The frightening prospect of poisoned water, radioactive food supplies and despoiled countryside emerged as Orange County dairy farmer Bill Speiden narrated an enlightening and information-filled presentation on uranium mining at the club’s Oct. 20 meeting.
Mr. Speiden, a member of the legislative committee of the Orange County Farm Bureau and a former chairman of he county’s Planning Commission, gave club members the benefit of a decades-long study of the environmental dangers of uranium mining and milling.
The presentation was timely because Virginia’s General Assembly, which will convene in January, is expected to consider lifting a 30-year ban on uranium mining under instense pressure from industry lobbyists.
Mr. Speiden’s comments were illustrated by graphic photographs of mining operations in the West and Midwest. He descibed the horrific experience of whole towns that had been destroyed by heavy metals and contaminated groundwater leaching from mining tailings.
Mr. Speiden congratulated the Orange County Board of Supervisors and Sen. Edd Houck for reaffirming their support of the mining ban, but expressed concern that some legislators cannot be depended upon to resist the heavily-funded lobbying by mining interests.
Twelve thousand acres of land from Orange County north through Fauquier County have been identified as potential mining sites. Should the ban be lifted, mining and milling would become legal anywhere in the state.