Mill owner mulls walking on water.

• Author: Murray, Arthur O.
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler

Cleanliness is next to godliness, but Joe Ed Richardson is having a devil of a time trying to meet regulations that require his mill's wastewater be cleaner than municipal drinking water. The upshot could be about 350 jobs down the drain.

Like many textile and hosiery mills, Clayson Knitting Co. uses dyes with copper, zinc and other metals in them, but the treatment plant in the Robeson County town of Red Springs can't remove all of them. In that case, state and federal rules say, the sock maker must remove them. Richardson says rules that went into effect this year make that nearly impossible. In fact, he claims -- and state environmental officials back him up -- that town water, though safe to drink, won't meet the discharge standards.

By mid-April, the company had paid about $17,000 in fines and testing fees. Another test, which will cost about $6,000, was pending. If it failed, Clayson Knitting was subject to a $5,000 fine. One solution, says Paul Jordan, environmental consultant for the state Commerce Department, would be for the town to move where it discharges its wastewater about eight miles from Little Raft Swamp to the Lumber River, where it would be diluted quicker. That would cost about...