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By MARY K. BLEWITT
Arundel Newspapers State Writer
Avtex Fibers Inc. was aware of possible PCB contamination as early as 1983, according to state attorneys who appeared before the State Water Control Board in Richmond Monday.
Arguing that the Front Royalbased rayon company only made efforts to clean up PCBs at their plant site when prompted by a state investigation, state officials requested that the board revoke the company’s permit to discharge waste water into the Shenandoah River.
The nine and a half hour hearing was filled by “excrutiatingly detailed” discussions of PCBs, according to Burt Rohrer, a spokesman for the Virginia attorney general’s office.
During the course of the day, Avtex attorneys, who were notified of the hearing on Sept. 27, made three motions for a continuance, said Rohrer. Though the board met behind closed doors twice to consider the motion, the hearing continued until evening, then recessed until 3 p.m. Tuesday.
According to evidence compiled by the attorney general’s office and the water board staff, Avtex kneu of transformer failure, which resulted in PCB discharges onto the roof of the plant, as of Dec. 22, 1985. Further evidence shows that by January 1986, the company was aware that approximately 500 gallons of PCB material had been discharged from the transformer and into the environment.
Avtex also had knowledge of potential PCB contamination of their waste water treatment plant as far back as 1983, according to the proposed finding of fact submitted by the SWCB staff to the board.
PCB clean up efforts of the roof did not begin until after the state initiated an investigation as to the source of contamination to the river this summer, argued state officials.
“Despite knowledge of discharges dating back to 1985 and of
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