
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990                   TAG: 9007010273
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DUNGANNON                                LENGTH: Short

GROUP SEEKS WILDER'S HELP IN POLLUTION FIGHT

An environmental organization has threatened to sue the state while asking for Gov. Douglas Wilder's help in a fight to stop increased emissions at a Louisiana Pacific waferboard plant in Scott County.

The Health and Environmental Action League, in a letter sent last week to Wilder, said the state Air Pollution Control Board, which approved the increased emissions, unfairly rejected the group's appeal on a technicality.

"If the Air Pollution Control Board finds that they can get away with treating coal miners and farmers from Dungannon, 400 miles from Richmond, so shabbily, they may try to abuse citizens closer to the capitol as well," Richard Austin, secretary of the environmental group, wrote the governor.

In a separate letter Wednesday to Wallace Reed, chairman of the air board, Austin said he may file a lawsuit. Reed could not be reached for comment.

The air board gave the go-ahead for Louisiana Pacific to increase production by 33 percent, even though environmentalists showed that the company already had been producing at levels far above those allowed. The board fined the company $54,326 for that violation.

On June 8, the board denied the citizens' group's appeal of the decision to allow the increased emissions.

by CNB