DRF joins the mining study party

The Danville Regional Foundation has jumped into the debate over uranium mining and milling in Pittsylvania County.

Formed with the assets from the 2005 sale of Danville Regional Medical Center to LifePoint Hospitals Inc., the Danville Regional Foundation exists “to develop, promote, and support activities, programs and organizations that improve the health, welfare and education” of Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C.

Clearly, uranium mining and milling at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County would have a profound impact on the communities served by the Danville Regional Foundation, and on the foundation’s core areas of concern.

“I think it would be good for them to go ahead and do that,” Delegate Terry Kilgore, chairman of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission, said of the foundation’s proposed study. “That, hopefully, will answer some questions for local citizens there in the Pittsylvania County area. … The more information and knowledge we have on this issue, the more better off we’ll be.”

Kilgore’s commission revived the statewide study of uranium mining and milling after the original study bill making its way through the General Assembly died in the House Rules Committee. Since that time, the Coal and Energy Commission has formally requested that the National Academy of Sciences study whether uranium could be mined safely in Virginia.

A second state study will concentrate on the question of whether it should be mined in Virginia by focusing on the so-called “socio-economic” issues.

But unlike the Coal and Energy Commission, the Danville Regional Foundation is only concerned with studying how uranium mining and milling would affect our community, not the entire state.

“DRF is considering sponsoring an independent and rigorous socioeconomic examination of the effects the proposed mine, mill, and long-term waste management upon the people and institutions, including the economy …” foundation President and CEO Karl Stauber said in a statement Thursday.

Even if the official state study that’s now before the National Academy of Sciences finds that uranium could be mined and milled safely in Virginia, the next round of issues concern whether it should be mined and milled in Virginia.

Those issues include the perception of this community by outsiders, the effect of boom-and-bust mining cycles on the economy, the impact on the overall growth and development of the Dan River Region and similar issues.

It’s clear that the Danville Regional Foundation is well within its own mission and sphere of concerns by conducting its own study of uranium mining and milling. The people of this community want answers, and we welcome any honest broker of information that can help us get those answers.