ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The state Department of Environmental Quality kowtows to industry and fails to rigorously enforce pollution laws, most DEQ employees who responded to an environmental group's survey said.
The results were released Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit association of state and federal environmental agency employees.
David Sligh, director of PEER's Virginia chapter, said about 21 percent of DEQ's 670 employees responded to the organization's mail survey. He said the results ``show why morale within DEQ is at an all-time low.''
Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop dismissed the results as carping by a small but vocal group of disgruntled workers, although she acknowledged, ``We have some work to do in rebuilding the morale at DEQ.''
Gov. George Allen's spokesman, Ken Stroupe, said that the 79 percent of the agency's employees who did not participate in the survey provide a vote of confidence in Dunlop and the administration.
``There will always be radical organizations like PEER who ... prefer bludgeoning industry and business into compliance,'' Stroupe said. ``All around this state, we are receiving waivers from the Clinton administration, [President] Clinton's EPA. Even they realize the quality of the air and water in Virginia is improving.''
Among the survey's results:
* 70 percent of respondents said industry excessively influences the department's policy decisions.
* 61 percent said DEQ's enforcement of pollution laws is lax.
* 30 percent of the respondents, including 56 percent of managers, said they have been ordered to ignore an environmental rule or regulation within the past two years.
* 79 percent, including all managers who responded, said hiring practices at DEQ are based on political patronage, not merit.
Jeff DeBonis, the national executive director of PEER, said the survey results were abysmal.
``PEER works all across the country, from Alaska to Florida, but we have never seen such a powerful self-indictment of an environmental agency by its own employees,'' he said.
Seventy-two percent of respondents said Dunlop should resign, but only 35 percent said DEQ Director Peter Schmidt should step down.
Sligh, a former DEQ senior engineer who resigned after claiming he was ordered to defend improper wastewater discharge permits, said he was pleased with the 21 percent response rate to the survey. He said that while employees who have no complaints probably are less likely to respond, the survey still shows serious problems at DEQ.
``If there are really strong supporters, they had a chance to pile on and make their voice heard,'' he said.
But Dunlop said supporters made their views known by tossing the PEER survey in the wastebasket.
``Eighty percent of people at DEQ are committed to carrying out their professional responsibilities,'' she said. ``There's always going to be a minority of people championing a destructive perspective.''
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