Nobody trusts anybody when it comes to uranium mining in Virginia, and probably with some reason.
Out in Pittsylvania County, Virginia Uranium believes it is sitting on billions of dollars worth of ore and is lobbying relentlessly in Richmond for a way to get it out of the ground.
That has made the simplest things immensely complicated.
When the company asked the county for a special-use permit to build a warehouse and office, the request became an object of intense interest, including in Hampton Roads, which drinks from reservoirs downstream of the proposed mine.
When there was movement in Richmond to limit citizen oversight of air and water protection, some considered it a way to clear the way for uranium mining. The proposal was largely dropped, after opposition built.
When Virginia Beach Sen. Frank Wagner - a proponent of nuclear energy - pushed to get the state to study uranium mining, it kicked off an absolute firestorm. Some worry that the legislation goes beyond a simple study; some think the legislature intends to make uranium mining inevitable.
That interpretation got additional impetus last week, when a budget amendment by Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw appeared to order the development of new rules and regulations on mining, which is currently banned in Virginia.
Since the 1980s, nobody has seriously looked at the safety of lifting Virginia's moratorium. That's precisely the point of Wagner's legislation. Unfortunately, the legislation is complicated, with moving parts, subjunctive phrasing, conditions piled on conditions. Couple that with Wagner's vocal support for nuclear energy, and you have a recipe for suspicion.
Add Saslaw's initiative, and environmentalists are right to worry that they're being taken for a ride. It is far too easy to see all this as a furtive rush to open Virginia to uranium mining.
Whether it is or not, Virginia should slow things down.
Even done well, mining is a dangerous, dirty, toxic business. This business, which happens to be radioactive, would be upstream from the water supply that quenches thirsts across Hampton Roads. That raises plenty of questions, all of which need to be answered before Virginia even considers turning one shovelful.
A decision this important and irreversible can and should come only after meticulous consideration and long deliberation. A study scrupulously confined to determining the safety of uranium mining is the first - and should be the only - step Virginia takes.
That study should be given all the time, money and expertise it needs to be as exhaustive and independent as any study can be. What that study concludes should determine whether the state even takes the next step at all.
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