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

DATE: MONDAY, May 10, 1993                   TAG: 9305100029
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GLEN WILTON                                LENGTH: Short

GUNPOWDER RESIDUE MAY REMAIN AT SITE

Army officials say the site of a TNT factory that was closed by an explosion in 1942 still may have scattered gunpowder residue that needs cleanup.

But they say whatever's there poses no real danger.

Munitions experts from Fort Lee came to the old Virginia Ordnance Works in Botetourt County in the early 1980s. They detonated some of the TNT residue that was on the surface and hauled away low-grade TNT that had been buried.

A 1990 Army Corps of Engineers' report suggested that some gunpowder residue remains at the site. But it recommended against doing anything, because after such a long time, removal "would be an impossible task."

Since then, however, the corps has scheduled the site for investigation and, possibly, cleanup in 1997.

"That, at this point, is real tentative," said Ken Crawford, a spokesman for the corps in Huntsville, Ala.

Army spokesmen were not sure why the earlier recommendation for no action had been overruled. Crawford said, however, that the scheduled cleanup date showed "it is low on the priority list."

A recent Associated Press story said the TNT factory was one of more than 250 former munitions sites nationwide that may need cleanup.

Scott Saunders, a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C., said some of the sites on the AP's list actually don't need any attention.

The news service pulled the names of the sites from "an embryonic" Army computer list that includes sites that no longer contain any explosives, Saunders said.

by CNB