Thursday, March 28, 2002
Court grants agency access to site
EPA: Tire fire poses a threat to the public

Property owner W.J. Keeling had refused to let officials into the area. Tire dump continued to grow. A8

By KIMBERLY O'BRIEN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   An official from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said there is an "imminent and substantial" threat to the public from the smoke and runoff from a burning tire dump, according to court documents.

    Christine Wagner, an EPA on-scene coordinator, made that declaration Wednesday in asking that the agency be allowed on W.J. Keeling's south Roanoke County property to inspect, test and clean up the site. Keeling had refused access to the EPA.

    U.S. Magistrate Judge Glen Conrad granted her request late Wednesday afternoon, clearing the way for the EPA to officially step in. The EPA has been at the site almost from the fire's start, but needed access to start the cleanup.

    "Right now we're just trying to save the environment and diminish the risk," U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said.

    The federal agency has committed $500,000 in Superfund money for emergency response so far and has requested $700,000 more. Another $1.4 million previously earmarked by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for the site might also be available to help in the efforts, DEQ officials said Wednesday.

    The tires on Keeling's 140-acre property have been burning since Saturday afternoon, ignited by a brush fire believed to have started near the railroad tracks along nearby Starlight Lane. The brush fire spread to 1,064 acres before it was controlled Tuesday, but the tires still burn.

    The cause is still being investigated.

    About 2 million tires are thought to be burning in about 20 separate fires on the land, Wagner said in documents filed Wednesday in federal court. She estimated the total on the site at 5 million, up from the 3 million to 4 million previously estimated by the DEQ.

    Keeling has been storing the tires for the past 40 years, initially with the plan of creating a tire recapping plant and a recycling plant. Twelve years ago, he was convicted of operating an illegal tire dump. County officials have tried to get him to clean the dump for years, but he has claimed he doesn't have the money.

    When the dump caught fire Saturday, it was the largest illegal dump in Virginia.

    In November, Keeling signed an agreement that would allow the county and the DEQ to come in and begin removing the tires. The county had planned to sign a contract with an engineering firm Monday.

    It was because of that agreement that Keeling apparently resisted allowing the EPA on his property. He told Wagner that the previous agreement should be enough for the EPA, but agency officials said it wasn't. Thus, Brownlee's office sought an administrative warrant on the EPA's behalf.

    The warrant will allow entry for the 90 days the EPA says it needs to "mitigate the potential exposures to human health and the environment in areas exposed to the smoke and runoff from the tire fire."

    Keeling's attorney, Mike Ferguson, would not comment Wednesday on his client's actions.

    Mike Zickler, another on-scene coordinator for the EPA, said Wednesday that once access was granted, an approach would be worked out. Several local, state and federal agencies are working on a plan, including the Roanoke County Fire and Rescue Department, the DEQ and the state Department of Emergency Management.

    When firefighters gained control of the brush fire Tuesday, that allowed for more direct access to the dump. Wednesday, members of the Roanoke Regional Hazmat Team walked through the site, mapping out tire locations.

    Team member Jeff Beckner, a captain with the Roanoke Fire-EMS Department, described the scene like that out of the movie "Terminator," which showed a wasteland left from the detonation of a nuclear war.

    "It's bad," said Beckner, who along with other team members wore a respirator because of the toxic air. Roanoke firefighter Kevin Bell said it looked "like a war zone up there."

    The tires are stacked all around the hilly property in piles and buildings and are lying in ravines. Many are buried, and it's those tires that officials say are smoldering now. So far, firefighters have let the tires burn to minimize the hazardous runoff that would be caused by dousing the fire with water.

    Despite the threat from the tires, the air quality has improved immensely since Tuesday, DEQ and health officials said, prompting the lifting of the health advisory issued Monday. But Dr. Molly O'Dell, public health director for the Roanoke and Alleghany regions, said the advisory could go back into effect depending on the weather.

    The air at the site contains toxic compounds including sulfur and benzene, a suspected carcinogen, but officials said the air away from the site and in nearby neighborhoods contains only ash and soot. Tuesday's rain got rid of most of that, but officials continue to monitor the air as well as containment dams erected in Back Creek.

    The "very, very little" runoff from the recent rain has been contained, county Fire and Rescue Chief Richard Burch said Wednesday.

    Also Wednesday, the stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway closed because of its proximity to the brush fire was reopened and some residents along Starlight Lane who voluntarily left their homes, said they'd probably return for good.

    Staff writer Jen McCaffery contributed to this report.

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