Published by The Editorial Board
Danville Register & Bee
Published: December 8, 2008
For the better part of 20 years, Virginia Beach fought for the right to withdraw up to 60 million gallons of water per day from Lake Gaston. Here in the Dan River Region, the sentiment was clearly against Virginia’s largest city from winning that fight.
Since 1998, though, Lake Gaston water has flowed through a 76-mile pipeline to Lake Prince in Isle of Wight County. From there, Lake Gaston water is treated by Norfolk’s water system, which serves Norfolk, Virginia Beach and parts of Chesapeake — cities with a combined population of more than 800,000 people — plus some of the military bases in Hampton Roads.
Virginia Beach depends on Lake Gaston water, and some of the water in Lake Gaston first flows past the Coles Hill site where Virginia Uranium Inc. hopes to mine and mill uranium ore. Clearly, Virginia Beach felt it had to do more than simply stand on the sidelines.
Last week, Virginia Beach City Council voted to approve a resolution “opposing the mining of uranium in the commonwealth of Virginia in the absence of an unbiased, conclusive study of the potential effects thereof.” Virginia Beach supports the study of uranium mining in Virginia, but it wants to have its water interests considered.
Simply put, Virginia Beach wants a seat at the table.
“The city of Virginia Beach and other potentially impacted jurisdictions must be included as active participants in the study process,” according to part of the resolution.
In one of the worst case scenarios, radioactivity released from Coles Hill could contaminate Lake Gaston. If the Lake Gaston water pipeline had to be shut off because of radioactive contamination, Virginia Beach would lose its investment in the project, it would have to break its water contract with Norfolk and pay off that city and then built a desalinization plant to meet its water needs — all at a cost of more than $500 million.
If radioactive contamination from Coles Hill went undetected and Lake Gaston water continued to flow into Norfolk’s water system, it would affect three of Virginia’s largest cities and several large military bases.
“Taking no action would be tantamount to stating that the city does not oppose uranium mining upstream of its primary water supply,” according to a policy report approved by Virginia Beach City Manager James K. Spore. “This is not recommended due to the potentially catastrophic impacts to Virginia Beach, Southside Hampton Roads, and the Roanoke Basin.”
Virginia Beach has changed the uranium mining debate. Its presence at the proverbial table is welcomed, not because it has the political power to prevent the Coles Hill deposit from being mined, but because it has the political power to ensure that all sides of this complex issue are investigated, understood and debated.
Eventually, Raleigh, N.C., will follow Virginia Beach’s lead on this issue. Raleigh is interested in using water from Buggs Island Lake (the Kerr Reservoir), which sits between the Dan River Region and Lake Gaston. Virginia Beach’s concerns will no doubt become Raleigh’s concerns.
The state study that Virginia Uranium Inc. wanted for the past year will happen, but as the debate has gone on, more and more of those affected by this proposed project have stepped forward. It’s not just people who live in Halifax County or the environmentalists or the local doctors or adjacent landowners or the people who drink water from this region — it’s everyone concerned that the short-term gain by Virginia Uranium could mean a long-term loss for a lot of different people.
Virginia Uranium’s leaders have said all along they want a complete study of all the issues regarding this issue. It appears they will get exactly what they ask for, because uranium mining at Coles Hill is no longer a local issue.
• Editorials are the consensus view of the Danville Register & Bee’s editorial board — Publisher Steven W. Kaylor, Editor Arnold Hendrix and Opinion Page Editor Robert Benson.
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