Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005240379
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SELMA LENGTH: Medium
"The state has a responsibility here," she told longtime protesters at the now-closed landfill, "and the state will exercise its authority."
But Terry made no announcements or promises at her roadside walk by the dump Wednesday morning. She did say state agencies are working on plans for getting the environmental troubles under control.
Stepping along the muddy shoulder of Virginia 696 in black Reeboks, Terry was shown where contaminated landfill waters have flowed under the road, by a historic church and Confederate cemetery and on to the Jackson River.
Buzzards circled overhead as she surveyed giant mounds of uncovered garbage from Northeastern states dumped here since September 1988.
Terry and Deputy Attorney General Claire Guthrie listened attentively to tour guides from the anti-dump Citizens for a Cleaner Environment, but the two top lawyers' curiosity did not impress some members.
"The appeasement effort didn't work - with me anyway," said Alicia Gordon, one of dozens of local residents who began imploring Terry and other state officials to take action more than a year before they shut down the private landfill two weeks ago.
"I want to know why she's here to begin with," Gordon said.
"I think she kind of wants to be governor," said Susan Alexander, another dump foe who saw Terry's well-publicized visit as political staging.
An Alleghany County circuit judge ordered Kim-Stan two weeks ago to begin a massive cleanup, but managers acknowledge they have done nothing to comply with it, nor do they plan to.
If the owners are in contempt, what is Terry going to do about it? She would not say. "I'm in an information-gathering mode," she said.
She said she would be consulting with her clients - the state's Department of Waste Management and Water Control Board. "I can assure you," she said, "our office will take every appropriate action."
Gaylon Mullins, one of Kim-Stan's managers, said at the dump Wednesday that the company is broke. He said his crew will be gone by early next week.
If Kim-Stan refuses to pay for a soil cap for the landfill and for control of contaminated waters, the state could be stuck with a costly job. Engineers estimated months ago that closing the dump properly and monitoring its pollution for years afterward could cost $2 million to $5 million.
Alexander had a suggestion for Terry. "I think if you will get the people who are responsible for this and put them in jail, I think you'll find the money."
Terry had no comment on any criminal action she might take against the owners.
Dump protesters were furious with her last summer for striking an out-of-court deal that allowed the landfill to stay in business if it made environmental improvements. Terry now admits the improvements were eventually destroyed or halted by Kim-Stan operators.
Nevertheless, she defended the settlement Wednesday. "In our legal judgment, that was absolutely the best action to take," she said.
Terry said state agencies did not refer the Kim-Stan case to her office until late June 1989. Weeks earlier, however, members of the citizens group had written and asked for her help.
Terry and Guthrie said Wednesday that they were hamstrung last year - both by Kim-Stan's $25 million federal lawsuit against the state, which was finally dismissed in March, and by the state's "very, very inadequate" laws on landfills.
Largely because of the lessons of Kim-Stan, Terry helped lawmakers write a law this year that gives state agencies more power to scrutinize new landfill owners and to punish lawbreakers.
Kim-Stan, built as a dump for local trash in 1972, was bought in a 1988 stock purchase by men from out of the area who turned it into a busy depository for Northeastern waste.
Neighbors of the dump complained that as many as 140 tractor-trailers a day clogged local roads and that the swift growth of garbage created unprecedented leaks of toxic waters.
Despite vast changes in the operation, there was no requirement that new owners undergo a state review of Kim-Stan's original 18-year-old state permit. That will change with the new law, Terry said.
Gordon blasted Terry for her past performance on Kim-Stan. Gordon said the attorney general failed to protect the rights of local citizens while guarding those "of an organization that has proven it doesn't care about anybody else."
"We just didn't have the law," Terry said.
by CNB