, fracking, offshore super-deep drilling, on and on.
I’m reminded of what the New York State Health Department Commissioner called Love Canal — “a national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations.” Is that what we want in Virginia too?