ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Smithfield Foods Inc. is asking the Virginia Supreme Court to throw out a lower court's order requiring the company to inspect its waste-treatment plant daily.
An Isle of Wight County judge issued the order last month following two spills of hog-slaughter waste at the Norfolk-based meatpacking company.
In an appeal to the Supreme Court, Smithfield said the spilled waste didn't enter state waters and therefore didn't violate the company's state pollution permit.
A court order to ward off another spill would have been appropriate only if Smithfield had violated its permit, company lawyers said.
Monday's appeal is the latest in a running legal and public-relations battle between the state and Smithfield over the company's alleged pollution of the Pagan River.
A pump failure at a Smithfield treatment plant Dec.11 resulted in two spills from a waste-holding basin. In the first spill, the waste flowed into a drainage ditch near the river. A smaller amount spilled in the second incident.
The next day, Gov. George Allen asked Attorney General Jim Gilmore to seek a court order to prevent further pollution.
That same day, March Bell, deputy director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, called the amount of spilled waste ``significant.''
Neither side has specified how much waste was spilled. But both sides agree that the waste didn't enter the nearby Pagan River.
Smithfield lawyer Anthony Troy said Tuesday that the agreement on that point is at odds with the ``ballyhooing that March Bell and others presented to the governor and the public.''
In reply, Bell said: ``I wish Smithfield and Tony Troy would spend as much attention on operating their plant as they do on these legal details.''
The state and federal government are suing Smithfield over the company's alleged pollution of the Pagan River with fecal bacteria and other waste.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB