Rural America Deserves Jobs That Don’t Give Our Children Cancer

On paper, it always starts the same way.

A company shows up with big numbers, big promises, and a straight face. Jobs. Growth. A new “opportunity corridor.” They bring a slide deck. They sprinkle the phrase “economic development” like holy water.

Then the neighbors start asking the questions that matter.

In Jonesborough, Tennessee, families are asking those questions right now because BWXT wants to expand into high-purity depleted uranium manufacturing inside the community. Local residents organized under Protect Jonesborough say the proposal would put uranium processing near homes, schools, farms, and waterways, and they are fighting a rezoning effort that would allow it. Protect Jonesborough

This is not just a social media argument. Washington County’s Planning Commission held a packed public hearing and ultimately voted down the rezoning request. That is what it looks like when rural people show up and say, “Not here. Not like this.”  JCPress

This is the part that never makes it into the glossy brochure. Rural communities are not anti-job. They are anti-sacrifice our children zones.

Appalachia and the rural South know this routine. For generations, we have been told we ought to be grateful for whatever work shows up, even if it comes with a cough, a contaminated creek, or a “don’t worry about it” smell in the air.

We have lived through an economy where the paychecks were real but the costs were hidden in the bodies of miners, the lungs of workers, and the cancer bills of families who never agreed to be a line item in someone else’s profit report.

So when people in Jonesborough say they are worried about uranium processing in the middle of their community, they are not being dramatic. They are being experienced.

Those concerns land even harder right now because environmental oversight is being weakened at the same time corporations are scouting “friendly” places to put higher-risk projects.

When the watchdog gets smaller, the appetite for risk gets bigger.

Federal budget proposals and restructuring plans have aimed to reduce staffing and capacity at the Environmental Protection Agency, framing cuts as “streamlining.” Even when Congress pushes back on the deepest reductions, the result has still been uncertainty, pressure, and fewer resources dedicated to monitoring and enforcement. EPA Reports

You do not have to be a policy expert to understand the practical effect. Fewer staff and fewer inspections mean fewer eyes on the ground, slower responses, and more room for “trust us” to replace proof.

Rural people have heard “trust us” before.

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While Jonesborough TN wrestles with uranium processing, Southwest Virginia is being discussed as a potential home for advanced nuclear projects. State officials and regional leaders have approved funding to study the placement of a nuclear microreactor in Wise County, part of a broader push to explore small modular reactors in the coalfields.  Virginia Mercury

Supporters frame these projects as cutting-edge, clean energy opportunities. Critics are asking for clarity, transparency, and real safeguards.

Those positions are not opposites. You can support new energy technology and still demand hard guardrails. In fact, if leaders want the public to trust advanced nuclear, the worst possible way to start is by acting like rural communities should just sit down, be quiet, and take it.

Because “we will study it later” is not a plan for the mother already wondering what is in the drinking water.

This debate is not happening in the abstract. It is happening in a region where health outcomes are already rough.

UVA Health’s Southwest Virginia health blueprint shows that cancer mortality rates in the region are far higher than the statewide average. National data tells a similar story. States across Appalachia, including Kentucky and West Virginia, rank among the highest in the nation for cancer incidence. UVA Health SWVA Report

And then there is what families are living through right now.

In Scott County, Virginia, parents pushed state officials for answers about their high rates of childhood cancers. The investigation concluded the available registry data did not meet the technical definition of a cancer cluster. But families were left frustrated by a key detail: a two-year reporting lag meant more recent diagnoses were not included.  Cardinal News

That is not a conspiracy. That is how data systems work. But it is also how trust gets shredded. When families are scared and the paperwork cannot keep up with reality, they do not hear “standard reporting lag.” They hear, “Nobody is watching or CARES!”

This is the environment we are in when corporations come shopping for rural sites for their ‘Economic Development’.  Our answer, “Rural communities are not bargain bins!”!

Contact Info:  https://linktr.ee/CindyGreen4VA