CLINTON BUDGET HAS $4.1 MILLION FOR BUENA VISTA

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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 9, 1993                   TAG: 9304090176
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
CLINTON BUDGET HAS $4.1 MILLION FOR BUENA VISTA
President Clinton's budget for fiscal 1994 contains $5 million so that flood-reduction projects in Roanoke and Buena Vista can stay on schedule.
The budget released Thursday includes $4.1 million in construction money for the Buena Vista project to protect the downtown business area.
The president also provided $900,000 for more environmental tests along the Roanoke River to determine the extent of hazardous or toxic waste that might be buried.
The funds will help pay for $1 million in consultant studies of 40 sites where preliminary tests have shown potentially contaminated soil. The city will pay the rest of the cost.
Depending on the pollution levels, the city and Army Corps Engineers will have to decide whether to clean up some areas or redesign the project to avoid them.
The initial tests showed that the soil might be contaminated with chromium, lead, silver, zinc or other metals likely to be found in an industrial corridor.
At low levels, these materials are not dangerous, but they can cause health problems at high levels, city officials said. They could be uncovered when the river's channel is widened to reduce flooding.
Kit Kiser, director of utilities and operations for Roanoke, said officials had hoped the federal funds would be in the president's budget, but weren't sure. "This is the money we needed for the tests," he said.
With $5.1 million already provided for the Roanoke project in the current fiscal year, the corps soon will complete the engineering and design work, said Sen. John Warner, R-Va.
Warner said the next phase is for Roanoke to proceed with acquiring the land and easements that will be needed.
Construction on the $38 million project is scheduled to begin next year and be finished by 1997. The city's share is $14 million and the federal government's, $24 million.
In Buena Vista, the city and corps soon will sign an agreement to begin construction of the flood-reduction project there. The total cost of that project is $55 million, with the state and city share at $16.4 million.
Warner said the continued funding for the Buena Vista plan "signals a commitment from the federal government to complete the project."
Like Roanoke, Buena Vista has experienced repeated flooding, including a major one in 1985 which caused a $50 million loss.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB