www.newrivervalley.com

David Rundgren, executive director of the New River Valley Planning District Commission, will be retiring effective Wednesday.

Rundgren has spent 25 years with the organization. Before coming to the New River Valley, he worked 12 years at the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission and served as its executive director for nine years, according to a news release from the organization.

Rundgren has also been as the director of Virginia’s First Regional Industrial Facility Authority, the New River Valley Development Corporation and the New River Valley Network Wireless Authority.

Rundgren plans to spend his time traveling to visit children and grandchildren and becoming a full-time farmer, the news release said.

On Thursday, Kevin Byrd will assume Rundgren’s duties, the news release said.

Byrd previously served the planning district commission for three years as a regional planner and is returning following a year of working for the Montgomery County planning department.

- Sharla Bardin

Radford will host “A New River Cleanup Day” at 10 a.m. September 19 with combination of canoes and people on foot will pick up trash, according to a release sent out by the city.

The event will start at Bisset Park in the Tangent Outfitters parking lot/Dudley’s Landing area.  If you have access to a canoe, bring it and wear close-toed shoes and clothes that can get wet and dirty.

Trash bags and gloves will be provided. A limited number of canoes will be provided by Tangent Outfitters and Claytor Lake Water Sports so advance reservations are requested. For more information, contact Deb Cooney at 267-3153 or dcooney@radford.va.us or NCNR’s Courtney Wait at 336-982-6267.

The event is sponsored by the National Committee for the New River. According to the press release, the group "coordinates and sponsors many volunteer activities that provide hands-on opportunities to make the New River watershed a better place.  Each year, groups of volunteers organize cleanups on the New River throughout Virginia, pulling tons of trash from the river and its tributaries.  Cleanups are organized in partnership with community groups and NCNR.

The mission of NCNR is to advocate for successful protection of the New River, to restore eroding river and stream banks and enhance riparian habitat, and to permanently protect land along the river.  NCNR works in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia’s New River watershed.  The organization has protected nearly 5,000 acres of land important to water quality, scenic and natural values, and has restored more than 66 miles of river and stream bank."

A bulk oil distributor has agreed to pay a civil charge of $20,420 in connection with a tanker wreck and fuel spill last year in Giles County.

Foster Fuels Inc. of Brookneal owes the money within 30 days of last week’s settlement with the Virginia Department of Environment Quality.

In settling, the company said it neither admits nor denies facts asserted by the DEQ or the DEQ’s conclusion that the company illegally discharged oil into the environment in the incident.

A truck from Foster carrying 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel and kerosene overturned on a curve in the community of White Gate on Feb. 14, 2008. The impact tore open the tanker and most of the fuel escaped into the ground and a spring, according to findings attached to a legal settlement called a consent special order. The document was signed last week by a representative of the DEQ and last month by company vice president Watt Foster.

A cleanup crew pumped 360 gallons of fuel from the damaged tanker and recovered 4,513 gallons from the area. The DEQ said 2,627 gallons “remain in the environment.”

Some of the fuel followed the spring into Big Walker Creek and impacted property downstream.

State police identified the truck driver as Jeffrey Arnold Claytor of Bedford. Police said speed was a factor in the crash. Claytor was found not guilty of reckless driving, according to Giles County General District Court. He still drives for Foster Fuels.

-- Jeff Sturgeon | The Roanoke Times

Appalachian Power’s coal-fired power plant in Giles County and MeadWestvaco’s paper mill in Covington will participate in a state evaluation of pollution emissions from older facilities that were exempted from the federal Clean Air Act, Gov. Tim Kaine announced this morning.

The 335-megawatt Glen Lyn plant in Giles County will mark its 90th anniversary of operations next week, said Dana Waldo, the president and chief operating officer of Appalachian Power.

Reporter Michael Sluss and Laurence Hammack have more on this story.

The U.S. 460 corridor in the Christiansburg-Shawsville area got pounded with rain overnight. The National Weather Service measures 2.8 inches in Shawsville and 2.37 inches in Christiansburg.

By contrast, Blacksburg measured 1.06 inches.

Weather journalist Kevin Myatt has more details about the rainfall in this post on his Weather Journal blog. You'll see he's gotten some comments from people in Christiansburg who say they measured more than 3 inches of rain on their rain gauges.

Do you have weather photos from the New River Valley? If so, you can share at newriver@roanoke.com.

Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Montgomery County residents have until Friday to register for the 2009 Hazardous Household Waste and Latex Paint Exchange.

