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By MARY K. BLEWITT
Arundel Newspaper! State Writer
The state will be keeping a daily watch on Avtex Fibers of Front Royal, Inc. after a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled last Wednesday not to grant the state a temporary injunction to shut down the rayon-manufacturing plant. While Avtex considers the decision a small victory, evidence is mounting that the company violated an agreement with the State Water Control Board to cease polluting the Shenandoah River.
State attorneys worked to convince Circuit Court Judge T.J. Markow that PCBs coming from the Avtex plant are continuing to pollute the Shenandoah River. Their argument, however, was not sufficient to cause the judge to close the plant.
“I can’t tie in continued operation with continued contamination,” said Markow.
Instead Markow ordered daily monitoring of the plant’s outfalls 003 and 004, two of the possible sources of river contamination.
According to state samples taken on September 1, PCBs — or polychlorinated biphenyls — were found in effluent from outfall 003. Samples also revealed PCBs throughout the plant’s rooftop as well as in soils near the loading dock at the polyester plant. Sludge scum from the plant’s aerobic digester, which the state said is representative of solids discharged from outfall 004, likewise indicated PCBs. In addition, the State Water Control Board reported “gross contamination of the wastewater treatment system.”
Avtex’s star witness, Alan E. Rimer of Alliance Technology Corporation, refuted the state’s premise that 3.5 pounds of PCBs were being dumped into the river daily. If any PCBs are being discharged, said Rimer, the most that could possibly trickle out would be two-thousandths of a pound, an inconsequential
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