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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994                   TAG: 9409230070
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

WATER BOARD URGED TO LIFT CHLORINE BAN

The action proposed by the staff of the state Department of Environmental Quality mainly would affect waterways in Western Virginia.

An order from Gov. George Allen to eliminate unnecessary regulations provided impetus for the move to drop the ban, staff members said.

The water board agreed Monday to hold a public hearing. No date was set.

Some sewage treatment plants and industries use chlorine to kill bacteria. The chlorine can be quite toxic to fish, however.

The water board banned chlorine from the pristine streams in 1987 out of concern over chlorine-related fish kills in the lower James River in the 1970s.

In the mid-1980s, the board also adopted standards that set limits on the amount of chlorine that could be discharged into other rivers.

Robert Burnley, the DEQ's director of program support and evaluation, said other significant fish kills did not occur after the standards were adopted. ``The fears of chlorine were never realized.''

The ban imposed a hardship on users while affording ``little or no environmental protection,'' Burnley said.

If chlorine is banned from the streams, the standards that remain in effect will protect them, Burnley said.

But Patricia Jackson, director of the Lower James River Association, said the western areas ``are more of a concern, because you have more sensitive species there.''

Also Monday, the water board adopted a permit system and regulations governing large feeding operations for livestock such as cattle and pigs.