Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
``You can trust George Allen for honest change,'' the announcer said.
Democrats contend those words have come back to bite Allen amid reports that his political action committee accepted $100,000 from Smithfield Foods, a company with a long history of polluting a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay.
Democrats say Allen should return the six-figure contribution because it could appear to influence his administration's decision about levying fines that could cost Smithfield Foods millions of dollars.
``Anyone with a scintilla of sense knows it's wrong,'' said Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, repeating a phrase that Allen used two years ago to describe the $500 landfill contribution to Terry.
Allen, speaking through a spokesman, said he had no plans to return the money.
Spokesman Ken Stroupe said the administration is above reproach because it has taken and will continue to take ``aggressive'' enforcement action against Smithfield Foods.
``Look at how we are bird-dogging that company,'' Stroupe said. ``This administration is their worst nightmare in terms of regulatory enforcement.''
Since Allen took office in 1994, the state Department of Environmental Quality has cited Smithfield Foods at least 23 times for polluting the Pagan River. The most frequently cited problem: elevated levels of fecal coliform, a bacteria present in manure. On three occasions, tests measured that level at 40 times higher than the company's water permit allows.
Democrats say the citations against Smithfield Foods are without teeth because there is no record that the Allen administration has fined the company.
``Have they paid any fines? Let's answer that question,'' said Gail Nardi, spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party.
The governor's press office said it was unaware if the company had paid any fines.
Smithfield Foods operates two plants in Isle of Wight County that slaughter more than 16,000 hogs a day.
The company has a long record of environmental violations. In the mid-1980s, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation sued the company over excessive levels of chlorine, nitrogen and fecal coliform in the Pagan River. A federal judge found in favor of the foundation and, in 1990, Smithfield Foods agreed to pay $639,000 in fines and legal fees.
At one point, Smithfield threatened to leave Virginia - and take its 4,000 jobs with it - if the state didn't negotiate water-discharge rules.
To solve its water treatment problems, the company plans to tie into the Hampton Roads Sanitation District next year.
Stroupe said it was ``scurrilous and offensive'' for Democrats to compare Smithfield Foods' contribution of $100,000 to Allen and the Alleghany County landfill's contribution of $500 to Terry in 1989.
Stroupe argued that Terry - who at the time was state attorney general - took so long to crack down on the Kim-Stan Landfill that its owners had enough time to cram the landfill to capacity before the attorney general's office shut it down.
``The difference is that money influenced the decision,'' Stroupe said. ``The money was paid, and there was an outcome that was favorable.''
Asked why Smithfield Foods would give so generously if the company did not expect regulators to be more understanding, Stroupe replied: ``I don't know. They have a good record of supporting the governor.''
The company contributed $10,000 to Allen during the 1993 gubernatorial race. The company's six-figure contribution this year went to Campaign for Honest Change, a political action committee that Allen set up to finance his bid for a Republican majority in the General Assembly.
Sen. Richard Holland, an Isle of Wight Democrat who sits on the Smithfield Foods board of directors, said he was troubled by the size and timing of the contribution.
``People are going to read into it buying influence,'' said Holland, whose campaign accepted $5,000 from Smithfield Foods.
Holland drew a distinction between the contributions to his campaign and the governor's PAC. ``I think a sitting governor is in a more powerful position than a single legislator,'' he said. ``I think this will renew calls for campaign-contributions limits.''
Virginia is one of a handful of states with no limits on campaign contributions.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB