Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990 TAG: 9003071674
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: By MARY BISHOP STAFF
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Because of political squabbling in Virginia and publicity now appearing in the national media, Kim-Stan is notorious in the garbage industry across the country, said Tim Salopek, president of Waste Placement Professionals in Dayton.
"In the waste industry, everybody knows about it," he said. "It's been politicized and media-ized to death, and maybe rightfully so."
He said he feared his company's reputation would be tarnished by its continued affiliation with Kim-Stan. His firm is consultant to 20 public and private waste facilities in eight states, according to Salopek.
He said the two men from Wise County and two from Michigan who bought the 17-year-old landfill in 1988 and began taking garbage from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania now regret their decision.
Contrary to speculation in Alleghany County, Salopek said Tuesday, Kim-Stan's owners are not making millions.
"They made some wrong moves and so did the state," Salopek said.
Jerry Wharton and Shelcy Mullins Sr., Kim-Stan's owners in Wise County, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
Salopek said Virginia officials have singled out Kim-Stan for unusually aggressive environmental scrutiny.
Hundreds of other Virginia landfills "that nobody really cares about" are leaking toxic waters as bad or worse than those discharged by Kim-Stan, Salopek said. "The difference is, they don't take New York trash."
David Bailey, Virginia director and attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, said Kim-Stan was given months to halt pollution, but failed.
"Now they're bellyaching," he said. "That just doesn't compute in my book."
Salopek said that with the degree of animosity among Kim-Stan's owners, officials of Alleghany County and state agencies and citizens who have been trying to close the dump for 18 months, he doubts the landfill will be closed properly anytime soon.
He placed blame on all parties - from Kim-Stan's owners to the news media to the citizens trying to shut down the dump. The public interest would be best served if all parties sat down together and rationally worked out the best environmental solutions. But, he said, "there's too much animosity between all the groups" and his company was stuck in the middle.
So late last week, Waste Placement Professionals withdrew from Kim-Stan. As of Monday, it was off the job.
"Kim-Stan has just drug us down," Salopek said.
That's just what state officials were saying this week about the legal fight going on over the landfill since June.
Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue Terry said Monday that about 2,000 hours of her staff's time have been spent trying to stop pollution at Kim-Stan, a 48-acre site at Selma, just west of Clifton Forge.
Richard Burton, director of the state Water Control Board, said the drain on his agency from defending itself against Kim-Stan's suit against the state has been "quite substantial." He said his staff has not had time to tabulate a cost figure.
Kim-Stan sued state officials for $25 million last year, claiming they violated the company's due-process rights during a two-week forced shutdown in June. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Richmond dismissed that suit without prejudice - meaning Kim-Stan could refile it in Alleghany County Circuit Court.
by CNB