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

DATE: TUESDAY, August 16, 1994                   TAG: 9408160073
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TESTS SHOW RUTROUGH ROAD DEPOSITS COULD BE POLLUTING GROUND WATER

The Roanoke Valley's old landfill on Rutrough Road could be polluting nearby ground water, even as workers pack a thick layer of dirt over it to keep out rain and runoff for decades to come.

Results of ground water sampling show increases of four key water-quality characteristics that could indicate contamination, according to state records.

But because of a deal with the state's Department of Environmental Quality, no further testing has been done since results came back positive last year.

John Hubbard, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, said last week that the sampling method was too general to say for certain that the ground water is contaminated. He said the four characteristics - acidity, for example - could be linked to natural occurrences that have no relation to landfill leachate, water that trickles down through garbage and picks up toxic chemicals along the way.

Besides, Hubbard said, the Roanoke Valley's old dump is no different from most others built before the late 1980s, when technology and legal requirements resulted in highly engineered, lined landfills. The old ones are holes in the ground, and most are going to leak to some degree.

The authority operates the old landfill and the environmentally up-to-date one at Smith Gap on the other side of the county for Roanoke, Roanoke County and Vinton.

Ground water at the old dump is found at varying levels below the garbage, Hubbard said, between 35 feet and 150 feet. It makes its way to numerous small creeks, which empty into the Roanoke River.

Ground water-monitoring wells were drilled several years ago to comply with stricter solid-waste management laws. A review of the results last October showed, in the state's regulatory parlance, "a significant increase" in the four characteristics.

Normally, that would mean that the authority should have begun a comprehensive and costly regimen to determine the extent and level of contamination. Part of the program included testing for 213 specific compounds.

The authority joined forces with dozens of other localities throughout Virginia to ask the Department of Environmental Quality to reduce the requirement to 62 compounds, as allowed by the federal government, and things came to "a grinding halt," Hubbard said.

After about a year of negotiating, the department in July agreed to the request, said Howard Freeland, the agency's ground water supervisor in Richmond. Letters outlining the agreement were sent to those localities a couple of weeks ago, he said.

Hubbard said the authority has 90 days to begin further tests once the department approves their agreement.

by CNB