
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 27, 1995                   TAG: 9506270059
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

CLEANUP TO COST $25,000

Virginia Tech expects the cleanup of fuel oil that leaked into its Duck Pond to take three to five days and cost $25,000, a university official said Monday.

Employees with LCM Corp., a Roanoke-based environmental cleanup company, worked late Sunday and all day Monday to contain the oil in the upper level of the pond, a campus landmark. Tech hired LCM for the job.

The cleanup crew spread more booms and absorbent materials on the pond Monday. Workers also are using a vacuum-type device to remove more oil from the pond surface and from nearby soil and overhanging branches, Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said.

There had been no apparent damage Monday to ducks, geese, fish or other wildlife in the pond. "We think that we've really mitigated most anything that could have gone downstream of us," Hincker said.

Because the oil leaked from underground, there's no way yet of knowing how much escaped, Hincker said. Right now, cleanup crews only know how much oil they've collected, which is more than 100 gallons.

The oil flowed about a half-mile through storm drains from a faulty valve at the Tech power plant on Turner Street to the pond. The environmental cleanup also will cover the storm drains. Tech employees initially contained the oil in a retention area beside Campus Drive. But a Sunday afternoon rainstorm flushed the oil past the first containment area and into the upper level of the pond.

Meanwhile, university utilities employees dug up the leaking valve Monday and intend to repair it by today. The source of the fuel oil - the university's backup heating system - was shut down Sunday after the leak was discovered.

by CNB