Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLAND LENGTH: Medium
"After Governor Allen appointed new people to the board, they turned around and relaxed the regulations," state Sen. Jack Reasor, D-Bluefield, said at a Department of Environmental Quality hearing on the project Monday night.
"All of a sudden now, this permit can be improved under these new regulations. ... I have a grave concern about how this process has been handled."
Even his Republican challenger, Frank Nunez, said he got no support from Allen in trying to derail the project.
"The good news is I made a good-faith effort. The bad news is it fell on deaf ears," Nunez said, speaking more to the 170 people attending than to the hearing panel. "I am here to let you know that I support you, that when I become your new state senator I will do everything in my power to see perhaps that this will be reversed."
Reasor and Del. Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville, got a two-year moratorium on such incinerators through the General Assembly three years ago. They tried to get it extended for another two years but got only nine months, which are up. Reasor said he agreed with Allen that "Virginia is open for business," but that did not mean the state had to let everything in.
Thirty people spoke at the 31/2-hour hearing in the hot Bland High School gymnasium. They all opposed the Caselin project for building two incinerators near Bastian to process up to 1,680 pounds each per hour of imported medical wastes.
Larry Owens, assistant DEQ division director for Southwest Virginia, later said the period in which people could send written comments would be extended for 30 days past mid-August.
Bland County Supervisor Frank Chandler was among those who had asked that the comment period be extended.
"Are you sitting here to listen to our concerns, or are you sitting here because the state code says you have to do this and your mind is already made up?'' Chandler asked. He said the county would fight the project in court if DEQ approves it.
Some of the speakers took issue scientifically with the model used by Caselin to show that emissions from the incinerators would be harmless.
George Stevenson, an environmental consultant and geologist from neighboring Mercer County, W.Va., presented a counterstudy showing that the terrain would cause the emissions to hang in the air rather than disperse before rainfall brought them down.
Melinda Belcher, whose dairy farm is closest to the proposed Caselin site, fought back tears as she spoke of chemicals contaminating her cattle and milk. "I plan to sue the county as well as your board if this does happen," she said. "I may go down first, but I'm going to be the biggest pain you ever met."
The county Board of Supervisors voted to welcome the project several years ago, but quickly changed its mind when widespread opposition surfaced. The supervisors and residents have been fighting it ever since.
by CNB