ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607220043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
The Radford Army Ammunition Plant may not appear on the federal Superfund cleanup list, but hazardous waste sites at the arsenal are being cleaned up under other government programs.
Gov. George Allen's administration recently announced it had blocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from listing the ammunition plant on the Superfund cleanup list, along with six other hazardous waste sites in the state, because the program is slow and bureaucratic.
Officials from the state Department of Environmental Quality and the arsenal said this week the Superfund program would duplicate ongoing efforts to clean up the ammunition plant.
Hassan Vakili, director of DEQ's waste division, said the arsenal is under a program called the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which calls for action similar to that under the Superfund law.
"I don't want to say one is better than the other one," he said. "To me, RCRA has started the procedure that needs to be done. ... It doesn't make sense to take this site and put it on another program."
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is a federal program that is administered by the states. Under this program, 43 "solid waste management units" have been identified throughout the ammunition plant where possible metals, explosive or other chemical contamination could have occurred to the soil or groundwater, according to arsenal officials.
Four sites that have been closed are regulated by the DEQ under state hazardous waste management regulations.
Lt. Col. Paul Wojciechowski, the new plant commander, said the laws for waste storage and disposal were different in past years, resulting in current efforts to clean up "old sins."
Not all of the 43 sites are actually contaminated. Some areas have been cleaned up, while others are just being monitored, Wojciechowski said. Last year alone, he said, the plant spent $2.5 million for cleanup efforts.
The EPA targets a hazardous waste site as a candidate for the Superfund cleanup list through a ranking system. But governors can block the EPA from placing an area under the program, an EPA spokeswoman said. She added that Superfund legislation was passed primarily to deal with abandoned hazardous waste sites.
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