The possibility of uranium mining at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, has become a big issue at Lake Gaston.

Virginia has a 29 year old ban on uranium mining but the firm Virginia Uranium has asked the state legislature to lift that ban. It believes there is seven to ten billion dollars worth of uranium at Coles Hill. Virginia Uranium says it can mine the uranium safely.

Virginia Uranium would have to store some of what was mined on the site. These "tailings" are at the heart of the issue.

The city of Virginia Beach, which gets some of its drinking water from Lake Gaston, released a study that finds in the event of a failure of a uranium mill tailings confinement cell, the tailings will be washed downstream into Kerr and Gaston lakes and significantly impact water quality. The study also concluded that it could take up to two years to wash the dissolved contaminants downstream.

Because of the importance of this issue, we are maintaining an index of news stories related to the issue.

• Virginia Uranium, Inc.
• Virginia Energy Resources
• Uranium Study - By the City of Virginia Beach
• National Academy of Sciences - Study underway
• Danville Regional Foundation - Another study underway
• Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals & Energy
• Virginia Sierra Club
• Virginia Against Uranium
• Roanoke River Basin Assn.
• Blue Virginia
• Virginia Conservation Network
• Piedmont Residents in Defense of the Environment