DATE: Saturday, September 6, 1997           TAG: 9709060370

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SMITHFIELD                        LENGTH:   77 lines

SMITHFIELD TRIES TO COLLECT FINE OF $12.6 MILLION FOR POLLUTION

This historic town wrapped around the Pagan River has a fresh idea for the U.S. Department of Justice: Send us the money.

In a detailed letter sent Thursday to the department's environmental enforcement section, the town requested that the $12.6 million water pollution fine recently imposed on Smithfield Foods Inc. be spent in town and on improving the quality of its surrounding waters.

``Our position on this matter may be best summarized by a recent environmental awareness campaign slogan, `Think Globally, Act Locally,' '' said Town Manager Peter M. Stephenson.

``I am confident that Smithfield Foods Inc., being a good corporate citizen, will support this initiative to continue its giving back to the local community,'' he said. ``I am equally hopeful that the federal court will support our proposal to make very tangible improvements to the overall quality of the Pagan River.''

Accompanying the plea sent by Stephenson - at the direction of his Town Council - was a detailed spending plan.

He said the town would like to build a stormwater management system. Runoff from storms now goes directly into the river.

Smithfield also needs parks along the river to enhance public access, to clean up Jones Creek - a tributary of the Pagan - and to pay old debts, the letter said.

Smithfield, with a population of about 2,500, still owes more than $2 million in construction costs on a sewage treatment plant that went out of service last July, when the town joined the Hampton Roads Sanitation District.

The packing plant hooked onto a new sewage line about a month ago. The regional line resulted from an agreement between the state and the packing plant meant to end pollution of the Pagan. But the move wasn't soon enough to prevent Smithfield Foods from being cited numerous times for polluting the river.

On Aug. 8, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith levied the huge fine - a record for the Clean Water Act - against the pork processor. The company is appealing. In the past, Smithfield Foods has fought similar cases all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The town may never see any benefit from the case.

Still, when Smith imposed the fine, she recommended that all or most of the money be spent on restoring the Chesapeake Bay, with special attention to the Pagan and James rivers.

It wouldn't be the first time that Smithfield Foods' CEO Joseph W. Luter III's hometown has benefited from the packing plant owned by a favorite son.

Luter has given the town money to pave Main Street sidewalks in cobblestones. He has placed expensive brass statues downtown. And he operates several other businesses in Smithfield that add tax dollars to the town's coffers.

The company - with more than 17,000 employees and annual sales in excess of $3 billion - is building new corporate headquarters on the riverfront.

Anthony Troy of Mays & Valentine, the Richmond law firm that represents Smithfield Foods, said Friday that it was ``obvious'' that the town was responding to Smith's opinion that the money be spent locally.

He said, ``If money must be spent, it makes more sense to spend it locally than have it go to some dark hole in the sky'' in Washington. He said he hopes that whatever money is eventually paid by Smithfield Foods does not go to cover federal deficits.

He said he has seen the letter from the town.

``If there is money to be spent eventually, the town obviously would like it spent locally,'' Troy said.

Stephenson's letter and spending plan were directed to Sarah Himmelhoch, a trial attorney with the Justice Department's environmental enforcement section. He said that the request from the Town Council was prompted by a comment Himmelhoch made to Town Attorney William H. Riddick III.

Stephenson said that she told Riddick she wanted to see the money paid by Smithfield Foods spent in the town and in Isle of Wight County.

Himmelhock said a brief on the department's position will be filed in U.S. District Court in Norfolk Monday.

No date has been set for the Smithfield appeal. It will be heard by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, probably early next year, Troy said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Area Shown: Isle of Wight County KEYWORDS: SMITHFIELD

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