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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 14, 1994                   TAG: 9412140143
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

REPORT DETAILS COSTS OF WATER PROTECTION

An environmental program that nets $4 million in federal grants for Virginia could actually cost the state up to $667 million, a study by the General Assembly's watchdog panel says.

More than 360,000 Virginia families may have to spend up to $3,264 each to improve their septic tanks under the federal coastal-zone management program, according to the report issued by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

The management program provides grants to states if they take steps to protect waters, sand dunes and other coastal resources.

States can opt out of the program but would lose the federal grant money.

The report found that farmers would have to spend $18 million for such things as fencing to keep livestock out of creeks; urban areas would have to spend $15.3 million to control problems such as runoff from construction projects; and forestry operations would have to spend $1.3 million.

But the biggest expense would be to upgrade septic systems, ranging from $160 million to $633 million, depending on how stringently federal rules are applied, the report said.

According to the report, about 362,000 households may face costs of $313 to $3,264 to fix or move septic tanks that were built too close to ground water to meet federal rules. Federal officials require the bottoms of septic tanks to sit two feet above the underground water. Virginia allows tanks as close as two inches from ground water.

Federal and state offices said the report failed to mention the hard-to-quantify benefits of the program, such as protecting waters for recreation and commercial fishing.

``I hope some of those aspects are considered,'' said Peyton Robertson, an environmental protection specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the coastal program with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Complaints about the program, which began in 1972, didn't surface until after Congress reauthorized the program in 1990.

That reauthorization requires measures to prevent pollution from storm-water runoff from farms, forests and urban areas. The revised law also seeks to cut pollution from septic systems.

by CNB