Environmental groups are suing a chicken waste treat plant for exceeding discharges into the Shenandoah River by 6,000%, the Possum was a little grumpy at first, and it was one hot July. Here’s Dan McDermott’s take on the news.
“I don’t believe this is a smoking gun, I don’t want to relate it to the fish kill,” Shenandoah Riverkeeper Jeff Kelble said in the wake of the Aug. 11 filing of an intent to sue Valley poultry business Sheaffer International, L.L.C., for numerous violations of environmental laws at its wastewater treatment facility in Timberville, Virginia. “But we have a river that has got a lot of problems and we feel compelled to address each and every one of them in the hopes of eliminating all of the issues that we see. And if you push at all the problems the river faces, it should eliminate what’s hurting the fish.” Kelble also stressed that he does not view Schaeffer International as a villain in the story of what is affecting the river. “The Schaeffer concept is a very strong concept of recycling nutrients within the agricultural community and were this system to be operating at full capacity and full functionality, I would be a great supporter and I hope that our involvement, that of the Shenandoah Riverkeeper, Potomac Riverkeeper and the Waterkeeper Alliance, will insure the fastest resolution to eliminate any roadblocks that currently exist [to full implementation of the Shaeffer plan] because it does appear that there are roadblocks coming from multiple places. “We can’t wait for the fish kill task force to give an opinion about what they feel is killing the fish, that likely could be years off,” Kelble concluded of why the decision to file against Shaeffer was made.
Rosie Lee McCloud, 25, and Catherine Antoinette Pena, 19, plead guilty in a Front Royal vandalism spree.
The Warren County portion of Adelphia Cable, which was used by it’s founder as a piggy bank, was bought by Comcast. In it’s first week, the new Comcast system suffered a lengthy outage and told customers that it was scheduled maintenance.
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