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Morton Plant Pollutes Rivanna

The following article, reprinted
from the Virginia Law Weekly,
concerns the pollution problems
caused by discharges into tributaries
of the Rivanna River Reservoir.
The authors are on the
Editorial Staff of the Law Weekly.

By William W. Gearhart Jr. and
James T. O'Reilly

Copyright by William W. Gearhart Jr.
James T. O'Reilly, 1970.

Second In A Series

Water in the Charlottesville area
is a politically potent beverage.
Pollution exists, even in this verdant
refuge from the congested
cities of the North, and pollution in
1970 means political repercussions.
The real losers are the people
paying water bills and the people
drinking the water - not the
politically involved parties.

Water pollution, spawned by
discharged of industrial wastes and
runoffs of nutrient-rich agricultural
fertilizers, has become a substantive
issue in Charlottesville, culminating
in the closing of the city's algae-congested
main reservoir for four
weeks last summer. Removal of this
algae is costing the city as much as
$240 per day.

Efforts to reduce this pollution
have been slow and of limited
effect for a number of political
economic and legal reasons. State
and city officials as well as one
substantial area polluters are presently
if work on the problem, but
various conflicts of interest and
failures to enforce existing regulations
have prevented them from
effecting any solution.

Morton Controversy

The controversy over pollution
has centered around the Rivanna
River reservoir and its allegedly
chief polluter, the Morton Frozen
Food Company, a wholly owned
subsidiary of the conglomerate
ITT-Continental Banking company,
located twelve miles upstream in
Crozet. There is currently a two-year
injunction against Morton
running until September 15, 1971,
forbidding the company from
making illegal discharges. There is
also evidence that the company's
certificate allowing it to discharge
into state waters has been invalid
for more than one year and that as
a result the company could be
subject to maximum fines of $500
per day.

The Morton plant produces a
wide assortment of frozen dinners
and pies. It has been located in

Crozet since 1953 and currently
employs more than 1600 people.
Each day the plant consumes and
discharges more than 500,000 gallons
of nutrient-rich water into
Lickinghold Creek, a tributary of
Mechums River, which in turn
flows into the South Fork of the
Rivanna, on which the reserve is
located.

This nutrient-rich water contains
high amounts of phosphates and
nitrates which are conducive to
algal growth causing depletion of
the oxygen supply in the water.
This oxygen level is of critical
importance to fish, and insufficient
levels result in "fish kills." The
presence of algae and absence of
oxygen is of importance to humans
as well, in that these conditions give
the water an unpleasant odor and
make it unpalatable for drinking.

Water Pollution

Water pollution experts are still
unsure of how much phosphate and
nitrogen material is necessary for
the algal process. Algae is heavily
composed of carbon drawn from
carbon dioxide taken from both the
air and organic materials in the
water. What is known is that the
carbon dioxide in the air is
insufficient to produce large
amounts of algae and that both
phosphates and nitrates in debatable
quantities are also necessary
for this process.

Control Board

The Morton plant is operating
under a State Water Control Board
certificate dated October 24, 1961,
which has not been amended since
then. Neither Morton nor the
Control Board consider it unusual
that the state has delayed nine
years in issuing a revised or new
certificate for the plant, even
though Section 62.29 (5) of the
Code of Virginia requires a process
of state approval for increased
discharge. Morton's discharges have
increased since 1961 to the present
volume of in of a half
million gallons per day.

The Board's enforcement Director,
Mr. A.W. Hadder, thinks that
this discharge certificate should
have been amended between 1961
and 1966 because of increases in
discharges and changes in equipment,
but that it should not have
been amended after 1966. Morton
spokesman Mr. Joseph A. Cain, on
the other hand, notes that despite
the firm's increase in size over the
past decade. Morton's present certificate
remains adequate. Morton
has not applied lot a
certificate, and Morton has not
heard anything about a to
comply with the certificate since
the court injunction early last year.

Certificate Lapsed

Morton's 1961 certificate appears
to have lapsed by reason of a
technicality. The certificate specifically
forbids the transfer of the
certificate to any "purchaser of
successor in interest" by the Morton
Frozen Foods Division of the
Continental Banking Company.

However, in 1966 Continental
Banking began a merger with the
International Telephone and Telegraph
Company which resulted in
the formation of the new conglomerate
ITT-Continental Banking
Company. In forming this new
conglomerate, Continental Banking
stock was liquidated as of September