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

DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990                   TAG: 9006190317
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ELLIE SCHAFFZIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FLUFF DUMP SITE NEIGHBORS MEET

Harry Nance lives one-half mile from a landfill site proposed by Shredded Products Corp. Despite promises from the company that the landfill will not affect the quality of his life in Bedford County, he and many of his neighbors remain skeptical.

"There's no way you can hide it," said Nance about the landfill, the operation of which will cover 181 acres of currently unused agricultural land.

Nance and 50 other neighbors of the area surrounding the proposed landfill site, off Virginia 745 south of Bedford, met Monday night with representatives of Shredded Products to discuss their concerns about the site.

Forty acres of the site would actually be used as a dumping site for bales of "fluff," the materials remaining after all metal products have been removed from cars. A bale consists of 3,000 compacted pounds of foam, plastic, vinyl, rubber and other materials.

Shredded Products recycles metal from cars for its parent company, Roanoke Electric Steel.

The need for a dumping site was demonstrated when stockpiles of fluff caught fire at the company's Montvale car-shredding site last fall and continued to burn for one month. The company has been fined almost $100,000 by the state Department of Waste Management for what the agency said was illegal storage of the fluff before the fire.

The landfill proposal must clear Bedford's unique Land Use Guidance System, which takes the opinions of neighbors into account in evaluating development proposals. The county Board of Supervisors are to have the final word after a joint public hearing before the board and the Planning Commission on July 30.

During Monday's meeting, moderator Jeff Burdett, a community development planner, jokingly asked that the residents refrain from throwing things.

Residents honored his request, but tempers flared as the evening progressed, and after hearing residents' objections, Burdett concluded that the issue remained at a "non-consensus" point.

Bill Warwick, who is responsible for environmental affairs at Shredded Products, used slides to illustrate how possible landfill problems would be handled.

Warwick said the bales of fluff, which would be dumped at a rate of up to 90 a day, would not pose a threat to the surrounding community. Warwick explained that efforts to find an alternative method of disposal of the fluff had been unsuccessful.

Warwick said company trucks will stay off roads while school buses take children to school, the landfill will be screened from the road, and the site will be protected from fire. Warwick also said that in accordance with state regulations, the dump site would be lined to protect the environment, including a nearby spring. He said there would be no odor from the fluff and that wildlife would not be affected.

But residents were not soothed by Warwick's promises of no traffic problems when the fluff-hauling trucks arrive.

"Route 745 is not a well-paved road. Your trucks will tear it to pieces," said Ron Goodman, who lives one-half mile from the site. Other residents voiced their concerns for children and others who travel the roads.

Residents voiced disbelief at Warwick's promises of protection from fire. One resident said she smelled the smoke from Montvale last fall and was "worried what will happen when that stuff is in our backyard."

by CNB