Sanity prevails by a 4-3 margin

The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors defeated the proposed 20-mile uranium mining ban on Tuesday night. Hooray!

Industrial mega park mining ban denied

Even though this mining ban proposal would have been Dead On Arrival to the first court of record, it’s refreshing to know that the BOS got this one right. If Karen Maute wants to make sure that there will be no uranium mining in the mega-park, why didn’t she propose that it be banned in the mega-park?! (although I firmly believe that would be struck down as well)

Nope, she had to try and make it a 20-mile radius. Twenty friggin miles?! Never mind the fact that her 20-mile ban would extend into North Carolina and be completely useless, or that the 20-mile circle would envelop Danville. (Karen: If there’s uranium in my backyard and they can get it out safely, it’s coming out and I’ll laugh all the way to the bank. Get off my lawn.)

But wait, there’s a candidate for Stupid Statement Of The Year from this article. Marshall Ecker, the BOS member who advocated this, said…

“If they’re not going to mine in the mega park, what’s the problem with passing a resolution saying that?”

Hello, Marshall? Boing?! There’s one hell of a difference between drawing a red boundary around the 3500 acre mega-park and drawing a big-ass 20 mile circle into North Carolina and completely covering Danville. If you want to make sure that uranium mining is banned in the mega-park, get with Karen and specify it down to the actual boundaries of the mega-park.

This was yet another heavy-handed effort by the anti-uranium mining people to try and get a (unconstitutional) preemptive ban on mining before the safety study is complete. Face it, Southside Concerned Citizens, your efforts are going to fail every time. If you ever get lucky enough to get something like that passed, it will be struck down as quick as the “Chemical Trespass” law was. The citizens and political leaders are starting to get wise to your scare tactics. I fully expect the Usual Suspects to come in and post a Litany-O-Links saying that Pittsylvania County will become a Glow-In-The-Dark Apocalypse if uranium mining is allowed. Let’s see if they surprise me.