Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993 TAG: 9309040090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a petition filed Friday in Roanoke Circuit Court, the residents requested that a special grand jury be impaneled.
If a grand jury is convened under a seldom-used law, it would be asked to investigate the actions of Roanoke Electric Steel, Norfolk Southern Corp. and Howard Brothers Inc.
Residents say the companies are responsible for clouds of dust containing metal fragments. The dust drifts from giant piles of steel-furnace waste and coats their homes and property near 30th Street and Shenandoah Avenue, they say.
Howard Brothers has a contract to collect and recycle ash from nearby furnaces at Roanoke Electric Steel. It then dumps the ash, or slag, on property owned by the railroad.
Officials with the state Department of Air Pollution Control have said they believe the hot furnace slag sometimes explodes when it is dumped into the piles, creating puffs of steam and dust.
"When they dump that stuff it comes up in great big clouds - big as a house, or bigger - and every which way the wind blows that's the way it takes it," said Helen Workman, a Norway Avenue resident and one of the 24 property owners filing the petition.
Residents say their homes, cars and lawns stay coated with grime.
"You should see my car now," Workman said Friday. "I had to turn the windshield wipers on and wash it two or three times just so I could see to go to the bank."
Workman said the dust seeps through the storm windows of her house, and is bad enough to turn someone's feet black if they walk through her lawn barefoot.
"If indeed there is dust from the piles of slag, it is not on the property of Roanoke Electric Steel," said John Lambert, a spokesman for Roanoke Electric.
However, he said the company is willing to meet with residents and has asked Howard Brothers in the past to review its procedures in handling the dust.
Bob Auman, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, said he was not aware of any complaints against the railroad. Howard Brothers officials could not be reached for comment Friday.
Under state law, a special grand jury can be impaneled at the request of five or more citizens to investigate "a public or common nuisance."
The special grand jury would then hear testimony and recommend whether a trial be held. If the industries are found guilty, they could face a $5,000 fine.
State law also allows that if a public nuisance is found to exist, the jury can order that "such nuisance be forthwith removed and abated."
by CNB