Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994 TAG: 9404050052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN LENGTH: Medium
After acquiescing to an Environmental Protection Agency deadline that forced the plant to stop making ammunition propellant for six days, a temporary solution has been arranged that sidesteps the federal regulation that forced the plant to close.
The arsenal announced Monday afternoon that, "all modifications at the waste-water treatment plant necessary to conform to Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality requirement were completed" Saturday.
Five ammonia tanks will be used to store the water until it is treated.
By not using the open-air lagoon that had been used to treat waste water and that EPA regulations said did not meet minimum technology requirements, the arsenal does not have to answer to that agency.
"It is a permanent, temporary solution," said EPA spokeswoman Ruth Podems. Using tanks puts the regulatory onus solely on the state Department of Environmental Quality. "We're happy that the situation was resolved."
The arsenal is building a new tank that will meet EPA standards. It is to be in operation by this time next year, and completed a year later.
Workers, who were called back Wednesday to take on menial or incidental tasks such as painting and cleaning, took to their regular jobs beginning with Monday's midnight shift.
"Everybody's pleased," said Steve Gentry, an international representative with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union.
The union continued Monday to negotiate with Hercules Inc., the company that runs the arsenal, over compensation for 961 workers' lost shifts. A union official said that could add up to more than $95,000.
The official, who said the union was arguing for complete compensation, said an agreement could be worked out today. He asked not to be named to avoid hampering negotiations.
While EPA officials said last week that the Army and Hercules failed to understand that the agency had no authority to grant an extension on the deadline, other sources painted a slightly different picture.
Congressional sources and Gentry, the union representative, said that Army officials thought they had been misled by the EPA. The Army believed the agency would work with it to find a solution that would have prevented the plant's shutdown.
It was not until a meeting on March 28 - the day before the deadline - that the EPA said no such extension would be forthcoming, Army officials told them.
"It appeared that they were led on," Gentry said of Lt. Col. Bill Forrester and Plant Manager Richard Best. "I think that [Best] and Forrester did everything they could."
He said Army and Hercules officials took a "common-sense" approach with them to the Philadelphia meeting, but were confronted with an absolute reading of the law that allowed the EPA - and subsequently the arsenal - no leeway.
Arsenal officials have declined to engage in a public debate over who may have been to blame for the plant's shutdown, saying such conduct wouldn't help resolve the issue.
Nicole Kinser, public affairs officer for the arsenal, again cited that viewpoint Monday, although she said, "they certainly wouldn't have gone to the [March 28] meeting if they had known in advance" that no extension of the deadline was possible.
by CNB