DATE: Saturday, August 16, 1997             TAG: 9708160278

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

VIRGINIA POWER SETTLES LAND-CONTAMINATION LAWSUIT THE PLAINTIFF, FRANK SPICER CO., HAD EARLIER ACCEPTED A CITY OF NORFOLK'S OFFER.

Virginia Power on Friday agreed to a confidential settlement in a lawsuit filed by Frank Spicer Co. that alleged Spicer's restaurant supply business was contaminated by a city-owned toxic waste site.

The lawsuit, in which Spicer sought $15 million, was scheduled for trial on Monday. Earlier this month, the city of Norfolk agreed to pay $75,000 to Frank and Peggy Spicer to settle its part of the lawsuit, without admitting responsibility for the contamination on Monticello Avenue, near downtown.

``The Spicers are pleased with the results,'' Michael F. Imprevento, an attorney representing them, said Friday. ``It's been a long, hard battle.''

The Spicers alleged that Virginia Power created the toxic mess decades ago, although the utility hadn't owned the property since 1970. Under the terms of the undisclosed settlement, Virginia Power did not admit any responsibility for the contamination as part of the settlement.

According to Spicer's lawsuit, the city knew 12 years ago that toxic contaminants from the site had infiltrated Norfolk's groundwater, but did not tell anyone who lives or owns property nearby.

In 1985, during construction of a sewer line, the city uncovered hazardous waste buried at the site and soon learned that the groundwater was contaminated, the lawsuit says.

Spicer claimed that his property was first contaminated by flowing groundwater. Later, Spicer claimed, toxic gases seeped into his building after the paving because they had nowhere else to escape.

Another nearby business owner, auctioneer Calvin Zedd, who owns a warehouse and office on Monticello, filed his own lawsuit against Norfolk and Virginia Power in October 1996. That suit seeks $3 million.

The problem began more than 100 years ago. Starting around 1853, before the Civil War, illuminating gas was manufactured on the site. Virginia Power took over the operation around 1930, then shut it down and dismantled the plant in 1968.

The city bought the Virginia Power site in 1970. It previously owned half the site.

In July 1995, the city paved the property and created the parking lot to stop rainwater from running through the land and contaminating groundwater.

Five months later, in December 1995, Spicer sued the city and Virginia Power. He claimed the toxic waste - mainly buried coal tars and ash - had contaminated his property across the street and posed a health hazard to him and his employees. KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA POWER SETTLEMENT LAWSUIT TOXIC WASTE

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