By PUBLISHED BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Published: February 19, 2009

The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors has made its strongest statement yet on a proposed uranium mine and mill.

Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution that “no damage or harm will be done to Pittsylvania County, its businesses, institutions, environment and its citizens by uranium mining, as opposed to a cost-benefit approach to this issue or simply accepting minimal damages … ”

With those 35 words, supervisors said they want what the county has today. While they are certainly willing to accept the jobs, tax dollars and the resulting economic rollover effect a successful uranium mine would bring to Pittsylvania County, they don’t want those benefits at the cost of losing what Pittsylvania County has right now.

No damage is a much higher standard than simply weighing the costs versus the benefits of a project or accepting a small amount of damage.

The no-damage motion was pushed by Chatham-Blairs Supervisor Hank Davis. It followed a previous board motion — and the community’s consensus — that the proposed project should be studied by the state.

That study is already being developed, and one of the proposed motions before supervisors Tuesday would have thanked the Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Mining Subcommittee for meeting in Chatham to hear citizen comments.

But that could be handled with a lovely note written on county stationary and dropped in the mail.

Resolutions don’t have the force of law, but they do speak loudly about intentions, motivations and concerns.

Clearly, a lot has changed in the past year on the uranium mining issue to convince the Board of Supervisors that they needed to do more than simply support the state study.

The Board of Supervisors has set a high standard for what it will accept from a uranium mine and mill. Davis and the other board members should be congratulated for taking a tough, proactive stance on an issue of community concern.