
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990                   TAG: 9006190271
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Medium

CLAYTOR LAKE GROUP WANTS MORE TESTS

When a man at the back of the Pulaski County High School auditorium asked who wasn't satisfied with recent tests that showed the fish in Claytor Lake were safe to eat, about 100 people raised their hands.

"I think more testing needs to be done," agreed James Palmer, a Virginia Tech professor of food science, at Monday night's meeting of citizens concerned about pollution in Claytor Lake.

Mike Tolbert, an organizer of the citizens' group, also said he was unsure of the State Water Control Board's tests, which showed that level of heavy metals found in fish in Claytor Lake was in many cases barely detectable.

The fish were tested after the control board found metals, including iron, lead, zinc and selenium, in the sediments of Peak Creek. After heavy rains, the metals turn the water a rusty red color that follows the creek's flow into Claytor Lake.

"The fish were only tested in one location - by the arm of Peak Creek," Tolbert said. "The results looked like a 6-year-old filled them out . . . They're far from being 100 percent reliable."

Tolbert said he had looked into having an independent company do tests on fish and water and had received cost estimates of about $200 per sample.

Thorough testing in three locations would cost about $4,500, he said. The newly formed organization - as yet unnamed - has just over $400 in its treasury.

The group that gathered at the high school Monday night was about half the size of the one that packed the first meeting in Newbern last month. And it was a quieter group - many of the residents took notes through the meeting as they received updates on progress to stop the heavy metals from leaching into Peak Creek from the old Allied Chemical site in Pulaski.

So far, construction has begun on a pipeline to keep the runoff from carrying the metals into Peak Creek. The Environmental Protection Agency has taken about 20 samples from the Allied site and will know better next month how to control the rest of the problem, according to officials with that department.

"We have gotten some attention," said Clarke Cunningham, another of the group's organizers. Stopping the pollution is going to be a long, drawn-out process, he said. "But we're determined to see it through. I've been told that things wouldn't have been done this quickly if it weren't for the people in this room."

A cleanup effort, sponsored by the Triangle Bassmasters, will be held at the lake on Saturday.

At last year's event, 1,219 30-gallon trash bags were filled with waste from the lake, said Richard Stanford, a spokesman for the fishing club. "Our club's effort is to make the public aware of just how bad it is," he said. "We want to get all the trash and make the lake nice and beautiful - like it should be."

by CNB