Paper: Coles Must Prove Uranium Mining is Safe

(Editorial from the Danville Register and Bee 12/23/2007)

Their case to make

Fairness compels the community to take Walter Coles at his word.
When Coles talks about mining uranium in Pittsylvania County only if it can be done safely - and if it can be, providing work for local people and companies - we have to believe that’s what he wants to do.
“I’ve always believed this was more than a mining operation,” Coles said this week.
Coles and his company, Virginia Uranium Inc., are sitting on an estimated 110 million pounds of uranium, a naturally occurring, radioactive substance that in high enough concentrations for long enough exposures causes disease and death in humans.
Coles’ interest in mining the uranium that sits under his property along Coles Road south of Chalk Level Road has reignited a bitter environmental debate that could alter the future of the Dan River Region.
If the environmentalists are right, allowing Virginia Uranium to mine the Coles Hill site will both stigmatize and pollute the community. We will be known as that town with the uranium mine, and that uranium mine will poison our land, water and air.
That’s one vision of the future, and if it’s correct, it will affect everyone who lives here, not just the people who are downstream and downwind from Coles Hill.
For now, Virginia’s moratorium on uranium mining is still in effect, but that doesn’t mean nothing is happening.
This week, Virginia Uranium began the state-approved drilling of 20 test holes at the site northeast of Chatham. The purpose of drilling those new holes - and uncovering the same number of 25-year-old, capped holes - is to collect core samples and take readings for further study.
In response to the growing controversy, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors listened to environmental complaints for approximately 30 minutes before passing a prepared resolution this week to do a study of uranium mining. That inaction angered environmentalists, but it accurately reflects the ambiguity that exists in the community today.
But that ambiguity doesn’t help Virginia Uranium.
Uranium mining has a long history of spoiling the environment. The new technology that has been developed in the years since uranium mining was last tried here is so new that we have to question its long-term effectiveness. We also don’t know of anyplace where uranium is mined that has as many people as Pittsylvania County or as many rivers and streams flowing into larger rivers, lakes and the ocean.
What we do have are regular rains, occasional wind storms, tornadoes and the remnants of hurricanes passing through. We have homes all around the county that rely on well water.
And at Coles Hill, we have a naturally occurring, radioactive rock that today is geologically stable. What will happen if it’s mined?
Virginia Uranium officials have not proved that uranium can be safely mined in the Dan River Region - but it’s their case to make. Because we will live with any mistakes made long after the uranium is gone and the investors have banked their money, we have one chance to get uranium mining right - and many chances to lose out because we got it wrong.