Nukes aren’t for kids?
Michael Stuart’s letter is misleading [“Kids for nuclear power,” Mailbag, August 28]. North American Young Generation for Nuclear, the group he represents, are by and large current or former Dominion employees. Current and former Dominion employees packed the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) meeting on August 15 and were also present in somewhat smaller numbers at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) hearing on August 16. Some of them even came by bus. Dominion employees were provided with green balloons, pizza, posters and stickers advocating for those new, “so green” nukes.
The issue both evenings, which Michael Stuart and pro-Dominion speakers at the hearings avoided, is that a third nuclear reactor with a wet/dry cooling tower will not decrease evaporation from Lake Anna, and will therefore result in decreased downstream flows. Already the two operating units with once-through cooling systems are problematic with increasingly warmer summer temperatures. Decreased flow impacts flora and fauna and fisheries downstream in the York River watershed and the bay. Louisa County already faces a water shortage as new housing developments are built in the Zion Crossroads area and will be tapping the James River for water via a very long pipeline. New reactors at Lake Anna may increase the tax payment by Dominion to Louisa County, but construction will result in decreased availability of water for communities downstream whose populations are increasing.
Numerous speakers, including Lake residents who are not anti-nuclear, objected to the incomplete review by the NRC of water quality issues. At the August 16 hearing speakers urged VADEQ to study and research the effects on downstream flows of new reactors, and questioned Dominion’s compliance with the Coastal Zone Management Act. Virginia’s water is precious.
It was clear at both meetings that the debate regarding new nukes now includes the need to safeguard regional water resources. NRC and VADEQ need to hold more public hearings, especially in communities downstream that may want to draw water to meet the needs of an increasing number of residents. To encourage VADEQ to hold public hearings in impacted communities downstream send comments to elirons@deq.va.gov.
Patrick Moore has been disavowed by Greenpeace and has been referred to as a shill for the nuclear industry.
Elena Day
Charlottesville
Car trouble
Two apparently unrelated items in your September 5-11 issue prompt me to write. [“Watching traffic in Fry’s Spring neighborhood,” Development News; “Foundation to double Fontaine Research Park?,” UVA News] For 13 years I have lived on Stribling Avenue. I know that the Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association exists, but have never received a notice of a meeting. My repeated efforts to get on its mailing list have failed.
Traffic on Stribling Avenue flows very fast. Cars speeding over a rise toward Jefferson Park Avenue make backing out of my driveway very risky, and also threatens the lives of pedestrians (there are no sidewalks) and children playing in the street. Some years ago, when I asked the police department to monitor vehicles’ speeds, the check was conducted in the early afternoon, when traffic is at its lowest point. I was informed that the problem I had identified did not exist.
Traffic on Stribling Avenue is indeed a problem. With several new construction projects already underway, and UVA’s plans to double the size of the Fontaine Research Park, it is almost certain to grow worse. The new road “in the general vicinity of Stribling Avenue” mentioned by UVA spokesman Jeff Hanna might help—but only if the City takes concrete steps to ensure that Stribling cannot be used as an alternative to it.
Anne Jacobson Schutte
Charlottesville
Stop bullying Bell!
I am always amazed at C-VILLE’s efforts to minimize Delegate Rob Bell’s legislative accomplishments [“Anti-bullying law causes few disciplinary changes,” Courts & Crime, September 5]. Since his election in 2001, he has worked extremely hard on obscure issues like mental health care for juvenile offenders and updating the rules for emergency medical custody orders. These are high-effort, low-profile bills that make Virginia a better place to live. He has also written laws to keep sex offenders out of schools and to promote prosecutions of domestic abuse. His office is well known for diligent and effective constituent service.
In the same issue of C-VILLE, you laud the decline in drunk-driving deaths over the last few years. Strangely, you failed to point out that Delegate Bell wrote the very laws you praise. He has been repeatedly recognized by groups like MADD and the National Transportation Safety Board, which noted that he showed “extraordinary leadership.”
Delegate Bell’s bullying law required each school to institute a bullying prevention program, required notice to parents if their child was a victim of a crime, made the prevention of bullying part of Virginia’s character education program, and made sure that teachers who intervene will not be sued. These are all good ideas and will help ensure that fewer kids are afraid to go to school.
Alan G. Collier
Charlottesville
CORRECTION
Due to a data entry error in last week’s “Fall arts” preview, the price of the Virginia Consort’s presentation of Mozart’s Requiem (Sunday, November 5, at the Darden School Auditorium) was listed incorrectly. Admission is not free, but $75—a price that includes the concert, champagne and hors d’oeuvres. We sincerely regret the error.