ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 10, 1996 TAG: 9612100132
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: SCOTT HARPER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
A state watchdog agency issued a scathing critique Monday of how Virginia protects its rivers and bays from pollution, saying enforcement of environmental laws has fallen to historic lows while mismanagement and cynicism have soared.
In its report, based on a yearlong study, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission recommended more than 50 reforms. They include the dismissal of eight top managers, the hiring of more inspectors, the elimination of a $100,000 consulting contract with a firm that ``understood the ideology and tenets of the governor and secretary of natural resources,'' and a renewed effort to penalize polluters.
Since 1994, when Gov. George Allen took office, Virginia has dropped to last in the 10-state Southeast region for the amount of fines collected for water-pollution violations and the number of polluters taken to court, the commission found.
Lawmakers and environmentalists who have long complained about problems inside the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality were surprised at the extent of the 230-page report. Most predicted a major shake-up. Others wondered how operations could have deteriorated so much.
``I've never heard anything this condemning in all the years I've been around here,'' said Joseph Maroon, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia.
``I think people should be irate, embarrassed and woken up,'' said Albert Pollard, chief lobbyist for the Sierra Club of Virginia. ``This is just an enormous problem.''
Department leaders downplayed the report, saying that many of the alleged troubles are either being fixed or are based on rumors fanned by disgruntled employees.
In response to complaints that leaking municipal sewage treatment plants have been allowed to pollute waterways for years despite state knowledge of these sewage spills, DEQ Director Thomas Hopkins said he was ordering a complete review of such cases, with results due Thursday.
T. March Bell, DEQ's deputy director, said politics may be behind some of the criticism. Bell said several lawmakers also found fault with the report, and he urged caution in reading too much into sensational-sounding incidents.
One allegation involves Becky Norton Dunlop, secretary of natural resources. Citing interviews with three DEQ staffers, the commission's investigators charged that Dunlop blocked a proposed enforcement action against a dairy farm where cow manure had escaped a holding pen and caused a large fish kill in a stream.
Investigators found a handwritten note in the case file that indicated a penalty was ``placed on hold'' and had not been ``approved by Dept. Nat. Res.''
Other cases were cited in which a violation and financial penalty were recommended at the staff level but did not come back from DEQ headquarters in Richmond.
In one incident, a fish farm was found to be polluting nearly a mile of downstream waters in west-central Virginia. A violation notice was prepared but management directed staff not to send it. Dunlop later wrote the farm owner a letter expressing her concern that fish farms were being overregulated.
Dunlop, who was not present at Monday's commission hearing in Richmond, has denied any wrongdoing or interference in this and other cases. On Monday, Hopkins called the charges against his boss ridiculous, and DEQ's enforcement chief, Harry Kelso, said Dunlop has never overruled him on any case.
The report gave Virginia passing marks for its protection of air quality, which has steadily improved over a 20-year period, and in regulating wastes.
But it said DEQ is shirking its constitutional duty by not protecting water quality. Poor enforcement and fewer inspections, brought on by budget cuts and a departmental reorganization, have caused water pollution to increase in some instances. Fecal coliform bacteria, which can carry disease, is one pollutant on the rise in several river basins across the state, the report concluded.
The commission, an independent auditing branch of the General Assembly, was commission last year to conduct a detailed study of environmental protection in the state.
Its first report, released last December, found a crash of morale among DEQ staffers and a widespread fear that tough enforcement against business and industry could result in a reprimand.
Allen has made no secret of his business-first approach to governing, and he and Dunlop often refer to DEQ as a ``service organization'' that should help businesses obtain necessary environmental permits as quickly as possible.
Indeed, the report found much satisfaction among industry representatives, while few environmentalists trusted the path Allen and Dunlop have chosen.
The second and final report, released Monday, focused on DEQ and its performance. While employee morale improved somewhat since last year, 53 percent of DEQ staffers interviewed by the commission said they did not think that the department's leadership values environmental protection.
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