ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602260053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HARDY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
SAYING HE'S BEEN TREATED unfairly by the state, retired carpenter and Republican contributor D.J. Cooper refuses to correct violations at his trailer park in Bedford County. Meanwhile, hundreds of his tenants have a foul-smelling liquid running from their taps.
Doing laundry can be a gamble for people living at Hardy Road Trailer Park. They often don't know if the water will leave yellow-brown stains on their linens and clothes.
Just turning on the tap can be an unpleasant experience, the residents say.
"It's bad," said Teresa Martin, who has lived here since summer with her husband and two children. She turned on the hot water tap in her kitchen, and soon an odor of rotten eggs wafted up in the steam.
The water has stained her clothes, her dishes, her toilet and shower, and has clogged her washing machine. Worse, it gives her teen-age daughter a rash when she bathes. And it sometimes smells like sewage.
Martin, like many other residents in the 107-unit trailer park, fills gallon jugs with clean water on weekly trips to homes of family and friends. One woman fills containers at her workplace in Roanoke.
"I can't even cook with it," Martin said.
"If you smell it, you don't want to drink it," said one man.
Most of the tenants interviewed didn't want their names in the paper, fearing retribution from the park's owner, D.J. Cooper.
"He's got you. He can kick you out at any time," said another tenant. Most own their trailers and pay $170 in monthly rent for their lots. But there are plenty of other folks in need of inexpensive housing, and without long-term leases, the Hardy Road tenants feel vulnerable to eviction notices if they complain.
Under a court order from three years ago, Cooper had until Jan. 31 to fix the water system, which health officials say exceeds standards for iron and manganese. Although not a public health threat, these naturally occurring metals can give drinking water a foul odor and taste.
Cooper didn't meet the deadline. The Virginia Department of Health inspected the trailer park on Feb. 7, and found nothing had been done to remove the iron and manganese.
Randy Krantz, commonwealth's attorney for Bedford County, says he plans to pursue criminal charges against Cooper, who could face up to two years in jail.
"I'd rather see my money burned than to see them put this conspiracy across," an angry Cooper said last week. Feeling he has been singled out simply because he owns a trailer park, Cooper said he'll fight before he gives in to "these lying, low-down, dishonest people from the Health Department."
He maintains there's nothing wrong with the 1 million gallons of water he provides monthly to about 87 trailers. The other 20 trailers are on a separate water system, which has not been cited for violations. "I drink it every day," Cooper said. "Iron doesn't hurt anything. The worst thing it can do is stain your washing."
But the residents say it does more than that.
After taking showers in the summer, "when you start sweating, the smell of sulfur comes right out of your body," Shirley Curtis said.
And Martin said she was embarrassed when a guest at her home declined a cup of coffee because of the gray stains.
In 1964, Cooper bought 7 acres just inside the Bedford County line, with plans for a mobile home park. He says that since then, there was resentment from the neighbors, and from county officials.
"I didn't know what discrimination was until I got down there. People feel like people that run trailer parks are trash," said Cooper, 63.
Cooper has been a house carpenter for many years in the Roanoke Valley. Now retired, he and his wife, Ruth, live in a sprawling brick ranch house off Bent Mountain Road.
Cooper says he had to go through miles of red tape to get the initial septic permit for Hardy Road Trailer Park. Then, he got into a protracted legal battle with neighbors over road access. Cooper said the court made him put in a new road.
Early on, state officials had recommended that Cooper fix the problem with iron and manganese in the drinking water, said Barry Dunkley, a field director with the Health Department. In 1992, after getting numerous complaints from the tenants, the agency ordered Cooper to fix the system.
When the landlord failed to take action, the Health Department went to Bedford County General District Court, and Cooper was fined $5,000.
He appealed, and in the interest of keeping the trailer park open, Krantz worked out a plea agreement giving Cooper three years to fix the problem.
Cooper says he would readily correct any problems at the park. But he maintains that the water is fine, and that his troubles stem from overzealous, vindictive government officials.
The Health Department knew there was iron and manganese in the water when it approved the water system years ago, Cooper points out. And besides, he says, the levels are just a fraction higher than they should be.
Test results show that iron levels have averaged three times higher than the standard of 0.3 parts per million, Dunkley said. And manganese has averaged four times higher than the standard of 0.05 parts per million.
