
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991                   TAG: 9103190475
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

WAY CLEARED FOR KIM-STAN CLEANUP TO START

The state will begin cleaning up the Kim-Stan landfill this week, now that a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has given the government access to the site, officials said Monday.

Department of Transportation workers tried to enter the landfill gates a few hours after the judge's order and 10 months after it was shut down because toxic runoff was polluting waterways leading to the Jackson River.

But Bert Rohrer, a spokesman for the attorney general, said shortly before 5 p.m. that workers had trouble finding the keys to the site in Alleghany County.

Alleghany County officials and people who live nearby had been complaining for months about the delay in cleaning up the landfill, where leachate continues to flow from the garbage trucked in from outside Virginia.

The private landfill was forced into bankruptcy in September by three companies claiming $745,000 in unpaid debts.

Former Department of Waste Management Director Cynthia Bailey said earlier that the state sought the order from Judge Ross W. Krumm so the site could be cleaned up and so the state would be "in a better position to better recover our costs."

The initial work as described in the order will be to cap manholes on the landfill, repair the temporary dirt cover, grade and fill areas for the installation of an intermediate cover, plant vegetation over the landfill, control erosion and remove leachate.

The state has allocated $300,000 in its current budget for initial cleanup costs at Kim-Stan.

Department of Waste Management spokeswoman Cheryl Cashman said Monday that the state has spent more than $90,000 preparing for the cleanup.

Krumm also said that the $54,286 in Kim-Stan's trust fund that was given to the state previously to cover cleanup costs cannot be claimed by the creditors.

by CNB