Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060342
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DALEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
TARMAC SPOKESMAN BIDS ALOHA
John DeLong, engineer for Tarmac's Roanoke Cement Co. and chief spokesman for its controversial plans to burn hazardous waste as a fuel, is leaving the furor behind and moving to paradise.He's leaving the company at the end of the month to manage a cement plant in Honolulu. But it isn't because of all the heat he's taken from Botetourt County citizens, he said.
In the last six months, the mild-mannered DeLong, 40, has found himself perceived as Public Enemy No. 1 by some of his formerly friendly neighbors. Many are vehemently opposed to the proposed waste-burning at the plant.
Tarmac's project may be the hottest environmental issue ever in Botetourt. Some people see DeLong only as the embodiment of a serious threat to their community. "Actually, I avoid John DeLong like the plague," said citizens' group member Regina Striethof.
"I'm not going to miss all this controversy, that's for sure," Delong said Wednesday. "But that's not what's motivating our move."
He said he and his wife decided they couldn't pass up the chance for him to manage a cement company right on a Hawaiian beach.
"You can stand at the [cement] kiln and throw a rock into the ocean," he said of his new work place in Hawaii. The job offer came unsolicited, he said.
Hawaiian Cement Co. is the only cement plant in that state, he said. It's a joint venture of an Australian company and LoneStar cement, former owner of the Tarmac plant and DeLong's former employer.
In the six months since Tarmac announced its plans to burn hazardous waste from Virginia and other states, DeLong continually has fielded questions from news reporters and neighbors. He set up a small public library at his office on hazardous-waste burning and invited the public in to read the material.
"This is a complex issue and tough to understand," he said Wednesday. He said one of Tarmac's responsibilities is to help people understand it.
Valley Concerned Citizens, an organization formed last year to oppose the project, has mounted a growing movement in the Roanoke Valley against the burning. Botetourt County supervisors and local lawmakers are searching for legislative ways to stop or at least control Tarmac's plans.
DeLong frequently said he wasn't worried about the safety of the waste-burning and gave as evidence his willingness to live with his wife and three children just a few miles away. But now they're moving to the Pacific Ocean.
Some people fault DeLong for not disclosing the waste-burning plans until Tarmac's application for it already was filed at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in August. Others accuse him of not fully explaining the magnitude of Tarmac's project, the first of its kind in Virginia.
Others commend his openness during a time of community dissent. "He's always been open and straightforward with me," said County Administrator John Williamson.
The administrator said people at other corporations won't answer calls for weeks, but DeLong answered calls and questions quickly. "In terms of [being] a chemical engineer, he's done a pretty good job of PR," said Williamson.
DeLong, the plant's senior process engineer, came to the company in 1986 when it was owned by LoneStar. Tarmac, an England-based international company, bought the plant the following year.
Some members of Valley Concerned Citizens are worried about whom they will talk with at Tarmac when DeLong is gone. "I'm concerned because you don't know who's going to take his place, whether it'll be worse or better," said member Betty Mengel. "I wouldn't want to go through what he's had to go through, taking the heat."