Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 6, 1990                   TAG: 9003062027
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

DISMISSAL LIKELY FOR SUIT IN KIM-STAN SHUTDOWN

The office of Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue Terry said Monday that U.S. District Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr. notified attorneys for the state and for the Alleghany County landfill that he would file an opinion today to abstain from hearing the case.

Terry welcomed the judge's decision. "This is a state matter," she said, "and it is best resolved at the state level."

Kim-Stan's lead attorney, Jack McClard, could not be reached for comment Monday. If he pursues the suit, which accused the state of violating Kim-Stan's due-process rights in a two-week shutdown last summer, it could be refiled in Alleghany County Circuit Court in Covington.

Merhige's action may reactivate the state Department of Waste Management's attempt to revoke the private dump's state permit because of failure to halt pollution. A revocation hearing was postponed last month until the federal trial.

Terry's office also said the judge's decision could spur new action on a suit from last year. In that suit, the state Water Control Board sought an injunction and civil penalties to force Kim-Stan to stop discharging polluted waters off its site near Clifton Forge.

"I anticipate that we will go forward on both fronts as quickly as possible," Terry said Monday.

The state has been in a frustrating legal tangle with Kim-Stan since the dump was accused of causing a fish kill in a pond last June. Alleghany County citizens have been pressuring the state to close the old dump since new owners began taking out-of-state garbage in September 1988.