Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 28, 1992 TAG: 9202280399
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: F. MEADS DAVENPORT and MARY MARGARET KOPP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
INVASION OF THE WASTE BROKERS
A FAMILIAR tragedy unfolds, not in the Cumberland or Allegheny mountains of 1892 but in our Blue Ridge.One hundred years ago, coal companies moved into Appalachia promising jobs and progress. The mountain people were systematically deceived by company agents and lawyers who purchased mineral rights on vast tracts for a few cents an acre. Later, these same people were virtually enslaved in a system of ruthless economic exploitation. Aiding this process were politicians and local officials who, eagerly seeking to further their own interests, used their power to enact laws and influence courts to facilitate company ambitions.
A century later, the legacy of poverty, anger, sickness and environmental devastation stands as a testimony to greed and governmental irresponsibility. Even after the expenditure of millions of federal dollars, the open wounds of the land and the hidden wounds of the people cannot be healed.
Today, the waste industry embodies a threat akin to that posed by the coal companies 100 years ago. These "waste brokers" deal in materials so dangerous they often cannot be stored even at the production site. Byproducts of complicated chemical processes, being expensive and hazardous to handle, are contracted out for disposal.
Operating under such pleasant-sounding names as "environmental recyclers," the contractors search nationwide to discover some undefended place with trusting expectations that can be courted and beguiled by vague promises and no guarantees.
Rural counties like Floyd are virtually equivalent to mountain communities a century ago. Bypassed by economic opportunities, they hope for means to develop their potentials. Left undefended by the Board of Supervisors' action purposely weakening the waste-management ordinance, and being unsophisticated in matters of major industry, Floyd County awaits exploitation.
Typically, waste companies advantageously use resources until lawsuits and public outcries Today, the waste industry embodies a threat akin to that posed by the coal companies 100 years ago. become such liabilities that operations are no longer profitable. Sometimes, they file bankruptcy, nullifying their community responsibility and abandon the devastation they have created: environmental damage, disease and economic havoc; troubles that can only get bigger.
Today, the most valuable commodities are a glass of clean water and breath of fresh air. No amount of money can clean the sky or ransom a polluted river. Even the wealthy hopelessly crave things taken for granted here, for they have no such luxuries.
To what purpose, then, would we bargain away the treasures of nature which are granted to us by God? Floyd County will strike a poor bargain sacrificing precious natural resources for short-sighted gain.
F. Meads Davenport, a welder for Norfolk Southern, and Mary Margaret Kopp, a registered nurse, live in Floyd County.