Risks Associated with Uranium Mining Outweigh Potential

Contact: Holly Coy, holly@virginiainterfaithcenter.org, 804-643-2474

Richmond, VA – Today The Virginia Interfaith Center and its Virginia Interfaith Power & Light program, in coordination with its members from across the Commonwealth, announced the group’s strong support for maintaining the state’s long-running ban on uranium mining. The nearly 30-year ban protects Virginians from the harmful threats uranium mining poses to our health, drinking water systems, and Virginia’s economy. Foreign-backed companies are working to remove the long-held ban to exploit a uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County, VA.

“We are joining our faith partners throughout the state in support of keeping the ban on uranium mining because it threatens to jeopardize the water supply and health of all Virginians. It is simply not worth risking so much to benefit so few. We strive to be good stewards of creation, and this means protecting our water supply from unnecessary harm and fostering a healthy environment for all Virginians” said Trieste Lockwood, Director of Virginia Interfaith Power and Light.

The proposed uranium mine and processing site in Pittsylvania County could put drinking water for over a million Virginians, including in Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Halifax County at risk. This water supplies the local agricultural and tourism businesses as well as one of Virginia’s major economic hubs, Hampton Roads.

“Uranium mining endangers the physical health of families and would create a legacy of toxic waste for future generations of Virginians,” noted Lockwood. “The Virginia Interfaith Center and its members are committed to the moral responsibility they share as people of faith to care for their neighbors and protect them from avoidable harm.”

The Virginia Interfaith Center is alerting its state-wide network of religious leaders. If the ban is lifted it will likely be lifted statewide putting communities and water supplies across the Commonwealth at risk.

Virginia Interfaith Power and Light is a member of the statewide Keep the Ban coalition.

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy is Virginia’s oldest faith-based advocacy group. They are a nonpartisan coalition of faith communities working to create progressive public policy by engaging people of faith, educating the public about social issues, the legislative process, and the call to advocacy.

# # #