Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501300010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WYTHEVILLE - Like its neighboring town of Pulaski, Wytheville is taking steps to eliminate the flow of groundwater into its sewage system.
Pulaski bought a mobile television camera which can actually move through sewer lines and show where breaks are allowing outside water into the system.
Wytheville has used smoke testing to locate cracks or breaks in its lines. Smoke is injected into a line, and the location of holes is determined by where smoke comes out of the ground.
More than 250 Wytheville residential and business properties were found to have leaks in their sewer lines. All but 46 of the property owners have had repairs made or have indicated that corrective action is being taken.
The town is mailing certified letters to the remaining 46 owners, advising them that failure to act could result in their being charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. Unless all leaks are fixed, rainwater will continue to flow into the system and disrupt normal treatment plant operations as well as resulting in added treatment costs.
A budget challenge
WYTHEVILLE - A state industrial discharge monitoring program may cost the town of Wytheville an extra $125,000 in its 1995-96 budget.
Standards imposed by the State Water Control Board and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency make localities responsible for monitoring all industrial discharges into their sewer systems. Localities are supposed to start doing their own enforcement by July.
The task requires the addition of employees and equipment. Some monitoring costs could be recovered by placing permit fees on industrial discharges, but not enough to equal the expenses.
The town is in the process of notifying businesses and industries that could be affected by a monitoring ordinance, which is being prepared by the town's Public Works Committee.
`Wall of Honor' additions
WYTHEVILLE - Four Wytheville citizens will have their names added to the Civic Wall of Honor in Withers Park in the coming year.
They are the late George F. ``Jesse'' James, a long-term member and chairman of the Wythe County Board of Supervisors; Carter W. Beamer, Wytheville's first town manager from 1947 until he retired in 1984; Mary Kegley Bucklen, a lawyer and author who has documented much of the history of Wythe County in some 20 books, and the late James Newell, a historical figure who lived here from the 1760s until his death in 1823 and who was a local militia diarist for the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774.
People make nominations all year for the Civic Wall of Honor, and Wytheville Town Council makes selections from the list each January.
Council also recommended Danny Gordon for reappointment to the Wall of Honor Committee representing the county's Sports Hall of Fame. In addition to the civic and sports Walls of Honor in the downtown park, there is a wall naming Wythe County veterans who have died in wars.
by CNB