THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 8, 1995 TAG: 9502080485
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The head of the state agency that oversees environmental programs in North Carolina has asked a Senate panel to support an agenda that would reform the regulatory process, protect the coast, provide money for state parks and help industries prevent pollution.
That agenda is not ambitious, said the official, Jonathan Howes, secretary of the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources.
``Frankly, we'd like to do a lot more,'' Howes told the new Senate Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee in its first meeting of the session. ``But we think it's a tightly tailored agenda for the kind of session we're in.''
But the chairman of the Senate committee that heard Howes' request said after the meeting that some items in the agenda may be a tough sell for budget-conscious, reform-minded legislators.
And Howes may face opposition to some proposals from environmental groups whose spokesmen said, after the meeting, that some aspects of Howes' agenda raised some concerns.
Howes told the panel that revising the process through which businesses receive permits from state environmental agencies was a key part of the department's agenda for the coming session.
``We need to do nothing less than reinvent the way we do things,'' he said.
The changes would include a policy that defers fines for industries that confess to violating environmental permits; legislation that grants industries more self-monitoring powers; measures to streamline the process that state agencies use to grant environmental permits; more notice for environmental regulations; and estimates of the costs of enacting proposed rules.
Howes also called for Senate support for plans to reduce pollution in rivers and streams from agriculture and urban runoff , to acquire natural areas along the coast, to expand the state's marine fisheries patrol and to improve local land-use planning under the Coastal Area Management Act.
Howes asked the Senate to support renewed efforts to fund the state's park system from a portion of the excise tax on state deeds and to enact proposals from a state panel that studied ways to prevent pollution.
Howes did not estimate the costs of his proposals. They are likely to be disclosed when Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. presents his budget to the General Assembly early next week.
Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, chairman of the committee, said that while most legislators would probably support regulatory reforms, Howes' request for support for improved local land-use planning may encounter strong opposition.
As an indication of the tenor of the coming debate over funding for the state's environmental agencies, Sen. Daniel R. Simpson, R-Caldwell, cited an incident in which an acquaintance was having trouble selling a parcel of land because of the state's environmental regulations.
``Wouldn't we be better off to repeal these laws?'' he asked.
Responded Howes, ``If the object is to prevent pollution, then repealing the laws isn't the answer.''
A lobbyist for the Sierra Club and the Conservation Council of North Carolina said, after the meeting, that he supported the administration's position on funding for state parks, its coastal recommendations and its plans for preventing pollution.
But, he said, ``We may have some differences with the department on regulatory reform. We'll have to see.'' by CNB