I hope you enjoy my latest column, a collection of weekly short news updates and future events to look out for, and arriving to your inbox as part of our NRV newsletter on Mondays.
As your New River Valley reporter, I primarily cover Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Montgomery County and Radford, but aim to expand my reach throughout the rest of a bustling valley.
I aim to inform and meet people where they are at, but the valley is vast. So if you have thoughts on a developing story or ideas on how I can get to know your community better, you can reach me at erick@cardinalnews.org.
Radford Arsenal incinerator completion delayed to 2027
The Radford Army Ammunition Plant has again delayed completion of an incinerator at the site, pushing the project into 2027.
Commonly known as the Arsenal, the plant began construction of a $145 million energetic waste incinerator project in 2023, which it says would virtually eliminate the need to open burn materials used to make gun and rocket propellants, thus reducing air pollution. According to the U.S. Army Munitions Command, construction was originally expected to be completed by the summer of 2025 before being delayed to June 2026. The Army now says the project will not be finished until September 2027.
“The extensive safety and quality control reviews required of a unique facility like this one led to unplanned changes in the design and construction schedules,” said Mark W. Haviland, a spokesman for the Norfolk District of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which is coordinating the project.
Multiple reports and investigations have looked into the plant’s disposal of hazardous materials. In 2017, researchers conducted an air quality test over the open burning site with a drone and found higher-than-expected levels of lead and arsenic, among other pollutants. More recently, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality identified BAE Systems as the state’s largest on-site emitter of Toxic Release Inventory chemicals to the air in 2023, according to its 2025 Toxics Release Inventory report.
When asked if he was confident that the incinerator project will address concerns about toxic chemicals released into the air from previous burning at this site Haviland said, “Yes, this facility will nearly eliminate the use of the open burning ground with a first-of-its-kind Contained Burn Chamber (CBC) and air pollution control system to thermally treat energetic waste streams.”
Democratic candidates respond to Griffith’s birthright citizenship bill
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith last week introduced the End Birthright Citizenship for Territories Act, which would reserve birthright citizenship for those born in the country’s territories only if they are born to parents who are already U.S. citizens.
The bill is a direct response to the Trump vs. Barbara case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship for nearly every child born on American soil.
“I am leading a bill to crack down on birthright citizenship in the territories and combat foreign nationals who are exploiting loopholes in our citizenship laws to take advantage of U.S. generosity,” Griffith said in a statement. “This way, you have to be born to a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident to have American citizenship in the territories!”
Democratic candidates running in a primary to challenge Griffith voiced their disapproval.
Joy Powers said Griffith’s bill is not a concern for voters.
“I have spent the last few months talking to thousands of people all across the Ninth District, and not a single time has a single constituent of Morgan Griffith ever brought up to me that they had a concern about birthright citizenship or birth tourism in our U.S. territories,” Powers said., “This is absolutely not important to the constituents in the Ninth District.”
Adam Murphy also questioned the bill’s necessity — “I don’t really see this bill as a needed bill. It’s literally three pages long, so I know he didn’t spend a lot of time writing it up.”
If elected, he says he would vote against any such measure and would be open discussion to reconsider the country’s territories to become states.
Currently, four of the five inhabited U.S. territories — Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico — have been granted U.S. citizenship through acts of Congress. People born in American Samoa are considered American nationals but are not automatically granted citizenship status.
Powers and Murphy, as well as candidate Douglas Crockett — who did not respond for comment prior to publication — will first face each other in the Aug. 4 primary election before facing Griffith in November.
Crocket did not respond to a message left for him last week.
‘What the Flock’ forum set for tonight
Adam Murphy, the congressional candidate, will be one of two Democratic office seekers who will be part of a topic getting much regional attention in recent weeks — surveillance and Flock cameras.
Murphy and Ed Hertling, who is running for Montgomery County sheriff, will speak at the forum, titled “What the Flock,” which will be held tonight, July 27, at the Bull & Bones Brewhaus & Grill from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Blacksburg.
According to the Virginia Crime Commission, 159 Virginia law enforcement agencies use some form of an Automatic License Plate Recognition surveillance network, giving officers access to large amounts of vehicle tracking data during active investigations, including data collected by Flock Safety cameras.
Law enforcement agencies must provide substantial information for the use of this surveillance technology, according to a Virginia law passed in 2025 but an analysis by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO found that several agencies offer vague or inconsistent justifications for their searches. Cardinal News detailed the issue in its State of Surveillance report.
Murphy is one of three Democratic candidates running in an Aug. 4 primary, along with Joy Powers and Douglas Crockett. The winner will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem.
Hertling will face Christiansburg police Lt. Tim Brown and former county sheriff’s office Lt. Greg Warden in the primary. The winner will face interim Sheriff Robert Page, who won the Republican “firehouse” primary in June.
“In about two years that I used the Flock cameras, it never really helped me file the case,” said Hertling, who formerly served as county sheriff’s captain.
“I looked at the number of cases that we have used that system successfully, and you weigh that against the overwhelming public sentiment against them, and, uh, and that’s how I keep up my decision” — referring to his announcement on Facebook to remove all Flock cameras in the county if elected.
