Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990 TAG: 9005100709
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COVINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Circuit Court Judge Duncan M. Byrd Jr. decided in favor of Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, who filed suit last week saying Kim-Stan has continued to pollute local waters despite warnings from the state.
Earlier this morning, Kim-Stan's lawyer and one of the dump's managers walked out in the middle of a hearing, claiming the state violated rules of due process and that the Circuit Court here has no jurisdiction to rule on the state's efforts to close the dump.
Joe Roberts, Kim-Stan's lawyer, and Shelcy Mullins Jr., one of the dump's managers, walked out 30 minutes into the hearing before Byrd. The two men left after Byrd rejected Kim-Stan's motion to dismiss the state's suit seeking to shut down the dump.
"I say this court has no right to hear it," Roberts said outside the courtroom. He said, however, that if Byrd orders the dump closed today, Kim-Stan probably will obey.
Before he left court, Roberts asked Byrd to allow a few days before any closure so dump operators could alert trash trucks already on their way to the dump from Northeastern states. Kim-Stan is located in Selma, near Clifton Forge.
Roberts also said he probably will appeal any shutdown order.
He told Byrd that the state has broken its own rules by not allowing Kim-Stan 30 days notice and not holding administrative hearings before issuing orders against Kim-Stan in recent months.
Monday, the state Department of Waste Management ordered that Kim-Stan's operating permit be revoked later this month because it is running an illegal open dump.
Roberts told the judge that the men who bought the dump in 1988 are operating it under its original 1972 permit, and therefore new state regulations on landfills do not apply.
In response to Kim-Stan's claim that it had not received proper notice of the state's actions, Assistant Attorney General Pat O'Hare told the judge that state law allows quick action in cases such as Kim-Stan's.
"There is the threat of immediate harm to the environment. It's not just a threat," O'Hare said. "It's happening today."
The state has been in a frustrating legal tangle with Kim-Stan since the dump was accused of causing a fish kill in a pond last June. Alleghany County citizens have been pressuring the state to close the old dump since new owners began taking out-of-state garbage in 1988.
by CNB