ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
Gov. George Allen has opened the way for more individuals to take the state to court over air and water pollution permits, shifting his long-held position against so-called citizen "standing."
Speaking Thursday at an environmental conference sponsored by Virginia Military Institute, Allen said he generally agrees with a bill passed this year by the General Assembly that makes environmental permits easier to challenge in court. Before signing the bill, however, he sent it back to the legislature with a few changes.
Environmentalists applauded Allen's move. For more than five years, they've pushed to broaden Virginia's standing law, which they say is the strictest in the country and prohibits full protection of human health and the environment.
Still, they say, the governor's amendment comes with a few strings attached. Allen added waste permits to the bill, and he didn't grant full access to courts unless and until the administration wins its yearlong legal dispute with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
"It was something of a compromise," said Del. Tayloe Murphy, D-Richmond County, who wrote the bill and negotiated the changes with the governor's staff.
Some business people attending Thursday's conference likewise were gladdened by Allen's announcement - but for a different reason.
Richard Langford, environmental superintendent at Hoechst Celanese Corp. in Giles County, said his company has been working more than a year to gather information about its air emissions to fulfill a new permit requirement in the federal Clean Air Act. But the legal dispute between the state and EPA over the law has delayed the work and left the company not knowing which one would run the program.
Steven Spence, environmental supervisor for Hercules Inc., a wood products plant in Southampton County, also said he was eager to finish his air pollution permit.
Langford and Spence said they weren't particularly worried that groundless lawsuits would flood the courtrooms - a scenario the administration has predicted to explain its stance against broadened standing.
"I didn't want people who had absolutely no interest, who were not going to be at all harmed by the issuing of a permit to somehow be able ... to file frivolous lawsuits. I didn't want people from outside Virginia to come and say, `Oh, you shouldn't file this permit,''' Allen said Thursday.
He contends that the bill's language makes clear that "the person has to actually be harmed" before suing the state.
Murphy said the amended bill should easily pass the legislature, which approved the original version by almost 2-to-1 margins in both houses.
The new Virginia legislation would extend the state standard to lawsuits over water and waste permits, which is a plus, environmentalists say.
Currently, people who can show an immediate, financial and substantial harm from the issuance of an air pollution permit have standing. The EPA says that's still too restrictive, and that it falls short of federal requirements - prompting the Allen administration's lawsuit last year. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the challenge earlier this year.
Although no final decision has been made on appealing the 4th Circuit ruling, Allen's amendment says the stricter state standard would remain if Virginia ultimately wins its lawsuit. If the state loses, the law automatically will reflect the broader federal law, Murphy said.
"The governor's clause allows him to go to court to fight citizens going to court. There's an irony there," said Kay Slaughter, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. "I just hope the governor and his aides drop the lawsuit."
Allen gave no indication he would back down. He said he intends to "preserve our right in the lawsuit as Virginians to determine how we run our judicial process."
In another environmental development, Allen said he is forming the Commission on Environmental Stewardship. The bipartisan commission will help ensure continued progress by conducting a comprehensive examination of the state's environmental policies and programs, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB