Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Allen's Campaign for Honest Change was established to help Republicans win their first General Assembly majority in the Nov. 7 election. The Smithfield donations - $50,000 in May and $50,000 in September - are the largest corporate contribution to the PAC.
Smithfield and state regulators are negotiating over fines the company could owe for dumping polluted wastewater into the Pagan River near Smithfield. The Pagan flows into the James River and, from there, into the Chesapeake Bay.
The company has been cited two dozen times over the past 18 months and could face millions in state fines.
An Allen administration official denied any connection between the political contribution and Smithfield's negotiations over the fines.
Tom Hopkins, deputy secretary of natural resources, said he was unaware of the company's political contributions.
``We do not react in our agencies on the basis of who's making political contributions. ... There's no connection between anything that Smithfield is doing in terms of political contributions and the regulation of their operations,'' Hopkins said.
Allen's office referred all questions about the contributions to Chris Nolen, the PAC's head.
Nolen said he was unaware of the company's legal problems with the state. He said had he known about the problems ``we would have sat down and evaluated the situation.''
Smithfield officials did not immediately return phone messages left Tuesday night.
``This should not have been accepted in the first place,'' said Julie Lapham, executive director of Common Cause of Virginia, a government watchdog group. ``It's just too close for comfort, and that's conflict of interest, and that's poor ethics, and that's poor values. And for an administration that preaches values, it's appalling.''
Smithfield slaughters thousands of hogs daily at its operations. Slaughter wastes are washed out with 3 million gallons a day of water, which is treated before being dumped into the Pagan.
But state regulators have found excessive levels of fecal coliform, a bacterium that indicates the presence of manure, in the wastewater.
The company said the problem was an employee monitoring water quality. The employee was reassigned.
The state Department of Environmental Quality has reported no violations from the company since July.
``To my knowledge, we haven't received any inquiry whatsoever from the governor or the secretary [of natural resources]. Any case decision will be decided here,'' said Harold J. Winer, regional compliance manager for the DEQ.
Allen has raised $800,000 since April for the PAC. The money is being used to help pay advertising for Republican candidates, for his campaign travels across the state and for a statewide television commercial urging voters to give him a Republican majority to work with in his final two years as governor.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB