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

DATE: SUNDAY, July 18, 1993                   TAG: 9307180188
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WINDSOR                                LENGTH: Short

OTHER SITES FOR COAL FACILITY DESERVE STUDY, EPA SAYS

The Environmental Protection Agency wants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is studying plans for a $100 million coal storage facility in Windsor, to look at other sites that would have less impact on wetlands.

The EPA's assessment, which was sent to the corps last week, listed significant concerns about the Norfolk Southern storage facility proposed for the site just south of U.S. 460, said Carolyn Szumal, an EPA spokeswoman.

The corps can approve the project, but the EPA has the authority to veto that decision.

The corps, which released what was supposed to be its final environmental impact study in May, should do an additional study of the project, wrote Richard V. Pepino, chief of the EPA's assessment branch in Philadelphia.

The new study should address the project's impact on ground water, effect on property values of nearby residences and creation of coal dust and noise, Pepino said in the letter.

EPA and state officials last month identified three possible alternative sites where the environmental impact is considered minimal, Pepino said in his report.

Land at those three sites already has been cleared by logging or farming, so there would be a minimal loss of mature timber.

If the coal storage facility is built in Windsor, more than 200 acres of wetlands could be harmed. Each of the new sites the EPA found contained fewer than 100 acres of wetlands.

by CNB