Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993 TAG: 9303200251
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
FLUFF DUMP HANGS ON TO SUPPORT
TWO YEARS after Franklin County supervisors and Roanoke Electric Steel announced the company would move its car-recycling operation to Peaceful Valley, the supervisors were forced again Friday to stand up for the controversial "fluff dump."
Roanoke Electric Steel almost blew it. As it is, the company has turned at least one county supervisor into a staunch opponent even before it has cut up its first car in Franklin County .
The supervisors had certified Roanoke Electric Steel's application - submitted in the name of a subsidiary, Shredded Products Corp. - to the state Department of Waste Management for an industrial landfill.
That stamp of approval came two years ago, but Shredded Products' opponents didn't stop battling. Last month, they persuaded the Board of Supervisors to ask the Department of Waste Management for a seven-month extension on a comment period for the proposed landfill.
Friday, the board convened to put a stop to the latest Shredded Products controversy.
During its original dealings with the supervisors, the company agreed the landfill could be used only for materials it produced. But in order to get top priority for its landfill application with the state, Shredded Products officials agreed to accept nonhazardous materials from other sources.
"If they will do this," board Vice Chairwoman Lois English said, "they will do anything else without our permission, too."
English and Page Matherly - who was elected to the board two years ago as a Shredded Products opponent - voted Friday to repeal the board's backing of the company's landfill application. But four other supervisors stood firm.
The supervisors don't really want Shredded Products; they agreed to support the company's move from Bedford County in order to open up some Franklin County land for industrial development.
Shredded Products' 40-acre landfill will take up the back part of 436-acre Peaceful Valley Farm, located a few miles south of Rocky Mount. The 300-plus acres that Shredded Products will not use will be marketed as industrial property.
"If this were just a fluff dump, it wouldn't exist here," said Wayne Angell, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. "It's the economic opportunity it presents."
Shredded Products' move to Franklin County would give the company a cost-effective way to get rid of its byproduct. "Fluff" is the plastic, foam and other nonmetals left over after the company cuts up cars.
A huge stockpile of the material caught fire in 1989 and burned for 38 days at the company's Montvale plant. The 50 or so Franklin Countians who showed up Friday to oppose Shredded Products are concerned about the plant's potential for environmental damage.
"If you all had a good track record - but Shredded Products and Roanoke Electric Steel do not have a good track record - then I might accept your word," English told Donald Smith, Roanoke Electric Steel's chairman.
Smith said the company had to agree to take nonhazardous materials from other facilities only to speed up its permit application. But the Department of Waste Management, realizing the company's two pledges contradicted each other, responded that it could not give Shredded Products' application priority.
And the state said a 210-day extension to the comment period was out of the question.
The public comment period ends next week. If the Department of Waste Management grants the company an industrial landfill permit, Smith said it would take about 10 months to get the operation running.