THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230419
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 58 lines
Virginia thought it was a pig's hair away from ending a long and contentious history of water-pollution problems at meat-packing giant Smithfield Foods Inc. when the letter arrived.
It came in the mail this month, written by James E. Ryan Jr., an influential environmental attorney representing Smithfield Foods and its slaughterhouse and pork-processing plants in Isle of Wight County.
To the surprise of environmentalists and officials, Ryan asked that a state-brokered plan for solving decades of hog wastes and nutrients being dumped into the Pagan River be delayed until late 1997.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality had hoped that, beginning next month, Smithfield Foods would stop discharging into the Pagan and start sending its bloody sewage to a treatment plant in Suffolk operated by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District.
HRSD had just completed a $17 million pipeline to carry the wastes from Smithfield to Suffolk. And the state had agreed to temporarily relax environmental limits at the Suffolk plant so it could accept Smithfield's phosphorus-charged wastes without fear of penalty.
Phosphorus is a key nutrient blamed for degrading water quality in the James River and Chesapeake Bay. Experts believe the best way to resurrect the Bay is to cut by 40 percent the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen entering its shallow waters by the year 2000.
But Ryan argued that the Suffolk plant, undergoing an expansion and upgrade, is not prepared to handle Smithfield's wastes because high-tech controls are not installed yet. The result, he said, would only spell more pollution in the James River, which receives the Suffolk plant's treated discharge.
Ryan asked that the sewage shift to Suffolk wait another 18 months, until HRSD completes its plant modernization.
The delay also would spare Smithfield Foods from paying an estimated $150,000 a month in sewage bills to HRSD, which over 18 months, would save the company nearly $3 million.
A delay also would mean that the Pagan, closed to shellfish harvesting since 1970 because of bacteria contamination, would continue to collect Smithfield Food's wastes through 1997.
The case came hastily and unannounced before the State Water Control Board Wednesday, and was met by puzzled stares and plenty of questions.
Bert Parolari, a state environmental official, told the board that the sewage shift would not cause more water pollution, as Ryan claims, but would result in ``considerable environmental benefit.''
``We recommend the earliest possible connection,'' Parolari said, noting that screening technology for pollutants at the Suffolk plant remains far superior to that at Smithfield Foods.
Likewise, HRSD's general manager James Borberg said in a letter that the Suffolk plant is not only ready to begin accepting Smithfield Food's wastes, but that the move would help the Pagan River and the lower James River.
Ryan countered that his client is not convinced and, at the very least, would like an opportunity to negotiate with state officials about connecting to the plant.
The board agreed. And the two sides are expected to sit down next week. A vote on a connection timetable is expected at the board's June meeting. by CNB