ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 23, 1995 TAG: 9512250012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
ALTHOUGH A PERMIT allowing CaseLin Systems Inc. to build twin burners has been approved, Bland County folk say they're not giving up, even though state law might prevent them from challenging the permit in court.
Bland County may have lost a battle this week to stop a privately run medical-waste incinerator from being built - but the war is far from over.
This week, the State Air Pollution Control Board narrowly approved a permit allowing CaseLin Systems Inc. to build twin burners that could handle up to 48 tons of waste a day.
"We've stressed all along we want to be good corporate neighbors," said John Olver, a Blacksburg environmental consultant who owns 15 percent of CaseLin, which is based in Blacksburg. His partner is Michael Perkins, a North Carolina businessman who owns the other 85 percent.
The incinerator, first proposed in 1991, meets all the state's technical requirements and will control air emissions better than the only other commercial facility in the state, which is situated in Norfolk, Olver said.
But Bland County residents and officials are not giving up, even though state law might prevent them from challenging the permit in court.
"We'll check out every option we have," said Molly Thompson, vice chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors. "They aren't here yet."
James Cornwell, the county attorney, said he will review "our rights to appeal - whether we have a right, first."
The incinerator project may become a test case for the state's controversial "standing" law. In Virginia, a person seeking an air pollution permit can freely challenge the state board's decision.
But others, including residents living downwind and local governments, first must prove that they have an immediate, substantial and financial interest.
Environmentalists say Virginia's law is too strict and denies residents the right to protect their environment and health.
Bland County residents did everything they could to stop the project. They attended hearings, wrote letters and lobbied legislators. The Board of Supervisors once supported the project, but changed its mind in 1992 and passed a resolution opposing it.
"Here you have the best-case scenario of public participation and input, and it didn't really make any difference," said Kay Slaughter, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville.
The standing issue is at the center of a lawsuit between the Allen administration and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which rejected part of the state's air program because it found that the standing law violates federal law.
Allen has said that loosening Virginia's standing law could open a floodgate of meaningless lawsuits and stymie economic growth.
It was the governor's focus on economic growth that led to the air pollution control board's 3-2 vote Tuesday, many Bland County residents said. Two Allen appointees voted for the project, as did the board chairman, a Democratic appointee.
"We're obviously disappointed, but it's not unexpected. Mr. Allen's stacked the deck, so what are we going to do?'' asked Leverett Trump, a retiree who lives a few miles from the site in Bastian proposed for the medical-waste incinerator.
Trump and other residents are worried that cancer-causing dioxins and other pollutants will cause long-term health problems and contaminate agricultural land, wiping out the local dairy industry.
While the standing issue remains unresolved, the county is trying to block the medical-waste incinerator by using its new zoning ordinance. In August, the county zoned CaseLin's land as agricultural, which does not permit medical-waste incinerators.
CaseLin went to the Board of Zoning Appeals, which voted 4-0 for the county, with one abstention. The dispute is now pending in Bland County Circuit Court.
Olver said another legal dispute - this one between himself, Perkins and other investors in a separate company called Tellurian Inc., which has landfill projects in Page County and elsewhere - should not affect the Bland County incinerator.
CaseLin would screen the medical waste for radioactive and hazardous materials, which aren't allowed in the incinerator, Olver said. Most of the waste would come from Virginia hospitals and clinics.
The leftover ash will be nonhazardous and probably buried in a municipal solid-waste landfill in Virginia, he said. He hopes to start burning garbage in early 1997.
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