Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003081845
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONTVALE LENGTH: Medium
The order also outlines regulations under which Shredded Products must seal off or remove the remains of non-metal car parts - for years dumped underground and later stockpiled at the Montvale junk car recycling company.
The stockpiled car parts - including dashboards, seats and carpets - caught fire in October and burned for 38 days. As state workers and consultants tried to figure out how to put it out, a cloud of gray smoke lingered over Montvale. The company shredded and recycled the metal parts of cars but had yet to figure out a way to reuse the non-metal leftovers, known as "fluff."
Officials at Shredded Products, which is owned by Roanoke Electric Steel, received the proposed enforcement order last week and will meet with Department of Waste Management officials in the next few weeks to discuss it, said department director Cynthia Bailey.
If company officials were to reject the order, the issue could be sent on to the state attorney general's office for enforcement, she said. The company also could try to argue for a reduction in the fine or an easing of the proposed regulations.
Bringing the dumps into compliance with state regulations as outlined in the order could cost Shredded Products even more than the waste management fine of $95,625, Bailey said.
The proposed order gives separate instructions about how Shredded Products should deal with the ash left over from the stockpiled car parts and with the buried fluff.
The company, which was incorporated in 1971, apparently buried bales of fluff until a state waste department official inspected the facility in May 1988 and told the company a month later to close the dump. Shredded Products then covered the materials, Bailey's order says.
The company can either remove that buried fluff to a permitted solid waste facility or leave it where it is. But, if it stays put, the company must submit a plan for capping the dump, monitoring ground water and taking "proper post-closure" care of the site, the order says.
After the 1988 inspection, the company began stockpiling the bales of fluff above the ground where the earlier fluff was buried. Some 16,000 bales of fluff were reportedly in the pile when it started burning.
Under the order, Shredded Products would now test the burned fluff material to determine whether it is considered a hazardous waste. David Griffiths, a consultant for Shredded Products, said Wednesday that the company has already conducted those tests, but has yet to give the results to the Department of Waste Management.
He said he could not release the results until the state officials see them, but added: "There's nothing alarming in them."
If the burned fluff were found to be hazardous, the company would have to take it to a hazardous-waste dump - a costly prospect, according to Bailey.
If the materials are not hazardous, the company could take them to a permitted solid waste dump or could leave them where they are - after studying the soil, drainage information and ground water data.
If waste management officials accepted results of the study, the company would then have to turn in a closure plan with proposals and cost estimates for grading, capping, storm water management and ground water monitoring of the landfill, the order says.
Bailey said it is difficult to make comparisons about the severity of the proposed $100,000 fine for Shredded Products. Since tougher landfill guidelines came into being only a year ago, officials haven't had time to place many fines. Violations on hazardous-waste facilities - where restrictions have been in place a lot longer - have varied from $150 to $200,000, she said.
The state Water Control Board and Departments of Air Pollution and Emergency Services have also billed Shredded Products, a spokeswoman at Emergency Services said. Those agencies want the company to pay about $10,000 to recoup the costs of their services during the fire.
In Montvale on Wednesday, a tattered yellow police line still ran around the perimeter of the Shredded Products' November fire, which sits in an area about 100 yards long behind the company's metal shredder. Dirt barriers border the area where the fluff burned, apparently to prevent runoff from the ashes.
by CNB