Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503070014
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The federal agency will be in town Wednesday and Thursday to meet with residents individually or in groups to talk about the complex cleanup plan.
The informal meetings will be nothing like the public hearing that took place last month, which was ``rather intimidating,'' said Russell Fish, EPA project manager.
``The EPA is up on stage; you have to come up to the microphone in front of all your neighbors,'' he said. Only five people spoke at the February hearing.
This time around, people are invited to drop by to ask questions and relate their concerns in a more casual setting.
``I think it's good if you can just go talk to someone and say, `I'm concerned about this or that.' That's what we're trying to address,'' Fish said.
Such a follow-up visit to a Superfund community is not unusual, he said. ``We sense there was still some confusion; and it's such a large site.''
Three separate areas make up the site: two huge waste ``ponds'' where Olin Chemical Corp. dumped soda ash; and the former chlorine plant, now demolished.
Olin operated a massive manufacturing complex in the small mountain town in Smyth County until 1972, when new environmental regulations forced the outdated plant to shut down. Shortly after, mercury was discovered in the North Fork of the Holston River, which has been under a fish-eating ban ever since.
Olin officials have denounced the EPA plan, which would cost about $57 million.
EPA officials, including Fish, will be at Saltville Town Hall on Wednesday from 3 to 5 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m, and on Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon.
The public comment period runs through March 20.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.