Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 3, 1993 TAG: 9308030179
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The river stays cloudy longer after a steady rain. Last month, it took a full three weeks for the water to clear after a particularly hard storm.
That upsets anglers like Pauley. "You just can't fish at all," he said. "I know a half dozen of us who fish in the river who are sick and tired of it being muddy."
No single culprit is responsible for the extra silt and sediment. But one contributor has been Smith Gap Landfill, located upstream near the Roanoke-Montgomery line.
The massive construction site has been cited for several sediment-control violations since crews began clearing the mountainside early last year.
Some violations have been so blatant that a state inspector concluded that Smith Gap has been "in a class by itself" when it comes to leaving downstream waters unprotected from siltation.
The Roanoke Valley Resource Authority - which represents Roanoke, Vinton and Roanoke County - concedes that erosion controls at times have been lost in the push to open the landfill by November.
"You get into a problem when you have to rush," said John Hubbard, the authority's chief executive officer.
Hubbard said the project engineer, Olver Inc. of Blacksburg, and the grading contractor, Thomas Bros. of Salem, have redoubled efforts to comply with erosion-control laws in the final phase of construction.
The Smith Gap project is so large and the site so mountainous that erosion quickly can get out of hand in a heavy rain.
Some 100 acres have been stripped bare on the northern face of Fort Lewis Mountain. Dozens of bulldozers and heavy trucks have carved out a 40-acre bowl where trash will be buried in cells lined with plastic. Another large area has been cleared for a tipping station, where garbage will arrive each day via train.
One vocal critic of landfill siltation accuses Roanoke County - the host member of the Resource Authority - of looking the other way at Smith Gap.
"The fact that this is a very large project, with great potential for causing damage, is precisely why the county must do a good job at enforcing the rules that apply to the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority," said David W. Sligh, who lives on Bradshaw Road near the new landfill.
Roanoke County Administrator Elmer Hodge denied that the county has gone easy on the Resource Authority. County inspectors have worked hard, he said, to ensure the authority lives up to terms of an erosion- and sediment-control permit issued in late 1991.
But a state specialist who reviewed the county's erosion- and sediment-control program earlier this year took the county to task for allowing violations at Smith Gap to go uncorrected.
"Smith Gap Landfill is in a class by itself," noted George B. Williamson of the State Division of Soil and Water Conservation.
"For months, this project was in progress without the benefit of the [two] sediment basins shown on the approved plans. Other controls were absent as well. One large drainage area below a soil stockpile had no controls at all."
In April 1992, incomplete erosion controls at Smith Gap were no match for a heavy storm that dumped 5 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
Mud flowed down the mountain, washed into the basement of a nearby house and muddied the waters of Bradshaw Creek, which empties into the North Fork of the Roanoke River.
After the storm, Roanoke County Engineering Director Arnold Covey ordered the Resource Authority to complete the sediment ponds, which are designed to trap soil that otherwise would be carried along by runoff.
When the authority failed to meet its deadline, Covey issued a "stop work order" on May 29, 1992 that halted all work until the ponds and other erosion-control measures were in place.
Three days later, Hodge lifted the order to keep the project on schedule. The compromise allowed Thomas Bros. to give top priority to completing the sediment ponds, while at the same time hiring an extra crew to continue general grading work.
It would be October - four months later - before Hubbard would report that the Resource Authority was in compliance with its erosion-control permit.
Some officials are frustrated that the Resources Authority has not moved quicker to correct violations.
"Do I think they have made as much progress as they should have?" Hodge said. "No, I do not."
At the same time, Hodge acknowledged that he has a responsibility to ensure that valley governments have a place to dump garbage once the current regional landfill reaches capacity by the end of the year.
"I'm determined to make the deadline," he said.
Hubbard - a former assistant county administrator under Hodge - said the Resource Authority stands ready to do what it can to keep siltation out of Bradshaw Creek.
Project engineers are rethinking the design and size of the sediment pond below the landfill area in the wake of a July 1 storm. The deluge - which dumped 2 1/2inches of rain in two hours - washed mud into Bradshaw Creek and even closed a section of Bradshaw Road.
Hubbard said he has recommended the construction of a new sediment pond that is twice the size of the current impoundment.
"It's taken us longer than we wanted to get in some of the things we wanted," he said. "But, no, I don't think we took advantage of the county's willingness to cooperate."
by CNB