THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 44 lines
Smithfield Foods' recently expressed concern for the environment is laudable but, under the circumstances, bewildering.
After years of negotiations, state environmental officials had been led to believe the company was about to agree to pipe sewage from its slaughterhouse and pork-processing plants in Isle of Wight County to a Hampton Roads Sanitation District treatment plant in Suffolk.
The State Water Control Board was surprised last week by a letter from an environmental lawyer representing Smithfield Foods seeking a delay. The letter argued that the Suffolk treatment plant is unprepared to handle Smithfield's wastes because high-tech controls are not yet installed. Sending the wastes to the plant, the letter said, would cause more pollution in the James River, which receives the Suffolk plant's treated discharge. The letter suggested delaying the sewage shift for 18 months, until the plant is fully modernized.
Since Smithfield Foods was to pay an estimated $150,000 per month to have the sewage treated in Suffolk, the 18-month delay would save the company about $3 million.
In other words, the company is offering to save $3 million in order to save the environment.
But apparently the delay would harm, not save, the environment.
As staff writer Scott Harper reported last week, Bert Parolari, a state environmental official, told the water board the sewage shift would, in fact, result in ``considerable environmental benefit.'' He recommended the earliest possible connection to the pipeline, which HRSD recently completed at a cost of $17 million.
Furthermore, HRSD General Manager James Borberg stated in a letter that the Suffolk plant is ready to begin accepting Smithfield Foods' waste.
Currently the waste further pollutes the heavily polluted Pagan River.
The State Water Control Board is slated to vote at its June meeting on piping Smithfield Foods' waste to the Suffolk treatment plant.
Smithfield Foods donated $125,000 to Gov. George Allen's political-action committee last fall, when it appeared the money might help Republicans gain control of the legislature. But, of course, that donation should in no way affect the water board's decision. Surely the board will vote to begin piping the waste to Suffolk immediately. by CNB