Saturday, January 22, 2005
Bedford plans to adopt new contamination strategy
By Jay
Conley
981-3114
The Roanoke
Times
|
Officials from the state Department of Environmental Quality and
Bedford say the city will adopt a more aggressive remediation strategy to
address groundwater contamination leaking from its old landfill.
The new strategy will focus on keeping the contamination contained to
the landfill property, Bedford City Manager Craig Meadows said after a
meeting Friday at DEQ headquarters in Richmond. The strategy will also
focus on a cleanup period closer to 10 years rather than the 15-year
timeline previously proposed by the city.
Friday's meeting took place after the DEQ advised the city last month
that its proposed remedies weren't aggressive enough. The city will have
until July 20 to submit a revised corrective action plan to the DEQ. The
city will submit an interim plan in seven days that will indicate some
remediation efforts that will take place before July, Meadows said.
"We're prepared to move forward with a very aggressive plan to address
the concerns that DEQ has raised," Meadows said.
Last March, the city announced that contaminated groundwater was
leaking from the landfill across Bell Town Road into a residential
neighborhood north of the city landfill. Wells serving six homes are
showing signs of contamination. A farm south of the landfill is also
showing signs of contamination.
"One of the things we recognize is that DEQ had a lot of concerns about
source control, the ability to address the contamination at the source.
And so we've developed a plan we think will work to address those concerns
and be able to provide much more control on our site," Meadows said.
The DEQ will hold a public meeting on the city's revised plan
Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Bedford
Central Library. Residents will be able to ask questions and convey
concerns.
Specifics of the new plan weren't released Friday. Butch Joyce, who
represents Joyce Engineering, the environmental engineering firm
contracted by the city to monitor the landfill and do the contamination
cleanup, said a range of methods is being worked out with the DEQ.
"We're not exactly sure right now," Joyce said. "There are several
different techniques."
The city could go through several techniques before the proper solution
is found, said Steve Dietrich, regional director of DEQ's Roanoke office.
"You may find one remedy may not be as effective as you thought, and
you may have to change it," Dietrich said.
The landfill operated from the 1960s until 1993.
The city still plans to install a water line by the end of the year to
serve the six homes with wells affected by the contamination. Only one of
the wells, which serves two homes, has contaminant levels that exceed
federal drinking water standards. The city installed a filter on the well
and says the water is safe to drink.
Meadows said the water line project is moving forward.
The plan also called for either buying or acquiring through eminent
domain 44 acres of Mike Schrock's farm to clean up groundwater and surface
water contamination before it affects nearby Johns Creek.
The city has offered to Schrock $132,000 for the land and is waiting
for a response, Meadows said.The new strategy by the Department of
Environmental Quality and Bedford is to keep the contamination contained
to the landfill property and to clean up the land over 10 years, instead
of 15.
© Copyright 2005
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