Apr. 7--Virginia Beach has revealed who will make up the panel of experts that will critique the city's study of uranium mining and milling's potential effects on its water supply.
The resort city will study what a proposed Pittsylvania County uranium mine and mill could do to its water supply in the event of a weather-related disaster. The city is concerned about uranium mining and milling because Lake Gaston, a major source of Virginia Beach's drinking water, is located downstream from Coles Hill, site of the proposed project.
Five experts will review the study expected to be complete in the fall, to make sure it will "stick to science, to the facts," said Tom Leahy, Virginia Beach's director of public utilities.
The five experts are:
Daniel Gillen, a retired Nuclear Regulatory Commission supervisor and senior executive service manager. His expertise is in uranium recovery facilities and mill tailings impoundments.
Scott Brooks, an expert in radionuclide contamination of water who works in the environmental sciences division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Marcelo H. Garcia, Chester and Helen Siess professor at the University of Illinois and an expert in sediment transport technology.
S. Rocky Durrans, environmental and water resources engineering professor at the University of Alabama. Durrans is an expert in statistical modeling of hydrologic and meteorologic extremes, including floods, droughts and extreme precipitation.
Gary Charles Schafran, professor and chair at Old Dominion University's civil and environmental engineering department. Schafran is an expert in environmental engineering, water quality, aquatic chemistry, physicochemical treatment processes and water resources.
Virginia Beach's study is being performed by Michael Baker Corp., an engineering firm, and will cost $437,000 and will be finished this fall. The city has $150 million invested in the Lake Gaston project, in addition to $200 million in indirect investment through an agreement with Norfolk. Lake Gaston water is pumped into one of Norfolk's water supply lakes, where that city treats it and gives it back to Virginia Beach.
Patrick Wales, geologist and spokesman for Virginia Uranium Inc., said of the city's study panel, "It sounds like they're going about it in a comprehensive way."
However, Wales said he finds it difficult to believe that tailings from Coles Hill could have detrimental effects on water 100 miles downstream from the property. VUI will have to follow guidelines from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to confine the tailings, Wales said.
"Containing the tailings is not only our goal, it's the requirement," Wales said.
Virginia Beach's study will assess the impacts of a major storm and flooding and estimate levels of contaminated sediment reaching Kerr Reservoir flowing into Lake Gaston, which supplies drinking water to Virginia Beach, and examine potential increase in background radiation in the reservoir. The results of Virginia Beach's study will be given to the NAS.
Leahy pointed to a large-scale storm -- one in Nelson County in 1969 -- as an example of a catastrophic rain fall that could cause flooding. The storm caused 2,000 years worth of erosion in a single night, whereas NRC standards only require tailings confinement cells to resist erosion for 200 years, Leahy said. The study will consider the volume of sediment released, initial radioactivity level of milling tailings and the amount of tailings that will remain as sediment and how much will dissolve in the water.
Leahy said he would rather see the uranium mine "in someone else's watershed," but added that he's not out to stymie VUI's plans.
"I'm not trying to stop it, but I'm trying to get the facts out there," he said.
The study will include computer-generated modeling of catastrophic rainfall events, Leahy said. It may include a second phase if its first part says mining and milling would be detrimental to Virginia Beach's water supply. The second phase would examine the results in more detail and could run the study's costs up to seven figures.
Virginia Beach passed a strongly-worded resolution in December 2008 opposing the lifting of the moratorium on uranium mining and milling without a study demonstrating that there would "be no significant release of radioactive sediments downstream under any circumstances."
"From the resolution, it's clear where they stand on the issue of uranium mining," Wales said, adding that he will be interested in seeing the panel's -- and the study's -- conclusion.
William Kearney, spokesman with the NAS, said the academy could be interested in the results from the Virginia Beach study.
"If Virginia Beach's review is relevant, they would welcome that input as well," Kearney said.
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