ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310033
SECTION: NRV-3 CURRENT EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER THE ROANOKE TIMES
An environmental watchdog group cited two water treatment plants in the New River Valley as failing to meet federal Clean Water Act requirements once during a 15-month period.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group said 10 percent of Virginia's industrial facilities and 12.5 percent of its municipal facilities were cited at least once from January 1995 to March 1996 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for violating the act.
The Radford Army Ammunition Plant was listed as one of the facilities with a violation during the second quarter of 1995, and the Peppers Ferry Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in the first quarter of 1995.
Charles Maps, executive director of the Peppers Ferry plant, was able to trace the 1995 violation to a period when heavy rains and sleet caused high flows that washed out some sludge into the New River and led to a high concentration of suspended solids in the river. The plant serves the towns of Pulaski and Dublin, city of Radford and counties of Pulaski and Montgomery.
Maps said Friday that changes in the water treatment are sometimes required to successfully treat organisms in the wastewater.
Howard Angel, administrative officer at the Radford plant, said he had been on the job only two months and was unfamiliar with the 1995 violation. He said people with whom he would need to consult for information would not be available until next week.
Both facilities were shown as being cited only once in the 15-month period covered in "Dirty Water Scoundrels," a report released this week by the environmental group.
Nearly 20 percent of the nation's largest industrial, municipal and federal facilities were listed by the ERA during that period as being in serious violation of the Clean Water Act at least once, the report said.
"The Clean Water Act turns 25 years old this year, yet one in every five major water polluters remains in serious, chronic violation of the law," said Sims , the group's coordinator.
"It is appalling that, a quarter-century into this program, our waterways are still being used as private sewers by environmental law breakers," he said. "Unless illegal pollution is stopped, the Clean Water Act's basic promise of waters safe enough for fishing and swimming will never be realized."
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