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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990                   TAG: 9004030135
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: IVANHOE                                LENGTH: Short

IVANHOE PBC CLEANUP EFFORTS TO INTENSIFY

The second phase of cleaning up chemical contaminants at the former National Carbide plant site in Ivanhoe will get under way next month and probably will take about 40 weeks.

Part of the site, which is now an industrial park, was found to contain polychlorinated biphenyls. A preliminary removal of materials has been under way for months.

The second phase will include more sampling and analyzing and probably some more removal, said Carrie Dietzel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency community relations representative.

She and Jamie Walters, community relations specialist with the Virginia Department of Waste Management, visited Ivanhoe recently and talked to some of its citizens about the cleanup plans.

"At this point, we don't expect to find that there is a significant threat to health. We feel that the site has been fairly well stabilized in terms of immediate health concerns," Dietzel said. "We do expect to find some level of PCB contamination and we expect to be removing some additional materials from the site."

Maxine Waller, president of the Ivanhoe Civic League, said her concern is that there might still be some undetected PCB contamination. She urged citizens to report any they might know about. "We'd just like to see it completely cleaned up," she said.

- Southwest bureau

by CNB