Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9406300133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The jury was impaneled last year after residents of the Signal Hill neighborhood blamed Roanoke Electric Steel and Howard Bros. Inc. for producing large dust clouds that left their homes and yards coated with grime.
Since then, both companies have started construction of shell buildings intended to contain dust generated when furnace waste from Roanoke Electric Steel is dumped at Howard Bros., which recycles the waste.
The grand jury has the power to declare the operation a public nuisance and has been monitoring the situation since September.
"I think the grand jury is more interested in seeing if the problem can be corrected than it is in taking legal action," said Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell, who is assisting the panel.
After Wednesday's session, the grand jury decided to reconvene Sept. 21 in Roanoke Circuit Court.
The grand jury toured a recently completed building at Roanoke Electric Steel, off Shenandoah Avenue, in which hot furnace slag is dumped into large pits and hosed down with waste water from the manufacturing process. Dust and steam generated during the process is run through an air-scrubber system. The slag is cooled for 24 hours before it is taken to Howard Bros.
State officials and residents have said that when hot slag is dumped into the piles at Howard Bros., dust and steam billow into the air in clouds that rise as high as 300 feet.
Although it is hoped that the cooling process will eliminate the problem, Howard Bros. also is constructing a building to contain any additional dust at the dumping area.
That building is still under construction, Caldwell said, and the grand jury hopes to inspect it at its next session.
Metals extracted from the furnace waste at Howard Bros. are returned to Roanoke Electric Steel; the rest of the material is sold as fill dirt for road construction and other projects.
by CNB