Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060517
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DON'T PUT HOBBLES ON VIRGINIA
A LOT OF Virginians believe that in environmental protection, the state has a ways to go.They can point to recent examples: the Weblite plant in Botetourt County and the Kim-Stan landfill in Alleghany County, where the commonwealth allowed egregious and persistent pollution to continue long after it should have been stopped.
In those two cases, the fault may lie not so much in weak laws and regulations as in their lax enforcement. Even so, given the circumstances, it's odd to see nearly a score of state legislators, including some from Southwestern Virginia, take the position that the commonwealth is doing quite enough - if not too much - to clean the air and water and to guard the people's health and property against pollution.
Senate Bill 345, sponsored by Sen. Frank Nolen, D-New Hope, would prohibit any state regulation on water quality, air pollution and waste management from being stricter than the federal government's - unless the proper General Assembly committees approve. Among 17 other patrons are Sen. Bo Trumbo, R-Fincastle; Del. Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg; Sen. Jack Reasor, D-Bluefield; and Del. Ford Quillen, Gate City.
One doubts these lawmakers are hearing a groundswell from the populace that Virginia's getting too doggone clean, and that we want some of those fumes and dirt and health hazards back. If there are armies of overzealous regulators out there, they're well-dispersed and their labors aren't broadly conspicuous.
Usually, efforts to stymie environmental protection aim at helping industries that would have to divert funds from production into pollution control. Jobs are important, especially in times like these.
But the regulatory boards already are required to consider, among other things, "the social and economic value of the activity involved," and they also are empowered to grant variances.
Do legislative committees really want to take on themselves the task of examining individual cases and deciding whether permits should be issued? In effect, that is what this bill would require of them.
The doctrine of states' rights is turned on its head if it is used to deny powers to oneself rather than to the feds. Virginia now has special regulatory needs, such as those controlling kepone in the James River and several contaminants that threaten marine life in the Chesapeake Bay.
Other needs could develop, for which federal regulations are somehow inadequate or inappropriate. The state shouldn't hobble itself in safeguarding the beauty or safety of the environment on which we all depend.