Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994 TAG: 9407130046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The agency found five flaws in Virginia's plan to comply with the federal Clean Air Act of 1990, and is proposing disapproval.
The EPA's chief complaint is Virginia's limitations on who can challenge air pollution permits in court, called "standing" in legal terms.
"It's up to Virginia as to how serious it is," said Carrie Deitzel, an EPA spokeswoman.
Residents can comment for 30 days from today, when the proposal appears in the Federal Register. The EPA likely will make a final decision this fall.
If the EPA rejects Virginia's plan, mandatory sanctions would take effect 18 months later, unless Virginia meets the agency's requirements.
"The General Assembly has asked for a showdown, and they've got one," said Kay Slaughter, staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville. The nonprofit organization, and other environmental groups in the state, have pushed to reform the state's standing laws.
"EPA's proposal affirms the right of ordinary people to have a say about the quality of the air they breathe," Slaughter said.
Last year, the General Assembly passed a law requiring citizens to prove that air pollution poses an immediate, substantial and financial threat in order to appeal an air pollution permit.
The EPA says that's too strict and violates federal law, which allows standing to any person who has participated in the public comment process and who meets certain broader requirements.
Slaughter said the House of Delegates committee, chaired by Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, carried over to the 1995 session a bill that would amend Virginia's standing law. Her group also is trying to reform the law for water pollution permits, which currently allows only the applicant to appeal in court.
"EPA has been warning Virginia that its program was not in compliance," said Roy Hoagland, staff attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "This step is a significant one, especially for the citizens of Virginia who right now have grossly inadequate rights to protect their natural resources."
Virginia is the only state to have such strict standing laws for pollution permits, according to the environmental groups.
Officials with the state Department of Environmental Quality, which oversees and issues permits, could not be reached for comment. Several top administrators were fired last week, shortly after Gov. George Allen named Peter Schmidt, a Virginia Beach concrete block executive, to lead the department.
Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Dunlop, also an Allen appointee, said, "The General Assembly has a law in place. The EPA is drawing the line."
The state has six months to revise its plan once it is rejected. If the EPA takes over Virginia's air program, permit applications would be made directly to the federal government, and fees would go to the U.S. Treasury. Also, the EPA could rescind federal highway funds, which make up about 40 percent of the state's construction budget.
Other problems with Virginia's plan include:
Allowing permits to be issued by default after 30 days if the air pollution control board fails to take timely action.
Emergency regulations due to expire June 28.
Failing to require operating permits for sources that emit components of acid rain.
Regulations that do not specify which provisions are enforced at the federal level.
As required by the Clean Air Act, Virginia submitted a plan in November that outlined how it would issue permits to existing major industries - numbering about 1,900.
The EPA and the state have been fighting over the standing issue for more than a year. Industries lobbied against increased access because they feared it would open a floodgate of citizen lawsuits.
by CNB