Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993 TAG: 9302120309
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
`FLUFF DUMP' FOES PROTEST AT HEARING
Some of those who showed up Thursday night to oppose Shredded Products' "fluff dump" were concerned by what they know about the proposed industrial-waste landfill.Others were more anxious about what they don't know.
"We have no proof that this fluff is toxic or a threat to our environment any more than you or Shredded Products has proof that it is not," Rocky Mount resident Janet Hammack told Virginia Department of Waste Management officials.
At issue is Shredded Products Corp.'s plan to move its car-recycling operation from Bedford County to a 436-acre Franklin County farm about five miles south of Rocky Mount.
Shredded Products reclaims metals from junk vehicles. A giant machine shreds the cars into small chunks. The metal is reused at Roanoke Electric Steel. The remaining parts - rubber hoses, vinyl seats, dashboards and plastic foam - are compacted into 3,000-pound bales.
These bales of "fluff," as it is called, would be buried in a 40-acre landfill on the property. With the company processing more than 300 cars daily and generating 100 to 120 tons of fluff, the landfill would last between 20 and 30 years, company officials have said.
After a stockpile of fluff caught fire at the company's Montvale operation in 1989, Shredded Products began looking for a cost-effective way to dispose of the materials.
In April 1991, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors announced it had given the company approval to locate on Peaceful Valley Farm.
Thursday night, Hammack said the supervisors "sold out" the county by approving the move without notifying anyone.
James R. Swaggerty even took issue Thursday with the term "fluff."
"I really would like to know who the fellow is that coined the phrase fluff," he said. "He must be a heck of a p.r. man."
Swaggerty said some fluff could have cancer-causing agents in it. Some fluff, from older cars, could have lead in it, he said.
Several speakers referred to the October 1989 fire at Shredded Products' Montvale operation. If the company violated Department of Waste Management regulations once, they asked, who would police the company this time?
Before the 1989 fire, Shredded Products had been stockpiling fluff on a field behind its Montvale plant. No local landfills would accept the material.
The pile caught fire and for 38 days, emitted a foul-smelling smoke that hung over Montvale.
The Department of Waste Management ruled that the company could not stockpile fluff and fined Shredded Products $15,000.
"We don't want to become a dumping grounds of the East," L. Hoyt Griffith of Wirtz told the hearing examiner. "Every municipality has a responsibility for their own garbage, but we don't want to take responsibility for others' garbage."
The Department of Waste Management will continue accepting written comments about the proposed landfill until Feb. 26.
Memo: ran on B1 in the New River Valley edition.