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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 7, 1994                   TAG: 9401070100
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MOST SPEAK AGAINST BOILER DURING HEARING

Tech wants to build an $8.5 million steam-producing boiler that would burn 5.5 tons of coal per hour and would augment the energy-production of five boilers already in use.

The Department of Environmental Quality's Roanoke Air Office, responsible for granting permits for the facility, held the meeting in the auditorium of the Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center on the Tech campus.

Nine people spoke at the hearing. They included representatives of environmental groups that have called for Tech to postpone its plans and consider building a natural gas burning boiler, and citizens and engineers offering their own insights into the plan.

"Coal boiler technology is not the most advanced technology that one would expect to be used" at a major research institution like Tech, said Richard Hirsh, a Tech history professor. He complained about the public being involved only at the end of the decision-making process and called for the school to first explore ways to promote greater energy efficiency before looking to expand its energy production.

The boiler would produce 146 million British thermal units per hour.

Tech officials have said the new boiler is needed to heat 600,000 square feet of buildings built since 1980. But concerns about pollution have generated opposition.

The university's main coal boiler is almost 40 years old and is exempt from 1990 Clean Air Act standards, although state inspectors have urged Tech to put in pollution controls. Nearby residents have complained about soot and ash falling on their homes and cars.

Tech has found it too expensive to put environmental controls on the old boilers, although the new one would be subject to tougher environmental standards and would be fitted with some environmental controls.

The levels of emissions that the new boiler would put out - including particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds - meet federal guidelines.

The permit for the new boiler is being considered independently of the entire boiler operation. Some speakers, concerned over the entire system's environmental impact, questioned the appropriateness of that.

"If this is upholding the letter of the law of Virginia, there is something flawed here," said Mary Rhoades, with the New River Valley Environmental Coalition. "They do not have to consider several older boilers that will probably run at the same time."

J.M. Hughes, a Tech engineer who teaches air pollution, said regulations might force additional pollution control measures for the entire operation to be implemented within a few years. Tech should be working for a permit with that in mind, he said.

"It's almost like buying a piece of equipment that you know you'll have to modify in a year's time," he said. "Usually it's cheaper just to buy it correctly the first time."

A DEQ official last month said the permit looks like it will be approved within a few months. The university wants to have the new boiler operating by 1997.

No Tech officials responded during the hearing, and DEQ officials mainly listened, although Don Shepherd, regional director for the Roanoke office, apologized to the crowd for having to hold the hearing during winter break. A previous hearing was held in November, during Tech's Thanksgiving break.

An official written comment period for citizens to ask questions or raise concerns has been extended to Jan 21, so students and faculty who might otherwise have missed their opportunity can he heard, he said.

Still, the lone speaker in support of the facility, 17-year-old Aaron Jones, said the boiler would be more efficient than older ones and that too much attention was being focused on the hearings' scheduling.

"We should concentrate on whether we should give it a permit now," the Blacksburg High School senior said, "and it seems to me we should."