
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 25, 1994                    TAG: 9406250205 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B5    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940625                                 LENGTH: RICHMOND

VIRGINIA GETS POOR RANK FOR CHEMICALS PUT INTO WATERWAYS \

{LEAD} Virginia ranked 13th worst among the states in the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into waterways in 1992, an environmental group says.

Virginia companies reported releasing 1.9 million pounds of toxic chemicals into state waters, the Washington-based U.S. Public Interest Research Group said Thursday.

{REST} At a news conference in front of the main gate at DuPont Co.'s Spruance Fibers plant in Chesterfield County, representatives of the group urged Congress to strengthen the Clean Water Act to help reduce toxic releases nationwide.

According to the Public Interest Research Group, Virginia's top five water-polluting companies in 1992 were:

AlliedSignal Inc., Hopewell, 911,670 pounds.

Union Camp Corp., Franklin, 480,256 pounds.

Westvaco Corp., Alleghany County, 84,600 pounds.

DuPont's Spruance Fibers plant, 80,129 pounds.

DuPont's Martinsville plant, 71,000 pounds.

Andre Tremper, AlliedSignal's plant manager, said 99 percent of the material the company discharged is ammonium sulfate, a fertilizer.

``If you fertilize your lawn, you probably get some on you in high concentrations,'' he said.

Nevertheless, Tremper said, the company has reduced its discharge 75 percent since 1987 and is working on lowering it more because ``no responsible organization wants to be No. 1 on that list.''

Virginia ranked one place worse than New York, where 1.8 million pounds of toxic chemicals were discharged into waters. Louisiana was the worst polluter with 186.3 million pounds.

Despite Virginia's poor ranking, state and federal officials said the discharges don't mean the public is at risk.

``I'm sure that if there were any problems associated with these chemicals, there would have been some health advisories,'' said Mikal Shabazz, regional coordinator of the Environmental Protection Agency's toxic-release inventory.

Since 1987, when federal law began requiring manufacturers to report toxic discharges, the level of toxic releases in Virginia has dropped by 74 percent.

{KEYWORDS} POLLUTION HAZARDOUS WASTE by CNB