Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990 TAG: 9006220600
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"We're still watching it," Charles Stitzer, an enforcement specialist with the board, said Thursday. "As long as water quality is impacted, we'll stay involved."
Metals from the old Allied Chemical site in Pulaski have been leaching into the creek for the past few months and settling in the sediment.
Storms churn up the metals - which include iron, lead, zinc and selenium - and carry more of them into the creek. The water sometimes turns a rusty red that follows the flow of the creek into Claytor Lake.
"You can't see anything out there right now," Robert Terrell, who lives at the creek, said Thursday evening. "That's a danger - out of sight out of mind."
The creek looks different when its raining.
"You see streaks of red," Terrell said. "They're not as obvious as they were when the rains were heavier. Earlier this year, it was an ox-blood red.
"It was a nightmare."
Health officials have said water in the creek and lake is safe for swimming and the fish are safe to eat. But biologists with the control board say they can find little or no aquatic life in Peak Creek just below the plant site.
Much of the runoff that has been polluting the creek sweeps across a parking area at Pulaski Mall and onto the chemical piles. That runoff could be stopped by this afternoon if Downtown East finishes construction of a diversion pipeline on schedule. The pipeline is designed to catch runoff from the mall and snake around the Allied property, carrying clean water to the creek.
"On paper, it looks like the pipeline should do a good job," Stitzer said. "We'll have to wait and see what the effect is."
But the pipeline will not stop runoff from rain that falls directly onto a series of wine-colored crevices, known to state officials as "the little Grand Canyon."
The Department of Waste Management and Environmental Protection Agency took samples from the site recently that should help determine the next step in stopping the pollution. The samples should be back and analyzed by the beginning of July.
"I wish we could be environmental czars and come in with a white wand and wave it and fix everything immediately," Stitzer said. "But you have to go through the process."
The process has been a long one to some citizens who live along the creek and lake, though Stitzer said that as bureaucratic action goes, progress has been quick.
"It's a start," said Clarke Cunningham III, leader of the newly formed Coalition for a Clean Claytor Lake. "I wish it had been done back in April when it was ordered. Better late then never, I guess."
The Control Board sent Downtown East a letter in March asking that the runoff be stopped by April 30. When the runoff had not been stopped by that date, board officials set a hearing for June 25.
"If we'd had the hearing, we would have only asked them [Downtown East] to do what they've already done, anyway," Stitzer said. "We're not washing our hands of this and we're not walking away, either. We will continue to monitor the situation."
H.W. Huff, general partner for Downtown East, said so far he has spent about $50,000 on lawyers, consultants, contractors and supplies.
"We've done everything that the Water Control Board has approved so far," he said. "We're expecting more. This is just temporary - a pipe on top of the land."
Officials with the Department of Waste Management have said future actions may include covering the site with a clay cap. An analysis of the samples will determine that, they said.
by CNB