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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 1, 1994                   TAG: 9312310044
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

POWER-PLANT HEARING WEDNESDAY

Those for and against Virginia Tech's plans to install a new coal-fired boiler at its power plant will get a chance to air their cases during a public hearing Wednesday. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's Roanoke Air Office has scheduled the hearing on Tech's permit application to add a 146-million BTU per hour boiler. It will be held at 7 p.m. in Room G of the Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center at Virginia Tech.

The public will have a chance to ask questions and make comments about the proposal during the session. The hearing and permit application process will consider emissions only from the proposed boiler unit, not the entire plant, which has ten older boilers already in service. Tech wants to have the new boiler on line by 1997.

Leaders of three environmental groups have called on the university to put the $8.5 million power plant expansion on hold for a year and study more efficient ways to produce energy. The Sierra Club, the New River Valley Environmental Coalition and the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste favor a gas-fired boiler. The groups contend emissions from a coal-fired boiler would pose adverse health effects on local residents and vegetation.

Tech officials have said they will not withdraw the application. The university has said it needs the additional capacity to provide heat for new campus buildings. The new boiler would consume 5.5 tons of coal per hour.

Written comments also will be accepted through Jan. 18. They should be addressed to: Don Shepherd, Regional Director, Department of Environmental Quality, Roanoke Air Office, 5338 Peters Creek Road, Suite D, Roanoke, Va. 24019.

by CNB