ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 2, 1996 TAG: 9612030045
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SO VIRGINIA'S dramatic drop in fines against corporate polluters since George Allen became governor is solely the result of the polluters polluting less.
And the reason for that decline is so simple, it's a wonder no one thought of it before. All that was needed was for the state to help these businesses comply with environmental standards. Like all of society's miscreants, they just needed counseling. The worries of the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Virginians downstream and downwind are over!
That is what the Allen administration would have them think, anyway.
We are inclined to agree with the governor that the method of federal environmental regulation needs reform - in particular, to emphasize rules less and results more, and to bring regulation more into conformity with the practicalities of industry and the scientific assessment of relative risk.
Still, we have to ask: How credible is the administration's facile explanation that fewer penalties on its watch equal fewer violations - and not, say, lax enforcement?
A clue to the answer might lie in the fact that the EPA recently withheld $1.6 million from Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality because the state agency has been filing only three-fourths of its monthly discharge monitoring reports. The DEQ, of course, has a simple explanation, too: computer problem. It'll be straightened out within a month.
But the problem started in October 1994. "We've been told 'one more month' since about the spring of 1995," says one EPA official.
Without the reports, which track what and how many contaminants are released into public waters each month by industrial, power and sewage treatment plants, the EPA has a hard time knowing how well the state is policing polluters.
More evidence of the adminis-tration's commitment to the environment: The DEQ filed a lawsuit in August against Smithfield Foods Inc. for dumping tons of hog waste from its slaughterhouse into the Pagan River. The DEQ director said the action sent "a clear message that Virginia continues to enforce environmental laws aggressively."
Sounded good, until it was revealed that the suit was filed just days after state officials learned the U.S. Justice Department was preparing to bring civil charges against the meatpacker. Under the Clean Water Act, the federal government can't act against a suspected polluter if a state is "diligently pursuing" the polluter. (The Justice Department has said it will sue Smithfield anyway unless the meatpacker pays a $3.5 million penalty.)
Meantime, the administration continues to resist EPA efforts to ensure that Virginians can challenge state-issued air-pollution permits in court. Attorney General Jim Gilmore has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling that upheld the EPA's rejection of the state's air-permitting program because it denies citizens legal standing.
Allen justifies such conflicts as assertions of states' rights. When Virginians who want a clean environment find stronger advocates at the federal than the state level, they must wonder from whom they need shielding.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB