DATE: Sunday, March 2, 1997                 TAG: 9703020058

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  138 lines

SEWERAGE DIRECTOR TRANSFORMED AN OUTDATED SYSTEM MAN FULFILLS PIPE DREAMJIM BORBERG MADE THE REGION'S WASTE AUTHORITY ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED IN THE NATION. LAST YEAR, ITS NINE PLANTS ACHIEVED A FIRST: NOT ONE ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATION.

Jim Borberg opened the metal door to the sewage treatment plant. Inside, a dark green river of raw sewage flowed into huge concrete pools, casting a thick smell of rotten eggs that quickly overwhelmed two visitors.

Borberg didn't flinch.

``I guess I'm just used to it,'' he said, a grin spreading across his usually stoic face, a sign he was enjoying watching his guests cower and grimace from the odor.

No wonder his nostrils are immune. Each day since 1978, Borberg has been smack dab in the middle of sewage as director of the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, the agency that handles human and industrial wastes of more than 1.5 million people in southeastern Virginia.

He is, it can be said, Mr. Sewage.

On Saturday, Borberg officially relinquished this rather thankless but important title. At 67, he is retiring to a quieter, and certainly sweeter-smelling, life at his Virginia Beach home and on his beloved sailboat.

Donnie Wheeler, a biologist by training, takes over HRSD this week from a man who, many government officials and environmentalists agree, quietly shaped one of most respected and best-performing waste authorities in the country.

``HRSD, in many cases, has been held up as a model for how a regulatory government should work,'' said Joseph Maroon, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia, a large environmental group that often does not speak so highly of sewage authorities. ``They're open to public input, and they've done some real pioneering work.''

It has not been an easy road.

CONSIDER THAT WHEN BORBERG accepted the job 19 years ago, the region was served by six undersized and leaky sewage plants that routinely spit excessive pollutants into streams and rivers that empty into the Chesapeake Bay.

Money to upgrade the plants was always hard to find, Borberg remembers, and government regulations seemed to continuously demand better and better performance, regardless of the cost.

But last year, amid another expansion project and despite thousands of opportunities to fail, HRSD's nine sewage plants did not violate a single environmental limit - a feat never before accomplished in the authority's 57-year history.

``That's something I'm very proud of,'' Borberg said. ``I can still remember when we wondered if we'd ever have a single month without a violation, let alone a whole year.''

How clean is treated sewage these days? HRSD this summer will launch a pilot project long championed by Borberg in which purified wastewater, and not drinking water, will be used to irrigate lawns.

A park in Newport News will be the guinea pig for this experiment, which Borberg hopes will someday lead to a full-fledged wastewater recycling program that will spare precious drinking water supplies and save money.

``Thanks to his leadership, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District has made remarkable strides in demonstrating and implementing innovative techniques to conserve and even improve the quality of our water resources,'' Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop said of Borberg.

Her comments came Friday as she and Gov. George F. Allen presented Borberg with the Virginia ``Friend of the Bay Award'' for his years of environmentally conscious work.

WHILE BORBERG DESCRIBES HIMSELF as an environmentalist, he hardly fits the image. A meticulous manager with a quiet demeanor and owlish features, Borberg talked just as much about cost and economic impact as he did about improving the environment.

But his tenure, colleagues say, will be best remembered for his persistence in looking to the future, in trying to get ahead of the curve by investing in progressive, yet cost-effective, solutions.

To wit: Borberg was instrumental in establishing the first sewage treatment plant in Virginia that relies on microscopic bugs, and not toxic chemicals, to purge damaging nutrient pollutants.

The Virginia Initiative Plant, on the banks of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, opened in 1991. It has since been visited and studied by engineers from other states and nations, including Russia and Japan.

In special climate-controlled tanks, the bugs live, grow and die. More important, though, they eat the two nutrients blamed for sagging water quality in the Bay - nitrogen and phosphorus.

The process, called biological nutrient removal, is now being touted across Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., as the next step governments should take in restoring the Bay to a semblance of its former self.

Among other creations Borberg has pursued: a program where sewage sludge is burned in an incinerator, then molded into cute garden ornaments and sold to customers.

He also started an award-winning apprentice program that, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor, helps train employees to run sophisticated, modern plants.

THERE WAS A TIME IN Hampton Roads, before World War II, when sewage treatment did not exist. Toilets and sanitary drains emptied straight into local waters. No filters, no chemical treatment. Just plenty of mess.

Not surprisingly, this lack of sanitary controls led to thick water pollution and an occasional outbreak of sewage-related illness.

Finally, in 1940, local governments decided to do something about it: They created the Hampton Roads Sanitation District.

The agency - which some cities felt was unnecessary and even voted against forming - began the unsavory task of finding a cleaner way of collecting, purging and releasing human and industrial wastes back into the environment.

Borberg, a Missouri native, joined HRSD in 1973. He was coming off 20 years in the Navy as a civil engineer and construction chief. His stints included a tour in Vietnam, where he built urban hospitals and jungle airfields.

He was promoted to general manager in 1978. The authority then employed 420 people and had an $11.7 million budget. Today, like the region itself, those figures have greatly expanded - HRSD has a staff of 726 and a budget of $57 million.

HE HAS NEVER BEEN ONE for the limelight, preferring quiet diplomacy and detailed research. Emotion is not a big thing in this technical, precise field.

Borberg is visibly uncomfortable talking about himself and his accomplishments. Indeed, he often answers questions in these personal areas with broad one-sentence answers.

For example: ``What's the best thing you've done in your career here?'' he was asked during a recent interview.

He paused, leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. ``Well, I've tried to structure an organization to solve problems and keep improving,'' he finally said.

Hmmm.

When pressed for something more specific, he just shrugged. ``I don't know,'' he said. ``I just enjoy the work. We're on the edge of new technology; we're out there in front.''

Wheeler, his successor, says his top priority is keeping things progressive.

``Don't expect many sweeping changes around here,'' said Wheeler, 52. ``I hope to just carry on the tradition.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color photo]

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot

Jim Borberg, 67, led the Hampton Roads Sanitation District since

1978. He retired Saturday after turning the region's district into

one of the nation's best. His successor, Donnie Wheeler, hopes to

continue the tradition. KEYWORDS: PROFILE

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