Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410310007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Tech, which has been working on plans for the boiler since 1978, began pressing the department last year to grant a permit to build it.
Then in January, after environmentalists' arguments and two public hearings, the department discovered that more pollution in the form of nitrogen oxides would be produced by the new boiler operation than anticipated.
Last summer, Tech submitted a new proposal promising that the school would decommission its oldest boiler - five coal- and gas-fired ones operate now - if the department would grant a permit for the new boiler, said Spencer Hall, assistant vice-president for facilities at Tech.
The new proposal lets Tech sidestep stricter federal environmental guidelines, and instead apply for a state-granted permit, Hall and Department of Environmental Quality officials said. Had Tech opted to stick with its original proposal, it would have meant doing environmental testing for a year, or adding $1 million in pollution controls, Hall said.
The money and time weren't worth it, he said.
"We would've liked the flexibility" of continuing to use the older boiler, he said. "It's a viable boiler. ... Still, it's a good environmental decision."
And, he said, "We need to get on with this permit."
Opponents, though, continue to argue against the new boiler proposal.
Shireen Parsons, chairwoman of the Sierra Club New River Group, sent a letter in July to the Department of Environmental Quality's director in Richmond. In it she argued that Tech should be held accountable for other environmental violations when its boiler application is considered.
"As a state agency and the state's premier engineering and agricultural school .. the university shows an alarming lack of responsibility to the community and the environment," Parsons wrote in her letter to Director Peter Schmidt.
She mentioned concerns about coal run-off into Stroubles Creek, which runs to the west of the boilers' location on Old Turner Street, and manure being pumped from the school's dairy farm into a tributary of the creek.
The Department of Environmental Quality has warned Tech about the violations and "DEQ and Tech are working at resolving these issues," said Charles Epes, public relations coordinator with the department in Richmond.
But Parsons remains skeptical. And she thinks the department, which is broken into three separate divisions concerning air, water and waste, should consider Tech's record on all fronts before granting a permit.
That appears unlikely.
Gail Steele, an environmental engineer with the department's air division in Roanoke, said, "only the issues involving the boiler" will be considered when deciding whether to grant the permit. Other issues may be discussed Tuesday, but they likely won't affect the boiler permit application, Epes said.
Parsons and others, while pleased that Tech's new boiler application set-up apparently will produce less overall pollution compared to the previous one, still think the school should do more to conserve energy, explore natural gas alternatives and implement pollution controls.
Richard Hirsh, a Tech history professor, said despite Tech's efforts to implement some energy conservation efforts, such as improving insulation in the roofs of buildings and adding electronic controls at the boiler plant, some professors find themselves opening classroom windows in the winter because the rooms are too hot.
And he, like Parsons, wants an "ironclad guarantee" that Tech would never use the old boiler it has promised to decommission.
Earl Blanchard, a sophomore environmental science major at Tech, helped lead a small demonstration Friday on campus, protesting what he sees as Tech's refusal to improve its existing boiler operations.
"They're not even taking care of their old boilers," Blanchard said. "Their new approach is an improvement over the old one, but it's still not a good one."
But Hall, the facilities director, said the university must have a new boiler to heat the space it has added in the past 20 years and the space it could add in the next 10 - about a million square feet each.
"We simply must do that now," he said.
"We are meeting all the requirements of the current regulations," Hall said. "I'm confident that DEQ will issue us a permit." He said it would take more than three years for the school to design and construct the boiler.
An informational meeting immediately preceding the hearing will be held at 7 p.m. in the the Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center auditorium. The Department of Environmental Quality has extended a public comment write-in period on the boiler to Nov. 15.
by CNB