Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993 TAG: 9311180184
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"We really don't know how much money we're talking about," Chairman Fuzzy Minnix said.
Roanoke County has spent $4 million to clean up paint sludge, chemical drums and fly ash that were dumped in the old municipal landfill from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s.
The county expects to spend another $5 million to $7 million, depending on federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, to finish cleaning up the site.
County Attorney Paul Mahoney said he feared EPA guidelines would push the cost to the higher estimate.
"I hope I'm just being pessimistic," he said.
Members of the Board of Supervisors got a firsthand look Wednesday at what work remains to be done at the site north of Dixie Caverns.
Five workers wearing protective jumpsuits used a giant vacuum hose to remove tainted soil from a creek bed downstream from the old landfill.
The soil, which contains dangerously high levels of heavy metals, was contaminated by furnace ash from Roanoke Electric Steel Corp.
Removing the soil is a slow process. The workers loosen much of the soil with picks and pull out large rocks that could clog the 8-inch-diameter vacuum tube. The soil is sealed in 55-gallon drums.
The work is tedious; EPA guidelines limit the use of heavy machinery, fearing that large-scale disturbance of the soil could allow heavy metals to wash downstream.
George Simpson, the county's site manager, said it could take another year to remove tainted soil from a mile-long section of the creek.
The soil removal could cost as much as $2.5 million, with Roanoke County and Roanoke Electric Steel splitting the cost.
Removing the high levels of zinc, lead and cadmium from the soil will cost more - much more.
The EPA wants Roanoke County to ship the soil and remaining fly ash to an out-of-state plant where it can be treated by a process known as "high temperature metals recovery."
That method would cost between $6 million and $8 million, Simpson said.
Roanoke County and Roanoke Electric Steel want to detoxify the ash by encasing it in a concrete-like mixture and burying it in the Dixie Caverns Landfill.
The on-site method would cost about $4 million, Simpson said.
Roanoke County and Roanoke Electric Steel have submitted test data to show the on-site method is both safe and less expensive.
Melissa Whittington, EPA remedial project manager, said the EPA should make a decision in two months.
Mahoney, the county attorney, said he has received signals that EPA officials are "feeling negative" about the on-site alternative.
County supervisors said they were frustrated by what they perceive as EPA's unwillingness to consider a cheaper alternative.
"I don't want to confuse the federal government with common sense," Bob Johnson said.
The final step in the Dixie Caverns cleanup will be capping and monitoring the 29-acre site. The board will pay for the cleanup from $2.75 million included in a 1992 bond referendum.
The county, however, has no money set aside for removing the tainted soil and treating the fly ash.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge said the process could make short work of a $2.4 million surplus from the budget year that ended June 30.
by CNB