Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 31, 1992 TAG: 9203310286
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The spill killed 191,000 fish on a tributary of the Roanoke River.
Walter Winkle of Riner agreed to pay $2,000 toward a study of damage to the endangered Roanoke logperch. He also agreed to surrender development rights to his farm to avoid fines and penalties approaching $50,000 for the spill of liquefied cow-manure into Elliott Creek.
The agreement to give up development rights in lieu of a fine or other penalty apparently is the first of its kind in Virginia. Charles Stitzer, an enforcement agent for the board, said it was worked out to avoid fines that likely would have forced Winkle, 70, off the farm where he and his two sons milk 125 cows.
A conservation easement for the land will be granted to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a group that administers easements on 80,000 acres of prime agricultural land.
Winkle's farm is small compared to most of the tracts in the state-created program, Stitzer said. Winkle has agreed to fence his herd away from the streambed and to plant a natural buffer strip along the banks.
The easement must be accepted by the foundation board and has to gain the approval of Winkle's bank, which must approve his decision to give up rights that could damage the value of his property.
"He's very heavily mortgaged," Stitzer said.
"I think the bank will go along with it," Winkle said after Monday's hearing. "Maybe we're over with it now."
The water board is satisfied that Winkle is contributing what he can to make up for the accidental spill. The mishap occurred when a rock blocked a valve on a manure storage tank that had been altered without the board's approval, triggering the spill of about 50,000 gallons into the nearly-dry creek bed.
The board's preliminary approval is contingent only on the easement being worked out and the approval of Winkle's bank.
Stitzer said the board favored leniency with Winkle's case but was concerned over the loss of 333 Roanoke logperch, an endangered species.
He estimated that the 15-mile spill, which reached the Roanoke River, affected 10 to 20 percent of the habitat of the fish.
The study of the stream, to be conducted with a $10,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the $2,000 Winkle agreed to pay, will determine how best to restock Elliott Creek with the rare fish.
Although the spill resulted in one of the state's largest fish kills, Stitzer said "after the next good rain, it all washed away and the creekbed returned to pristine condition. The problem is there are no fish in there now."
Also Monday, the Water Control Board agreed to accept $92,500 from the ITT Electro-Optical Products Division in Roanoke for contamination of ground water caused by leaking underground tanks that stored chemical waste solvents.
The leak, discovered last year, has contaminated nine drinking-water wells in the area. ITT also agreed to repay Roanoke County for any costs it incurs in cleaning up the wells.
by CNB