THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501190408
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered that Hampton Roads do much more to clean up its polluted air - a move that likely will mean mandatory tailpipe testing for most cars and trucks in the region.
The order, issued Tuesday in a formal federal notice, provoked a snap response from Becky Norton Dunlop, state secretary of natural resources, who has been feuding for months with the EPA over other environmental issues.
``Obviously, it flies in the face of their reported new flexibility statements,'' she said Wednesday night, referring to the EPA. ``They've been threatening this since before the election.''
By downgrading Hampton Roads from a ``marginal'' to ``moderate'' air-pollution zone, the EPA is requiring that by late 1996 the region cut by 15 percent the contaminants that cause ground ozone, or smog.
Failure to meet this deadline could result in stricter rules and another reclassification, to ``serious,'' which would put Hampton Roads in the same category as Northern Virginia.
Richmond, the other smog zone in Virginia, is rated as ``moderate.''
State and local officials had been expecting the announcement for months. Hampton Roads technically fell into hot water in December 1993 when it failed to show a significant improvement in air quality.
Still, reactions varied widely Wednesday.
Dwight Farmer, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, a group that must draft transportation plans to comply with the Clean Air Act, said he will ask the EPA to reverse its order.
Farmer noted that smog levels in Hampton Roads have exceeded federal health standards only six days in the past four years, and not a single day in 1994.
He also said that the region has endorsed reformulated gasoline at area pumps and that the Hampton Roads commission's transportation plan through the year 2015 shows major pollution reductions in efforts to meet federal mandates.
``We're very close to being in compliance right now,'' Farmer said. ``But if this one domino falls, we have a whole host of other restrictions and deadlines that fall on us. And I don't know how we'd meet those.''
Tim Barrow, a Virginia Beach land planner who also serves as vice chairman of the state Air Pollution Control Board, described such protests as ``foot dragging'' and said it was time for Hampton Roads to attack its smog problem.
For Barrow and others - including environmentalists and many health experts, who worry about long-term effects of smog on the respiratory system - that strategy should include vehicle-emissions testing.
``It gives the us the greatest potential impact in the quickest amount of time,'' Barrow said.
Under the Clean Air Act, any region declared a ``moderate'' smog zone is required to run a basic vehicle emissions program. Cars and trucks manufactured in model year 1968 or later would have to be tested every two years.
But to achieve as much as five times the pollution reductions, a more sophisticated and expensive program is available. Vehicles are taken through a series of tests, at various speeds, to determine their environmental conditioning.
One key caveat in this debate: Before any test becomes reality in Hampton Roads, the Virginia General Assembly must approve it.
If the region is forced to adopt a testing program, local officials appear to be leaning toward the more sophisticated system. Not that they think Hampton Roads needs such big reductions; rather, they fear the economic consequences of imposing greater restrictions on local industry and business.
``The one thing Hampton Roads can't deal with now . . . is regulations that would take away from us being noncompetitive for incoming businesses,'' Barrow said.
Natural Resources Secretary Dunlop suggested another alternative, one that avoids any such local hand-wringing: Congress.
A staunch Republican, Dunlop said the new conservative Congress may redesign the rules of the clear-air game.
``Bills will be introduced in the House and Senate that I think will receive serious consideration to suspend inspection and maintenance programs,'' she said. ``Congress seems to be willing to work with states to determine the best ways to improve our air quality. I, of course, believe in looking at new technologies and working with local officials.'' MEMO: Staff writer Karen Weintraub contributed to this story.
KEYWORDS: EPA AIR POLLUTION AUTOMOBILE HAMPTON ROADS by CNB