Friday, March 29, 2002

Lawmakers reconsidering dump rules

By MICHAEL SLUSS
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   RICHMOND - The fire at a sprawling, illegal tire dump in Roanoke County may prompt Virginia legislators to seek more funds for cleanup efforts and changes in state laws that regulate illegal dumps.

    Two Roanoke Valley legislators said this week that the General Assembly should examine the circumstances surrounding the fire and determine whether the state could have done more to prevent it. By doing so, they said, lawmakers could perhaps prevent similar disasters at the Roanoke County site and at other illegal dumps across the state.

    "I don't know how we let this go on so long," said Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke. "Apparently we don't have adequate laws on the books."

    The legislature outlawed tire dumps in 1987 and later created a program that pays haulers to remove the tires from those sites. The state funds the program with a 50-cent tax levied on each new tire purchased in Virginia. Since implementing the program, the state has cleaned up 615 dumps and disposed of more than 14 million tires. But it still has 340 dumps and 7 million tires to go.

    The Roanoke County fire has some legislators wondering whether the law is tough enough and whether cleanup funding is sufficient. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality just last year committed $1.4 million to cleaning up the Roanoke County dump owned by W.J. Keeling, even though state and county officials had been concerned for years about the possibility of a devastating fire at the site.

    State and county officials dealt with Keeling cautiously over the years, in part because they lacked the funds for an aggressive cleanup. But officials also worried that a confrontation with Keeling could incite him to set the dump on fire, according to DEQ documents.

    "Maybe we need to look at this [fire] and see if we have significant enough cautions to deter this from happening again," said Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke. "What happened, and why did it take so long for the state to act? I just don't know where the ball was dropped."

    Edwards said the state and county should have had the authority to deal with Keeling more aggressively.

    "We just need to invest more in the inspection and cleanup of these illegal dumps," Edwards said. "Obviously the localities can't do it by themselves. The state has to step in and help with inspection and enforcement."

    Thomas is the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, which oversees environmental policies. Thomas said he would ask the committee's chairman, Republican Del. Kirk Cox of Colonial Heights, to appoint a subcommittee to review the laws regulating illegal tire dumps.

    Sen. Charles Hawkins, R-Chatham, said the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee is also likely to closely scrutinize the laws regulating illegal dumps.

    "The situation in Roanoke just underscores what has been an existing problem for years," said Hawkins, the committee's chairman. "These things are certainly hazardous and need to be looked at, but I don't think anybody has any answers right now."

    Neither DEQ officials nor Gov. Mark Warner appears likely to seek an increase in the tire tax that funds the cleanup of illegal dumps. Eleven states impose a smaller tax than Virginia's, but a dozen states charge at least $1 per tire, according to the DEQ. he state agency has never sought an increase in the tax, DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said.

    Virginia lawmakers would not be alone in seeking new restrictions against illegal tire dumps. West Virginia legislators passed a law this month calling for fines of up to $50,000 a day and prison terms of up to five years for anyone who accumulates more than 1,000 tires and disposes of them illegally.

    Staff writer TIM THORNTON contributed to this report.

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