Furthermore, Cooper claims there are many other trailer parks in Virginia that have higher levels of the two metals, but aren't being hassled.
The cost to install a filtration system would run about $45,000, according to a consultant's report submitted to the Department of Health two years ago. But Cooper says it's not the cost that vexes him, it's the principle of the thing.
"It makes my blood boil," said Cooper, his face reddening and voice rising.
He says the Health Department inspectors are jealous of his money, and are out to "crucify" and "dominate" him. State bureaucrats should not have that kind of power over honest taxpayers like himself, Cooper says.
That's partly the reason why he is a generous contributor to Republican candidates. A firm believer in the GOP agenda, Cooper wants to "put people in the legislature that can see the injustice I have suffered over this."
In 1993, he contributed about $11,000 to George Allen's campaign for governor, and $6,000 to Jim Gilmore's campaign for attorney general. Allen later appointed Cooper to serve on the state board that governs Explore Park.
Roanoke County Republican activist Trixie Averill also was appointed to the board. When she ran against House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, last year, Cooper was among her top Western Virginia supporters, giving $2,000 to her campaign. He also contributed at least $4,250 more to unsuccessful GOP candidates Brandon Bell and Newell Falkinburg.
Shirley Curtis, when told of Cooper's anger at state officials, asked: "What about the tenants he's been doing wrong?"
Drinking water isn't the only problem at the Hardy Road Trailer Park. An old lagoon that treats sewage from the original 20 trailer lots has been the subject of complaints off and on for 20 years. The chlorination system sometimes fails, and algae cover the pond - a sign that the biological forces that should be breaking down the sewage aren't working.
In 1992, under new federal and state laws, Cooper had to get a permit for the discharge from the lagoon to Sandy Creek. He has failed to meet several requirements, including checking the lagoon bottom for leaks, monitoring ground water and upgrading the lagoon.
Cooper has been out of compliance virtually every month since early 1993, racking up more than 100 violations. But because the creek is small, the limits are very strict in order to meet water quality standards, and virtually impossible to meet, said Jim Smith, an enforcement specialist in the Roanoke office of the Department of Environmental Quality.
There are very few options for Cooper, Smith said. He can't build septic fields there because the soils are no good - unlike the newer part of the trailer park, which has septic fields. The closest public sewer system is in Vinton, which would be politically tricky to hook up with. Improving the lagoon could cost upwards of $100,000 or more, with no guarantee it would work, Smith said. A small filtration system or "package plant" could work, but it's also very costly. Or Cooper could shut down that section of the trailer park, which the DEQ is trying to avoid.
"We're very sensitive to his plight, and to the plight of his tenants," Smith said. "He's doing a public service, providing public housing. Anything we do is going to jack up the [rent] or displace people."
Cooper is not the only one in this situation. About 950 trailer parks, subdivisions and other small sewage treatment systems in Virginia that discharge to state waters got caught in the regulatory snag, said Smith.
Cooper said he's working with a consultant on the problem, but hopes the DEQ uses "common sense" when it comes to approving his plan.
"I will not be bulldozed into some bureaucratic solution that's just wasting a lot of money that's not going to do any good," he said.
Cooper has another option: Sell. He says he's got a couple of interested buyers.
But that won't necessarily get him off the hook. Smith said a new owner won't inherit Cooper's record of violations, but the lagoon would still have to be fixed. How it gets fixed, or by whom, would likely be worked out between Cooper and a potential buyer, Smith said.
Krantz, the commonwealth's attorney, said if Cooper starts fixing the drinking water problem tomorrow, he still failed to meet the consent order, which constitutes two misdemeanor charges.
As for the tenants, Krantz suggested they "vigorously voice" their concerns to their representative on the Board of Supervisors, so that the county might take action.
LENGTH: Long : 175 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. 1. Hardy Road Park resident Shirleyby CNBCurtis looks at her tub, stained because of water problems at the
trailer park. The odoriferous issue is the subject of a conflict
between the trailer park owner, D.J. Cooper, and state health
officials. 2. Many residents in this 107-unit trailer park fill jugs
with clean water on weekly trips to homes of family and friends. 3.
(heqadshot) Cooper. color. 4. Some trailers at Hardy Road are just a
few feet from this sewage treatment pond, which has been the subject
of complaints during the past 20 years. Graphic: Map by staff.