Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994 TAG: 9403310005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER Note: lede
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN LENGTH: Medium
The arsenal shut down at midnight Monday to avoid breaking a federally-mandated environmental deadline to upgrade its wastewater treatment facilities. Congress imposed the deadline four years ago.
In a prepared statement, Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said 961 employees were not able to work Tuesday. But they and 708 others who did work Tuesday were to report to the plant today for training, maintenance, administrative and other duties not related to production of the plant's main product: propellant for ammunition.
Boucher said the Army had assured him the plant would be fully operational by Monday.
Negotiations among the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army and Hercules Inc. officials, Virginia's senators and Boucher failed to get what the arsenal wanted: an extension of the deadline. But a temporary compromise will be in place by Monday, and starting today, workers will work, officials said.
Some questions remain, such as:
Why didn't Hercules Inc. and the army realize there would be no extension granted by the EPA on Tuesday's deadline?
Why didn't the plant begin setting up temporary facilities earlier to avoid the lapse in production?
Why wasn't the arsenal able to upgrade its facilities in the past four years?
Nicole Kinser, public affairs officer for the plant, said arsenal commander Lt. Col Bill Forrester and Hercules Plant Manager Richard Best would not answer the questions, because they felt it would lead to ``finger pointing'' that would not benefit anyone.
EPA and state environmental officials said there were some simple answers.
``They should have known'' the agency would not - could not, legally - grant an extension, said Mary Beck, project manager with the EPA. ``The statute is very clear on it.''
At 8:30 p.m., the arsenal issued a news release saying it thought the facility was regulated by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and ``we considered that office to be the controlling agency.''
The release said the arsenal asked the EPA for an extension, but was told Monday that the agency didn't have that authority.
The arsenal says the facility in question is a 14-year-old open-air lagoon designed to hold 1.6 million gallons of wastewater. Congress deemed it unsafe in 1990 when it named 2,4 dinitrotoluene - DNT - a toxic carcinogen. DNT is found in the wastewater the arsenal produces.
``We are taking corrective action to replace and close the basin. ... From [the arsenal's] vantage point no additional action was required,'' the release stated.
The arsenal began designing a new basin in 1988, and awarded a construction contract for a 7.64 million-gallon roofed basin in 1992. The Corps of Engineers plans to finish it in March 1996, although it is to be ready to operate in March 1995. Kinser said construction is ahead of schedule.
Not soon enough, the EPA said.
Even if the agency were able to grant an extension, arsenal officials waited until March 14 to tell the agency they would not meet the deadline, EPA spokeswoman Ruth Podems said. One week ago, they wrote a letter asking for an extension.
``Two weeks isn't a heckuva lot of time,'' she said. And she repeated that the arsenal should have been ready for the deadline. ``It's not like you wake up one day and say, `Gee, I wonder if they'll give us an extension.'''
Five other companies in this six-state region of the EPA - including Hoechst-Celanese Corp. in Narrows - were able to meet the deadline for their facilities, Podems said.
Hoechst-Celanese began installing a $33 million wastewater treatment system in 1992 to meet federal environmental demands. Keith Buttleman, deputy director for public affairs with the DEQ, attributed the problem to a breakdown in communication within the arsenal.
by CNB