Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 23, 1995 TAG: 9508230028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"We made the mistake and now we're moving on," said William Vinson, head of Tech's dairy science department.
But area environmentalists and activists are concerned that Tech wasn't sufficiently punished - the school was not fined - for allowing hundreds of thousands of gallons of waste water to escape in February 1994, and they don't think the school can be trusted to properly dispose of waste in the future.
"There are very few clearer examples of a kind of blatant action ... than what happened over here," said David Sligh, formerly a senior engineer with the Department of Environmental Quality and now head of the Virginia chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
"We know from experience, if you leave too much much wiggle room in the requirements, then they will wiggle out of them," he said Monday night at a meeting sponsored by the Sierra Club New River Group.
The Department of Environmental Quality will host an information session and public hearing at 6:30 p.m. in the Donaldson Brown Continuing Education Center at Tech.
Shireen Parsons, chairwoman of the Sierra Club chapter, said the largest university in the state should set an example for environmental responsibility, but its record shows that such conscientiousness is not a top priority. Many who attended Monday's meeting were concerned that the permit doesn't contain certain information vital to allowing citizens to make informed decisions, and they worry that DEQ won't be watching Tech closely enough.
"When there are violations, nothing happens," Parsons said. "The reason these things go on is because they're tolerated from the top."
Vinson said his department should take responsibility for what happened.
"It was a real problem," he said, when the lagoon was allowed to drain into the creek. "We should've never gotten to that position."
Before water containing both animal and human waste from the lagoon was allowed to drain out, a wet winter of snow and ice storms had filled the lagoon so much its dam was close to bursting, Vinson said. He also cited budget cutbacks that have reduced the farm's staff by 30 percent and operating expenses by 25 percent in recent years.
Releasing the water wasn't the proper solution, but it was a one-time mistake that won't be repeated, he said.
"We can't allow it to happen," he said. "We ought to be the leader in this area, not any kind of follower."
A contract to build a concrete lagoon at an approximate cost of $130,000 is out for bid. That should help alleviate environmentalists' fears that the current lagoons are leaking waste into the ground water, Vinson said. Once the concrete lagoon is built, it alone will be used to handle waste.
Vinson said his opponents' arguments and the university's reaction to last year's violation have taken two significantly different paths.
"Their emphasis has been on who's to blame for this, and my emphasis has been, `How do we prevent it from happening again?'"
by CNB