ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260034
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
NEW TECHNOLOGY and initiatives helped companies reduce the amount of chemicals released into the environment, DEQ said.
Virginia businesses cut their releases of toxic chemicals into the environment by 63 percent in a recent seven-year period, Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality said Tuesday.
From 1987 to 1994, toxic releases from industries into the air declined 64 percent; into the water, down 82 percent; to treatment plants, down 38 percent; and to the land, down 79 percent, the state agency said. The state report quoted statistics complied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The state attributed the reductions to "voluntary initiatives" and "technological innovations" put in place by Virginia businesses. Those efforts "are going well beyond the requirements of environmental regulations," the state said, adding that toxic releases are generally allowed under state-granted operating permits.
Westvaco Corp.'s paper mill at Covington jumped to the top of the list of the top 10 polluters in the state, with a total of 4.67 million pounds of toxins released into the environment in 1994.
Westvaco had expected to move to the top after the EPA decided the chemical acetone doesn't meet the federal agency's definition of toxicity and removed it from the list of pollutants. That meant the Hoescht Celanese Corp. plant in Giles County that makes fibers for cigarette filters dropped off the list of the 10 major polluters in the new report. The plant had been at the top of the 1993 emissions list because of its huge acetone discharge.
"One thing that's important to understand is Westvaco's releases continued to decline in 1994," said Westvaco spokesman Robert Crockett. "What changed was EPA's reporting requirements and not Westvaco's commitment to protecting the environment and reducing [toxic] chemical emissions."
Ron Hise, technical manager at the paper and chemical manufacturer's Covington plant, said Westvaco releases 15 of approximately 300 chemicals on EPA's list. The plant's reported releases have declined to roughly one-fourth of the nearly 21 million pounds released in 1988, and Hise noted that the plant has continued to make progress in reducing emissions even as it expanded production.
Also making EPA's list for 1994 was the R.R. Donnelley Printing Co. plant in Lynchburg, which came in at No. 7 with 1.4 million pounds of toxins released, all into the air. The company's parent, R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., is building a book printing plant in a Roanoke County industrial park west of Salem.
Among the Virginia localities among the top 10 percent of U.S. localities for toxic releases into the air, water and land were Hopewell, which ranked 47th nationwide; Alleghany County, 59th; Henry County, 68th; Frederick County, 96th; Richmond, 138th; and Isle of Wight County, 146th.
In all, 462 Virginia businesses reported releasing 50.14 million pounds of toxic pollutants into the air, 1.5 million pounds into the water and 1.09 million pounds into the land during 1994. The state ranked 15th of the 50 states for the volume of all releases.
Although the state Department of Environmental Quality released the highlights of the EPA report, the department has been criticized by environmental groups for deciding this year not to release its own comprehensive report of the data the EPA collected on Virginia emissions.
Critics said the decision deprives Virginians of crucial information about environmental degradation. State officials replied that the state report duplicated the federal information and that residents still can get all the information from the EPA.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: virginia's major industrial polluters. color. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB