Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 20, 1992 TAG: 9202200366
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
AUTHORITY NOT IN ANY HURRY ON INCINERATOR
New River Resource Authority members assured a concerned citizen Wednesday night that the board has not adopted a position on the Radford Army Ammunition Plant's proposal for a regional trash incinerator.The arsenal's proposal, "Incinerator 2000," would mix the arsenal's hazardous waste with municipal garbage - the first of its kind in the country. It would cost about $75 million to build the incinerator, which would burn 400 tons of trash a day and employ about 50 people.
"We can't have a position on something that's never been presented to us," Jerry White, authority member and chairman of the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors, told Jason Wilson.
The proposed incinerator would burn municipal waste to create enough heat to destroy the arsenal's unusable propellant. Steam from the operation could generate electricity to run the arsenal.
The authority and other governing bodies in the New River Valley will have the opportunity to learn more about the proposed project at a Friday meeting with Army officials and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon.
The idea of a regional incinerator isn't new to the authority - or to Wilson, the Hiwassee resident who asked the authority members where they stood on the matter.
The authority - made up of the governing bodies of Radford, Pulaski County, Pulaski and Dublin - looked at building an incinerator to solve growing waste-disposal needs shortly after it formed in the mid-1980s. The authority abandoned the project because it did not generate enough trash to support an incinerator.
Wilson is one of of about six people who have regularly attended authority meetings over the years.
Wilson said it has become apparent to him that Charles Maus, the authority's executive director, favors the project. He cited a news report in which Lt. Col. Dennis Duplantier called Maus an original booster of an incinerator.
Wilson also was concerned about the possibility that the authority's planned new landfill in Pulaski County would dispose of ash generated from incineration.
"One thing, let me assure you, the colonel is not my spokesman," Maus told Wilson.
Maus said he shared information with arsenal officials on incineration, but "I neither endorsed it or supported it."
Maus said he may have said incineration is a viable alternative, but said he did not recall making any statements about using the new landfill site to bury ash.