ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601280022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON AND LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITERS
A half-million gallon holding tank for manure burst Saturday on a Franklin County farm sending enough of the liquid into the Blackwater River to shut down the Rocky Mount water treatment plant.
The spill occurred between 10 a.m. and noon on the Ho Ha Dairy farm about five miles upstream from the treatment plant, off U.S. 220 on the northeast side of Rocky Mount.
V.B. Hall, treatment plant superintendent, said Carter Hopkins operates the dairy.
Hopkins said he has no idea why the 14-year-old tank ripped apart.
``I thought the thing would outlive me,'' Hopkins said.
The tank was made of post-tension concrete, a system where internal cables and clamps are contained within the concrete. It appears those clamps or cables broke causing the 18-foot tall concrete panels to fall away, Hopkins said.
``We thought it was overbuilt when we bought it,'' Hopkins said. ``That was the selling point.''
The tank, built by Virginia Silos Co. of Harrisonburg, cost about $50,000 when it was purchased in 1982, according to Hopkins who said he guesses a new tank would cost about $100,000. A Virginia Silos employee could not be reached for comment Saturday night.
``I don't know what we will do,'' Hopkins said.
He said they had not put any additional manure in the tank in the past few weeks but had been spreading it on their fields.
The tank was full, but is located about 500 yards from the river. Some of the manure made it to the river, while some remains on the land between the tank and the river.
Town Manager Mark Henne said heavy rains overnight Friday contributed to the spill.
Hopkins quickly notified the treatment plant when he noticed the spill about 12:30 p.m., thereby averting a major catastrophe, Hall said.
The plant shut down shortly before 3, before the liquid manure got there, and began pumping again about 7:15 p.m., according to W.P. Wade, water plant operator.
``It didn't look like water when it came by,'' Wade said of the manure spill. ``An occasional cow dropping we can handle, but not a half-million gallons.''
Asked what would have happened if the manure had reached the plant, Hall said, ``I don't even want to think about that. [Hopkins] did the right thing by calling us.''
Hall wasn't sure what risk the manure poses for the treatment plant as it floats by.
"It'll just go on down to Smith Mountain Lake, I guess," he said.
Hopkins said that, shortly after the spill, he went to the river and ``it looked fine there.'' He guessed the high waters from recent rain helped wash the manure quickly downstream.
The plant was at half of its capacity of 2.2 million gallons at 5 p.m., Hall said.
"I'm not real worried right now," he said, "but at this point in the winter, if there was a big fire or something, we might have a problem."
The normal operating capacity at the plant should be restored by early today, Hall said.
Henne spent the day monitoring the situation and was asking the town's water customers to conserve water as of 6 p.m. Saturday.
Major town and county industries served by town water were notified of the situation, as was the state Department of Environmental Quality. A DEQ representative could not be reached to assess the threat, if any, posed by the manure.
"It's been one heck of a January," Henne said. "And we've still got February and March to go."
In the past few weeks, the town of Rocky Mount has had to dig out of snowstorms using limited resources and fight a major fire that gutted a historical building on Main Street.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB