PRISON OPPONENTS SEE AIDS THREAT IN WASTE WATER

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993                   TAG: 9303110327
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: CULPEPER                                LENGTH: Medium
PRISON OPPONENTS SEE AIDS THREAT IN WASTE WATER
A consultant hired by opponents of a planned 825-bed state prison says effluent from the prison's sewage treatment plant would pose an AIDS risk.
Richard D. Klein said his conclusion was based partly on a University of Pittsburgh study of the survival rate in waste water of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.
But a co-author of the Pittsburgh study said the research found the HIV virus survival rate fell far short of other viruses, and any risk of HIV transmission from treated or raw waste water is "very small."
The Culpeper case is the first time an HIV issue has been raised during the review of a proposed discharge permit, said Richard N. Burton, executive director of the State Water Control Board.
Plans for the medium-security prison stirred a storm of community opposition, but efforts to block it failed. Now the state Department of Corrections is seeking a permit to discharge 200,000 gallons per day of treated sewage generated by the prison.
John McCluskey, chief deputy director of the Corrections Department, said he was "quite shocked and surprised" when the HIV issue was raised during a public hearing last month before the water board.
Klein, consultant for Citizens for Responsible Correctional Planning, cited the study of a Maryland prison that found an average of 7 percent of entering male inmates tested HIV positive. Dr. Balvir Kapil, chief physician for the Virginia Department of Corrections, said 191 Virginia inmates have tested HIV positive. The state system has 16,808 inmates.
Klein stressed the Pittsburgh study when he concluded that "substantial uncertainty surrounds the potential for AIDS transmission via wastewater . . . there is no zero-risk scenario for AIDS."
According to the May-June 1992 edition of Water Environment Research, the study found infectious HIV is fairly stable in waste water for up to 12 hours but its infectiousness drops sharply after 48 hours.
Klein, a former Maryland Department of Natural Resources official, said the HIV risk could be reduced by a lagoon in which treated effluent could be stored for 48 hours before being released into a stream that feeds a tributary of the Rapidan River.
The water board may take action next week when the request is scheduled for consideration.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB