Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990 TAG: 9004250511
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Bill Warwick, an official at Roanoke Electric Steel, which owns Shredded Products, asked the Bedford County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for help on the company's plan.
This past fall, a fire burned for a month in the Montvale car-shredding company's stockpiles of fluff - the plastic, rubber and cotton insides of cars. Since then, the company has transported its fluff to private landfills.
That, Warwick told the supervisors, has cost the company a substantial amount.
"I'm concerned about the viability of Shredded Products if our problems are not resolved," he said.
He later said the company has transported the 100 tons of fluff produced daily on six or seven tractor-trailers five days a week. Though he would not give an estimate, Warwick said the costs for that were "extremely damaging."
Holding up a county map dotted with red checks, Warwick said the company has looked at numerous potential landfill sites. It has taken an option on a 179-acre piece of land in a "remote" area, but he would not say specifically where the land was.
So far, Warwick said, the possible sites have not scored well under the county's recently adopted zoning system.
Warwick asked the supervisors to offer their help in "working within your system" of zoning. He also asked that, once a site is formally selected, it be acted upon as quickly as possible under the Land Use Guidance System. "I'll talk tonight, tomorrow night, whenever," he said.
The company has not ruled out the possibility of sharing the cost of a landfill with the county, he said.
Warwick apologized for the month-long fire that left some Montvale residents complaining of smoke-induced headaches. But he pointed out that no tests of the air quality at the fire site indicated that it had caused any health problems.
Though officials have said they believed the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion, Warwick said he doubted that.
"I don't know how that fire started, but I will say I don't believe it was that," he said. The burning point for fluff was too high for that type of ignition, he said.
"I frankly believe that fire was set," he said. Later, he said it could have been set accidentally or intentionally.
Overall, he told the supervisors, Shredded Products is "operating a pretty good shop, environmentally."
The company has been fined almost $100,000 by the state Department of Waste Management for what the agency considered illegal storage of the fluff before the fire occurred.
Shredded Products filed a written response asking that the fine not be enforced, according to Cynthia Bailey, head of the waste management agency. The department is to prepare an answer to the company's response.
by CNB