Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 22, 1992 TAG: 9201220339
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BILL BACKS CONTROLS ON WASTE
A pair of legislators, prompted by a county cement company's intention to burn hazardous waste in Botetourt County, have drafted a law that could help Virginia communities block - or at least control - big-money waste industries.Republican Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, whose district includes his home county of Botetourt, introduced the bill several days ago, with House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell as co-patron. The Vinton Democrat represents southern Botetourt County.
Under the legislation, counties, cities and towns could regulate both the siting of solid-waste management facilities and the burning of hazardous waste in kilns, boilers or industrial furnaces.
Grass-roots groups opposing private landfills, incinerators and other waste projects around the state have been frustrated for years by conflicting legal views on local government's authority over such projects.
Last fall, a group called Valley Concerned Citizens: Haz Mat Alert was organized in Botetourt to try to stop Tarmac/Roanoke Cement Co.'s plans to burn hazardous material as a fuel at its Botetourt plant. Last week, the group sent the Environmental Protection Agency and the Virginia attorney general's office petitions signed by 2,275 people against Tarmac's hazardous-waste project.
Tarmac wants to make money taking hazardous waste from in and outside Virginia and use the waste to replace up to a fourth of the coal it now buys for fuel. The company, Virginia's only maker of dry cement and the country's 15th-biggest cement maker, already is burning tires as a fuel.
On Tuesday, Botetourt supervisors endorsed the Trumbo-Cranwell bill without dissent.
County Attorney Buck Heartwell told the Board of Supervisors he thinks existing statutes already empower the county to regulate waste-burning at Tarmac. He said he has been waiting for Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue Terry's opinion on that.
John Yates of Valley Concerned Citizens told the board his group is worried that Tarmac will get the go-ahead from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "any day now" and begin test burns of hazardous waste.
Rather than depend on new legislation that could fail in the General Assembly or take a long time to go into effect, Yates asked supervisors Tuesday for a written opinion within two weeks on whether they could use existing legislation to control Tarmac's waste plans.
John DeLong, a Tarmac engineer, attended the meeting but had no comment during the session.
Afterward, he said, "It just establishes another level of regulation," in addition to state and federal reviews of Tarmac's plans.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY