ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996 TAG: 9609230025
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Roanoke Electric Steel Corp. has been given an extension on completion of a proposed $1 million waste-water treatment plant.
Jim Smith, a compliance officer with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's Roanoke office, said the company has been given until next August to comply with the permit that allows the company to discharge water at its Northwest Roanoke mini-mill.
The agency has been working for many years, Smith said, to get the steelmaker to separate its storm water runoff from the water-based waste from making steel. Both waste streams, which contain concentrations of various metals, have been discharged into Peters Creek.
In the past, the company has been cited for violations of its water discharge permit and been the subject of compliance orders from the agency, Smith said. New permit limits for the discharge set earlier this year, along with the new treatment plant, should provide a permanent resolution of the problem, he said.
In 1992, the state asked the company to submit and implement a plan to correct violations in the levels of lead and zinc allowed in water it releases into Peters Creek.
The company signed a consent order agreeing to identify pollutants in all water flowing from its site, develop a plan to manage the waste and implement it by June 1996.
A company spokesman said the treatment plant is expected to be completed before the state's deadline. It was unable to begin work on the new treatment system sooner because it was awaiting an agreement on state requirements for the handling of storm water.
LENGTH: Short : 38 linesby CNB