Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 13, 1993 TAG: 9305130109
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
What is still up for debate is whether this latest industrial discharge was worse than previous fallout or just part of the price of living near a foundry.
There's also some difference of opinion between owners and experts about the extent of damage to at least some of the vehicles sprinkled by the dust.
A contingent of unhappy New Town residents showed up at the Radford City Council Monday asking for help. Mayor Tom Starnes asked city officials to invite all involved parties to a future council meeting to resolve the issues.
"It's a mess," said John Hannifin, who lives on Roberts Street near the foundry on First Street.
Hannifin said the neighborhood has suffered periodic problems from plant emissions, but "this is the worst one yet."
Hannifin and some of his neighbors are unhappy with what they view as a lack of response from both Intermet, the corporation that owns New River Castings, and the state Department of Environmental Quality's Roanoke Air Office.
He said Tuesday that the Air Office staffers "are nice people, but they're getting the runaround" from Intermet.
Intermet spokeswoman Jan Toennisson said in a press release that dust collection bags inside a bag-house air-filtration system had developed holes, leading to the release of particles on April 24.
Intermet says the problem has been fixed and that New River Castings is "working with local residents to correct any problems which may have occurred."
Hannifin said he thought the company was bending air-pollution permit rules that allow excessive emissions for brief periods, provided they report them.
"They can holler `malfunction' and they're covered," he said.
No one can explain why the dust released most recently apparently has caused more damage than past releases that easily washed away.
"That's something [Intermet] is going to have to decide," said John Lester, an inspector with the Air Office in Roanoke.
He said that lacking a chemical analysis, his office must assume it's the combination of dry sand, organic residues and fine metallic particles - mostly iron oxides - that typically makes up cast iron finishing process residues.
He said he would not expect the material to be hot enough to melt painted surfaces or to be excessively acidic or caustic, either. He also said he doubted that his office would analyze it.
Lester said people living close to a foundry should expect these sorts of incidents.
"This is not an uncommon thing," he said. "It happens."
Larry Amy of the city engineer's office said such occurrences happen with foundries.
"Foundries, by nature, are dirty animals," he said, adding that he sympathizes with the New Town residents. "If you're going to live right next to it, you're bound to get some fallout."
Amy suggested the state conduct another analysis to make sure the material is the same as it was during the last assay two years ago.
Hannifin said the dust specks ruined the canvas top of his daughter's jeep and permanently pitted the finishes of his own two cars.
Experts at two body shops, where New River Castings official Mark Fink asked residents to take their damaged vehicles for evaluation, indicate they can fix most of it.
Bob Hamlin, the service and body shop manager at Thompson's Chrysler-Plymouth in Radford, said he has seen three blemished cars. He called the damage "kind of slight."
But he said two of the vehicles had been repainted before the emission incident, and he suggested the owner take them back to the shop that did the work. Hamlin said he anticipated no problems cleaning up a third car that still had a factory finish.
"We felt like we could clean most of it off," he said. He said he saw no pitting on the vehicle's finish.
Randy Griffin, the paint shop manager at Harvey Chevrolet in Radford, said he used to work in the Detroit area and has seen similar damage. He said the cars he's seen from New Town were "definitely repairable."
Damage was not limited to vehicles.
Randy Muerr, manager of Ferguson Enterprises Inc., a plumbing supply house, told City Council that 73 of the firm's bath units stored outside were pitted. He said the fallout seemed to have melted into the surface of the units.
A damage estimate of the Ferguson inventory was not available.
by CNB