Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 11, 1994 TAG: 9405110116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CATHRYN MCCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The dozen or so protesters carried hand-lettered signs and handed leaflets to the crowd waiting on the Virginia Tech campus for the 111 world-class cyclists in the Tour DuPont race.
``Bicycling is great, DuPont is not,'' one sign read.
``In my opinion, they're presenting a fake image,'' said Clinton Jennings, president of the Martinsville Nylon Employees Council, the union that represents a dwindling number of workers at DuPont's nylon factory in Martinsville.
The company paid $2 million to sponsor the race this year, receiving worldwide publicity as a promoter of a healthy, family-oriented sport, Jennings said.
Meanwhile, back in Martinsville, the company is trimming its work force from 1,300 in September to about 660 this fall. It has phased out a Christmas party for employees' children, hot food in the cafeteria, an employee newsletter, a safety committee and other programs, Jennings said.
On the environmental front, Pete Castelli, who heads the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste office in Blacksburg, said people who come to watch the cyclists should be aware of the other face of DuPont.
``It's one of the biggest polluters in the U.S, buying a good image through a bicycle race ... and it stinks, because racing is good,'' Castelli said.
As the nation's eighth-largest manufacturer, DuPont, based in Wilmington, has its share of environmental problems.
In April, the Environmental Protection Agency named it the country's top toxic polluter for the third year in a row.
Hundreds of growers in Florida have filed suits against DuPont, claiming one of its fungicides was contaminated and caused $1 billion in crop damage.
The chemical giant is also in the thick of the ozone debate as one the top producers of CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, which destroy the stratospheric layer of gasses that protect the earth from the sun's harmful rays.
DuPont critics blast the company for selling lead additives for gasoline to developing countries, for mismanaging the Savannah River nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina, and other environmental infractions.
The Martinsville plant, though, has been mostly trouble-free, according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
DuPont has been in ``pretty good shape over the last couple years,'' said Steve Wright, with the agency's Roanoke regional waste management division. The plant is working with state and federal regulators to trace the source of chlorinated compounds that have contaminated the ground water. The company says this has not caused any environmental damage or health threats.
The plant has received several notices of violations from the agency's water division, including one for an oil spill, since 1992. It recently got a year's extension on its 1991 consent order with the agency to resolve problems with its wastewater discharge system.
by CNB