DATE: Wednesday, March 19, 1997             TAG: 9703190522

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER AND ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITERS 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

SIERRA CLUB CHALLENGES SMITHFIELD FOODS CHIEF

Nasty polluter or innocent victim?

To Joseph W. Luter III, the maverick chairman and CEO of Smithfield Foods Inc., his Isle of Wight County meatpacking operation has gotten a bum rap for its environmental record, which he insists is strong and competent.

To the Sierra Club of Virginia, one of the largest environmental groups in the commonwealth, Smithfield Foods has dumped hog wastes into a Chesapeake Bay tributary for years and now is whining because government regulators are cracking down with two big lawsuits.

There is little gray area between these views. In each of their scenarios, someone is right, the other is wrong. On Tuesday, the chief lobbyist for the state chapter of the Sierra Club took the unusual step of challenging Luter to a debate so the public can make up its own mind.

``They're clearly not taking responsibility for their past actions,'' lobbyist Albert Pollard said of Smithfield Foods, one of the largest pork processors on the East Coast. ``He (Luter) is hiding behind big money.''

It was unclear if Luter would accept the invitation. Aaron Trub, a spokesman for Norfolk-based Smithfield Foods, said Luter was in a closed-door meeting late Tuesday and could not be disturbed.

``But knowing Mr. Luter, he just might'' debate the Sierra Club, Trub said with a chuckle.

The debate idea surfaced on the same day Luter placed a full-page ad in three newspapers, including The Virginian-Pilot. Trub said the same ad will run in two other papers today - in Richmond and in Roanoke - costing Smithfield Foods thousands of dollars in advertising fees.

In the ad, which concludes with a signed, personal letter from Luter, the company blasts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the media and blames politics for stirring two government lawsuits over the company's environmental performance. ``We have spent millions of dollars on environmental compliance in Smithfield and have tried as hard as we can to achieve continuous compliance,'' Luter wrote. ``Now, however, we are the ball in a game of political football between the EPA and the Commonwealth of Virginia.''

The ad reiterated company statements about two former employees, Terry L. Rettig and Shannon Williams, who have claimed that state pollution reports were falsified to hide environmental violations - and that company supervisors knew about the misdeeds.

Rettig and Williams both worked in the company's wastewater plants, which are supposed to treat hog wastes before discharging them into the Pagan River, a small Chesapeake Bay tributary in the town of Smithfield. Their claims, the company insists, were investigated but dismissed for lack of evidence.

``Smithfield Foods never knowingly allowed, condoned or tolerated Rettig's misdeeds,'' according to the ad. Rettig is serving a 30-month sentence for lying on and destroying government reports.

Williams, of Hampton, was fired last July for poor job performance, the company says. Williams says he was transferred out of the wastewater division after he took his allegations to senior managers.

In response to the ad, the Sierra Club called a news conference in Richmond. Pollard said environmental groups like his are being out-lawyered and out-financed by a company trying to run from its record as an environmental villain.

Pollard called the Smithfield ad ``Alice in Wonderland-esque.''

``I would dispute fully three-quarters of this ad,'' he said. ``You can't own a $5 billion company, pollute for 20 years, give $125,000 campaign contributions and then call yourself a victim. It doesn't pass the smell test.''

The campaign contributions were given in 1995 by Luter to a political action committee for Republican Gov. George F. Allen. The gifts sparked some controversy because Smithfield was negotiating penalties with Allen's Department of Environmental Quality for past pollution violations.

Pollard said he was especially concerned with a statement in the ad that ``Smithfield's discharges have never caused any significant water quality problems.''

He noted that the Pagan River has been closed to shellfish harvesting since 1970 because of excessive bacteria, and that state health officials consider the river to be ``impaired.''

Pollard said that he would debate Luter ``anytime, anywhere,'' but asked that he be given a week's notice to prepare. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

The Sierra Club has challenged Joseph W. Luter III, above, to a

public debate over the environ-mental record of his firm, Smithfield

Foods. KEYWORDS: WATER POLLUTION

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