ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, January 4, 1997              TAG: 9701060066
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press

FEDS LOOKING INTO DEQ PRACTICES EPA COULD TAKE OVER PROGRAM

The federal government is investigating whether Virginia is tough enough on air polluters, state officials said.

If the Environmental Protection Agency finds that Virginia isn't enforcing federal pollution laws, the agency could withhold several million dollars in anti-pollution grants or, in a more drastic move, take over the air pollution program from the state.

The probe is being conducted by the inspector general's office of the EPA. Three investigators should arrive Monday. They will pore over state pollution files for a week to see how Virginia inspects and punishes polluters, state officials said.

Virginia is one of several states being investigated, but the EPA would not name the others.

Virginia officials said the probe doesn't worry them.

``We don't see ourselves as being terribly in jeopardy,'' said Jack Schubert, head of air pollution enforcement for the Department of Environmental Quality.

A recent report by EPA inspectors accused Pennsylvania of overlooking or not reporting some major pollution violations. That finding apparently prompted the EPA to look for similar problems in a sampling of other states, Virginia officials said.

The federal probe follows a state report that criticized Virginia as being too lenient with polluters.

The Dec. 9 report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the General Assembly's investigative arm, said state inspections of potential air and water polluters had dropped sharply in recent years.

The number of air inspections has gone up and down over the past six years, but the overall trend was down. The state made 2,986 air inspections in fiscal 1990; 3,385 in 1992; 2,756 in 1994; and 2,354 in 1996, the JLARC report said.

Despite its criticisms, the JLARC report said Virginia's air is getting cleaner. That trend has been continuing since the federal Clean Air Act was adopted in 1972, the report said.

Schubert said the quality of the air, not the number of inspections or court actions, is the best indicator of the way Virginia fights pollution.

``How do you evaluate your success? By your bean count? I say no,'' Schubert said.

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