ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT HARPER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is withholding a $1.6million grant from Virginia because the state has been up to two years late in releasing information on water pollution from industries and sewage treatment plants.
The state Department of Environmental Quality on Wednesday blamed computer problems for its tardy water-pollution reports.
``It was one of those things that happened gradually, and eventually got big enough that someone here started taking notice,'' said Bob Burnley, DEQ's director of program support and evaluation.
The EPA's action comes after the agency warned Virginia this summer that the grant was in jeopardy. In addition, the EPA offered to send staff to Richmond to help the state catch up on paperwork.
Burnley said he expects to correct the computer error within 30 days. After that, he said, Virginia should get its $1.6 million grant, which helps the state monitor big companies and utilities that discharge wastes into creeks and rivers.
Conservationists, however, said the delays are further evidence that the Republican administration of Gov. George Allen has put environmental issues on the back burner.
They noted how a computer glitch also was blamed this month for the Pagan River being left off a state list of contaminated waterways. Much of the river, which flows through Isle of Wight County and feeds the Chesapeake Bay, has been closed to shellfish harvesting for 26 years because of excessive bacteria.
``If the Sierra Club were run like DEQ, we wouldn't have any members,'' said Albert Pollard, chief lobbyist for the club in Virginia. ``The current administration talks about running government more efficiently. We'd like to see that with DEQ.''
The grant delay is the latest joust between Virginia and the EPA, which have consistently sparred since Allen took office in 1994. Essentially, Virginia views the EPA as intruding into state matters. The EPA is concerned Allen is relaxing environmental standards as a way to encourage economic development.
Most recently, the regional head of the EPA, Michael McCabe, accused DEQ of going soft on polluters by not pursuing enforcement cases. DEQ officials responded that much of McCabe's comments were political bluster, coming on the eve of national elections.
The discharge monitoring reports describe what and how many contaminants a particular industry, power plant or sewage treatment plant releases into public waters each month.
State officials rely on these reports to determine whether industries are complying with the Clean Water Act.
The information is supposed to be relayed to the EPA, so the federal agency can check if states are doing a good job regulating companies in their back yards.
The EPA expects to receive 95 percent of these reports; Virginia averages about 76 percent - the worst rate in the mid-Atlantic, said Alvin Morris, EPA's regional director of water protection.
Morris wrote to Thomas Hopkins, director of DEQ, in July to warn him that grant money would be withheld if Virginia did not improve its performance.
``Several months ago it was believed that the missing data concerns would be remedied by now,'' Morris wrote in his July 17 memo. ``Unfortunately, that is not the case despite repeated assertions that a remedy was close at hand.''
Morris said Wednesday that the EPA's action was not unprecedented. But, he noted, states usually will improve their reporting record once the EPA threatens to withhold money.
``The thing is, Virginia was doing a good job with this for years,'' he said in a phone interview from Philadelphia. ``Then, sometime around October 1994, we stopped getting their information.''
Burnley said that about that time, DEQ's director of informational services accepted a buyout package offered by the incoming governor.
``We thought we understood the problem,'' he said, ``but obviously we haven't got there yet.''
Since then, DEQ has hired a computer specialist to iron out the wrinkles, Burnley said. ``Believe me, we want this fixed as much as EPA.''
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