Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406290142
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Several years ago, when the Fincastle man started hunting near the Roanoke Cement Co. plant, he noticed dust from the plant covering the leaves and ground.
Now the dust is disappearing, and the deer, squirrels and rabbits are returning.
"I like what they are doing with the plant environmentally," Chittum, 23, said. "I love hunting and fishing."
That is just the message the plant's management was trying to convey as it met Tuesday night with about 50 Botetourt County residents at Lord Botetourt High School to discuss a planned modernization that will carry a price tag of at least $35 million.
Roanoke Cement hopes the project will improve not only the environment, but also its standing in the community.
Two years ago, under other management, Roanoke Cement came under fire when it announced it planned to burn waste fuel as part of its production process.
There was no such rancor in evidence Tuesday night.
"It's such a relief that they are not going to alternative fuel," said Gail Lackey, whose husband works at the plant. "A cloud has been lifted."
Aris Papadopolous, acting general manager and chief executive officer of Roanoke Cement, said the company wants to be known as a good corporate neighbor.
"It is important for neighbors to be talking to each other," he said. "We wanted to get started down that road. This is an opportunity to rebuild that relationship."
Papadopolous said the company has a vested interest in the well-being of Botetourt County, where about 60 percent of its employees live.
"We have to be more than a company in business," he said. "We have to care about that community."
That was welcome news to county residents, who have become a little gun-shy of industries' planning to alter their ways of doing business.
They posed questions about noise, truck traffic, dust emissions and the impact of the improvements on jobs.
The plant employs 200 people and five kilns to produce nearly 4,000 tons of cement a day.
As part of that process, it grinds calcium from limestone and silica from shale and cooks them in the kilns to cause a chemical reaction that creates concrete.
But four of the kilns are nearly 50 years old, and they burn more coal and create more dust than modern kilns. Those four kilns will be shut down by 1996, and the operation of a more modern kiln will be improved.
By modernizing, Roanoke Cement plans to preheat its limestone and shale to speed up its process. A byproduct of the improvements will be that less dust is released, while production stays about the same.
Hank Andre, the plant's vice president of operations, said preheating the mixture alone will cause fewer particles to be released into the atmosphere.
The company also plans to build enclosed silos to keep a byproduct of the process from releasing dust into the air when that byproduct is handled and further processed.
The plant's engineers estimate that the dust release will be cut by 73 percent with the improvements. With fewer kilns in operation, the amount of coal burned at the plant also will decrease.
The bad news for the county's work force is that about 40 jobs will be cut in the process. Papadopolous said he is working with the employees to make those cuts through attrition, not layoffs.
Andre said the reception of the company's plans is a far cry from the anger it encountered two years ago when the proposal to burn waste fuel was aired.
"There was a lot of fear about their health and property values," he said. "This was a beautiful meeting tonight."
by CNB