THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, July 20, 1994               TAG: 9407200010
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

RE-EXAMINE ENVIRONMENTAL VIEW

Beverly Mann's June 10 letter to the editor pointed out the fallacy of your, and much of the business and political communities', attitudes toward environmental concerns. I'm tired of trite comments that we need to protect people, not salamanders and spotted owls.

Of course people are more important, but endangered species are usually rallying points and only part of real environmental issues. Acts that destroy endangered species and/or their environment also threaten mankind's well-being.

My neighbors and I have been fighting the location in Isle of Wight County of a coal-storage facility that will destroy more than 200 acres of wetlands and endanger and degrade the water supplies of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Chesapeake. Meetings with, and letters to, local politicians have gotten us shakes of the head and wistful ``Tsk, tsks.''

It's a shame that in our desperation to protect our drinking water, our investments and our homes, we have been forced to seek relief from the federal agencies instead of the local governments, which want large developments, with no apparent regard for their consequences. They justify their complicity with lame excuses of ``We need diversified tax bases'' and ``The permitting process will protect you,'' and then lobby these agencies to approve these ill-conceived projects.

The developer of this project seems willing to jeopardize the water supply of 700,000 South Hampton Roads residents to further line its already fat pockets.

Environmental laws are routinely circumvented or ignored by many businesses and municipalities, which is why environmental laws must be strict, clearly written and strongly enforced. Only citizens who will pay the final bill in dollars and health problems seem motivated to press politicians to enact environmental laws and insist that environmental agencies enforce them free from political pressure. Isn't it in your, your paper's and your readers' best interests to support realistic and effective environmentalism?

ARTHUR L. WHITENER

Vice chairman

Citizens Against the Coal Facility

Suffolk, July 3, 1994 by CNB