ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994                   TAG: 9402250109
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. LOUIS                                LENGTH: Medium

PAINT BURIAL COSTS NS $6 MILLION

Norfolk Southern Corp. has agreed to pay about $6 million in fines and restitution for illegally burying some 300 cans of hazardous lead-based paint in its railyard at Moberly, Mo., in 1989.

The company's railway subsidiary and two of its supervisors pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson. The employees face up to three years in prison and $250,000 fines.

Powell Sigmon, vice president for safety, environmental and research development of the Norfolk-based company, said the two employees involved had acted on their own and in violation of company policies. He said the railroad cooperated with state and federal officials to clean up and restore the site.

A settlement outlined by U.S. Attorney Edward L. Dowd Jr. and Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said the company will pay a $500,000 fine, part of which could be suspended if the Missouri Department of Natural Resources determines the site has been cleaned up and there has been no ground-water contamination.

It also will pay $500,000 restitution to the federal government for costs and damages and $2.7 million to the state - $1 million of which will be used to restore the flood-damaged Katy Trail State Park and $1.7 million of which will be used for equipment to detect and prosecute other environmental crimes, the officials said.

The company also must clean up the site, about 130 miles northwest of St. Louis, and develop a companywide environmental awareness program at a cost of about $2.5 million.

Nixon said the company also agreed to pay $700,000 to settle civil charges, half of which will be paid to the Randolph County School Fund and half to the Natural Resources Protection Fund.

Gary Mettler of Moberly, an assistant supervisor at what was called Norfolk and Western Railway Co., pleaded guilty to burying the waste. His supervisor, Don Drake, also of Moberly, pleaded guilty to failing to report the illegal burial. Sentencing was set for May 13.

Nixon said the Department of Natural Resources learned of the buried paint in May 1990. 


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