In addition to waste items such as used motor oil and used antifreeze, residents can also bring their partially used cans of latex paint to the event. Paint must be usable.

Nearly empty, dried out or otherwise useless latex paint can be discarded with your normal refuse, according to a news release from the town of Christiansburg.

Callers should have a list of items they need to dispose of at the event, and collection capacity is limited.

In Christiansburg, call Missy Martin at 382-6128, ext. 122.

In Blacksburg, call 961-1851.

In Montgomery County, call 394-2120, ext. 4083.

White caterpillar nests cling to trees along Interstate 81 between the Roanoke and New  River valleys.

Based on a reporter’s description of the nests, Eric Day, who manages the insect identification lab at Virginia Tech, said he suspects the Eastern Tent Caterpillar is active.

Just as a stand of flowers or shrub may pop with a huge display some years, so, too, do insect species. Day said scientists expect to see an “outbreak” of the tent caterpillar once every 11 years; the outbreak may span several counties.

There are no reported outbreaks in Virginia. But it’s possible for an area as small as a couple miles of roadside to experience a caterpillar population boom that falls short of a reportable outbreak. That may be what’s happening along the interstate, he said

Motorists can easily spot the white patches amid the green canopy. But even where the worms are thriving, not every tree is involved. The tent caterpillar favors black cherry, chokecherry and apple, and also feeds on hawthorn, pear, plum and flowering fruits.

What’s at risk? The worms eat leaves by day and return to their web-like shelters at night, causing defoliation. However, new leaves will grow back. By June, you’ll hardly notice where the insects feasted, according to Day said, who said often no control is needed.

Horse owners may want to take notice. Day is aware of a past association between foal deaths and large populations of the caterpillars. He advised reading this 2007 cooperative extension piece that explains why “controlling Eastern Tent Caterpillars is vital to area horse farms.”

-Jeff Sturgeon

Ingrid Baker of the YMCA at Virginia Tech sent out this release this morning, reminding folks that the annual Ytoss? efforts during campus move-out are fast approaching and have expanded this year to Radford University:

The YMCA at Virginia Tech & Virginia Tech Recycling will continue to focus efforts on reducing waste going into our local landfill during student Move Out during the upcoming 4th annual Ytoss? recycling program. This year’s Ytoss? event will take place between May 9 and May 14, 2009 at a variety of locations on the
Virginia Tech campus. The YMCA at Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech Recycling (VTR), the Town of Blacksburg, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Eleven West as well as several other campus and community based organizations are partnering for this year’s event.
Ytoss? cuts approximately $4,000 in dumping fees from VTR Move Out expenditures each year and the program continues to expand. Ytoss? is a recycling based event designed to collect gently used items students typically “toss” during Move Out, including TVs, electronics, microwaves, refrigerators, furniture, rugs, clothing, hutches, fans and more.
Read more »

Pulaski County residents are being asked to clean up their acts - or, at least, their neighborhoods.

The Pulaski County Clean Community Council has designated April as a countywide cleanup month and is encouraging residents in the county and the towns of Pulaski and Dublin to pick up litter and trash in their neighborhoods.

The county will even provide the trash bags and pick up the garbage.

Orange trash bags are available at the Pulaski County Administration Building, the Pulaski fire marshal's office and the large item drop sites in Pulaski, Dublin and Fairlawn. Residents can also request them - and suggest areas that need to be cleaned up - by e-mailing cleanup@pulaskicounty.org.

To have the full bags picked up, call the county code enforcement office at 980-7915 or the fire marshal's office at 994-8664. If no one answers, leave a message.

-- Shawna Morrison

A Pembroke man who was caught baiting and hunting bear at the Cascades Recreation Area in Giles County last fall pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to six charges he faced, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Merrill Conley, 54, pleaded guilty to illegally baiting bear, providing false information to an officer, knowingly allowing a juvenile to hunt in a baited place, knowingly hunting in a baited place, maintaining an illegal trail on national forest and littering. Through a plea agreement, he will avoid jail time but must pay more than $2,700 in fines and court costs. He also was banned from hunting for a year and from the national forest for five years.

Conley was charged Oct. 23 with violating the state regulations, said Capt. Woody Lipps with the forest service. Conley and a teenage boy had developed a trail into the woods around the recreation area, would leave food out to attract bears and then would kill the bears, Lipps said. Conley's activity had been investigated for weeks before he was caught, Lipps said.

Lipps said law enforcement officers know of two bears that were killed. The baiting drew several bears to the area but no interaction with other humans was reported, he said.

-- Shawna Morrison