Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408220082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One site is the Cycle Systems recycling facility on Broadway Street Southwest. The EPA did not identify the other.
Lead, arsenic, barium and other heavy metals were found at levels sometimes twice the federal standards at the two sites, said Rich Fetzer, who works in the EPA's Superfund program in Philadelphia.
Other sites also may exceed Superfund levels and could require cleanup in the near future, he said.
The sites do not necessarily pose a public health threat - "as long as you're not on the soil and rolling around on it or kicking it up," said Jack Kelly, a U.S. Public Health Service official who works with Superfund sites.
The properties are privately owned, so few people have access to the contaminated areas, and heavy metals tend to stay where they are, he said.
Earlier this year, at the request of the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA took more than 100 soil samples at about 20 properties as part of an ongoing environmental assessment in preparation for the Roanoke River flood-control project.
John Peters, the city engineer, said the discovery of Superfund sites probably will not delay or alter the project.
"Basically, it will clean up those sites for us and we'll be given a clean bill of health," Peters said.
Karen Melvin, an EPA enforcement official, said her agency is talking with Cycle Systems about the company doing the cleanup under federal oversight. Company executives were unavailable for comment Friday.
Peters said it is his understanding the EPA will use Superfund money to clean up the other site, and will recover costs later.
Superfund is divided into two programs with different pollution standards.
One is based on acute or immediate health risks, which require removal of the contaminated soil. Cycle Systems and the unnamed site fall into this category.
The other is based on long-term, chronic health effects, which require remediation over a longer period of time.
The EPA has identified 12 properties along the river that meet the latter standard, Peters said. He added that the contamination may not be entirely within the area needed for the flood-control project but could be farther inland.
The Corps, which is paying for about two-thirds of the $38 million flood-control project, did an environmental assessment of the river in 1984, said agency spokeswoman Barbara D'Angelo. These sites were not discovered then because the Superfund rules had not been fully developed, she said.
Peters said it may still be another three years before construction on the project begins.
The city continues to negotiate with the state about what to do with the estimated 800,000 cubic yards of silt and dirt that would be dredged as the river channel is deepened and widened. The city's own environmental assessment shows the river banks are laced with petroleum, heavy metals and other pollutants.
Some of the dirt would be clean enough to use as berms in the project, Peters said. The rest may have to be dumped in a specially built landfill.
He said the Corps may agree to pay a portion of the cost to dispose of the dredge, unless it is found to be hazardous waste.
by CNB