The Piedmont View

Our quarterly membership newsletter. 

Virginia Uranium Company Pushing to End the Ban in 2012

Posted on by PEC

On the day that an earthquake struck Virginia, as the region prepared for a hurricane, representatives of Virginia Uranium found themselves addressing the City Council of Virginia Beach, to explain why containment pits of radioactive mine tailings upstream would not pose a danger to the city’s water supply.

The timing of that meeting could have gone better for them. Still, they asserted that they’ll be able to mine uranium safely in Virginia. It’s a tall order—considering that the piles of hazardous mine wastes would cover hundreds of acres.

Double Bypass

Posted on by PEC

 If there’s one thing that’s been bypassed in the ongoing push for new roads around DC and Charlottesville, it’s public process.

First, in May, the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) revived plans for a developers’ dream road around DC—the vast Outer Beltway. The unelected CTB brought back the Outer Beltway without consulting local governments, without a recommendation from VDOT, and without any public input.

Wild Child

Posted on by Rose Jenkins

What fears are separating children from nature? What happens when they reconnect?

When children first arrive at Rappahannock Nature Camp, they are afraid of bugs, the camp director, Lyt Wood, told me.

But, on the day I visited this summer, he opened up a hive of 30,000 honeybees while the children craned to see. The kids had brought long clothes and hats to camp for the occasion. They pulled netting over the rims of their hats and sealed their clothes at the wrists and ankles with blue tape. Wood doused the hive with smoke, then drew out frames that were packed with vibrating, crawling, humming bees.

Uranium Here

Uranium Here

Posted on by PEC

In 1979, Bill Speiden was offered a lease for uranium mining and milling on his Orange County farm. That uranium hasn’t gone anywhere.

The debate over uranium mining and milling in Virginia is coming to a head, with a much-awaited study from the National Academy of Sciences due to be released in December. Proponents are pushing the General Assembly to end the state’s ban on uranium mining in the January 2012 session. The stakes are high; not just for southwest Virginia, but for the entire state—including the Piedmont.