Bill Speiden, a retired Orange County dairy farmer, will speak to the club Oct. 20 on the potential threat to the local environment posed by uranium mining.
A rise in the price of uranium has rekindled interest in mining and milling uranium in Virginia, including sizeable deposits in Orange County. Twelve thousand acres of land from Orange County north through Fauquier County have been identified as potential mining sites.
Mr. Speiden and his wife were approached by uranium interests in 1979 to lease their farm on the banks of the Rapidan River in Somerset, upstream from Orange, Lake of the Woods and Fredericksburg, for uranium mining. The couple were offered a five-figure bonus and royalties to allow mining on their property. Knowing little about the industry, the Speidens travelled to Utah and Colorado, where they toured several uranium mines and mills, interviewing miners, mine superintendents and local ranchers.
As a result of what they saw there, the Speidens decided that radioactive exposure and water contamination would make uranium mining a potential environmental disaster for Virginia. They rejected the mining company’s offer.
Last month, the Orange County Board of Supervisors re-affirmed its support of a 30-year-long moratorium on uranium mining in the state. But the mining industry is actively lobbying the General Assembly to lift the ban in its next session, despite organizing local efforts to keep the measure in effect. One company, Virginia Uranium Inc., has spent nearly $100,000 over the past three years to persuade lawmakers to lift the ban. Should legislators bow to that pressure, mining would become legal anywhere where uranium is found, includiing throughout Orange county’s rich farmland.
Mr. Speiden was born in New York City, but came to Virginia as an infant with his parents. He is a former chairman of the Orange County Planning Commission, legislative director of the Orange County Farm Bureau and a member of the Orange County Democratic Committee. He is a graduate of Cornell University and operated a dairy farm west of Locust Grove for 40 years before retiring in April 2006.
The meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20, in the community meeting room at the Woods Center. As always, guests are welcome to attend.
Those who would like to become more familiar with this important topic are encouraged to visit these Web sites:
- Keep the Ban
- League of Individuals for the Environment
- “Will uranium get a glowing welcome in Virginia?,” Virginia Environmental Law Journal
- “Safety the only issue in uranium debate,” The Roanoke Times
- “Uranium Mining: Too Dangerous for Virginia,” The Free Lance-Star
- “Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country,” The New York Times