Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994 TAG: 9401280201
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"We discovered that the information that Tech had given us describing the boiler stack was incorrect," said Don Shepherd, regional director of the department in Roanoke.
If the department's computations on this new information are correct, it means that four times as much pollution as anticipated will be generated by the new boiler in the form of nitrogen oxides.
Despite the new information, the department said the emissions are still well within federal guidelines.
Specifically, the department had been told the boiler plant's existing smokestack was 175 feet tall, and the diameter of the opening at top was 5 feet wide, when actually the dimensions are 185 feet and 10 feet, respectively, Shepherd said.
Tech wants to build the $8.5 million boiler, which would burn 5.5 tons of coal per hour, primarily to help heat the university during winter months. The boiler plant is located on the edge of the Virginia Tech campus in downtown Blacksburg.
The school already has two coal-fired boilers, one which is almost 40 years old, and three boilers that burn oil or natural gas. They feed their emissions into the existing smokestack.
When the department was looking at the other boilers, it also discovered that records show Tech exceeded the amount of coal it was allowed to burn in one of them in 1992. Tech presented the state with revised numbers that show the coal use was within guidelines, but the department has asked for verification.
Spencer Hall, assistant vice president for facilities at Tech, said he wasn't sure how the mistakes were made. He said the engineer the university had hired would meet with state environmental officials to review the data.
"Until we look at it in some detail, we couldn't make a comment on it," Hall said.
William Fastabend, an engineer with the Lynchburg firm Wiley and Wilson, the firm hired to work on the project, also would not comment.
"We're not pointing any fingers," Shepherd said. "We're just tying to get it fixed."
The new information is a vindication for environmental groups and opponents of the coal-fired boiler who turned out at a public hearing earlier this month.
Shepherd said the discrepancies were discovered after state officials responded to questions posed at the hearing. Two major arguments dealt with the fact that the permit application only considered the proposed boiler's emissions, and that the public hearings were held during school breaks, which made it difficult for many people to attend.
Now, it appears that opponents will get what they want on both those counts.
"The public asked why hadn't we looked at existing boiler emissions," Shepherd said. "We decided we should." Furthermore, it looks as if the re-figured pollution levels will force Tech to consider all of its boilers' emissions on its permit application.
Shepherd said the department had already decided it would probably have another public hearing, because of the response it received about the previous hearings' timing.
The department received about 20 letters - most of them with unfavorable comments - plus a petition signed by more than 100 students asking that they have a chance to be heard.
If the permit must be redone, another public hearing would be mandated.
"It just proves the fact that the community has to be a watch-dog all the time because no one is above accountability, even the largest university in the state," said Mary Rhoades, chairwoman for the air quality commission of the New River Valley Environmental Coalition.
"Without the hearing, even though they were poorly attended, there wouldn't have been the re-evaluation," said Richard Hirsh, a Tech professor and opponent of the project.
"Obviously the process was helpful," Shepherd said. "It worked."
No date has been set for a hearing.
Regardless of whatever changes need to be made in the permit application, Tech should be able to move forward on the project.
"It's not like we have to go back to square one," Shepherd said. "I don't see any fatal flaws." "We're hoping that the permit will get issued and get on with the project," Tech's Hall said. "We have a need for that boiler."
by CNB