THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, May 29, 1995                   TAG: 9505260028
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   46 lines

TOLERATING TBT ISN'T THE SOLUTION

So Frank Daniel as the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality wants to allow the use of the highly toxic and deadly TBT paint on ships in order to ``relieve big shipyards in Hampton Roads from the expensive monitoring programs that give inconclusive results!'' (news, May 19).

Gee, why not get the IRS and the local commissioner of the revenue to relieve us all of our expensive household finance monitoring programs? They only lead to inconclusive results as well!

It occurs to me (although I am just a citizen, taxpayer, and shellfish consumer!) that if the monitoring programs are expensive and inconclusive, then they should be revised or revamped in order to be less expensive and more conclusive. If the government used this rationale in everything it did, then we would have scrapped the justice system and prison system years ago. Forget about locking 'em up. We're not sure it does any good. Just let 'em go.

Bob Goode, state supervisor of water permits, claims that those shipyards concerned in Hampton Roads will still be required to check receiving waters for TBT levels, as well as employ technology to capture paint chips during sandblasting work.

But Mr. Goode claims that the difference would be that there will be no limit on what would be permitted to escape. We can all take a guess as to how much probably will escape, however, if the technology to catch it is expensive, and there is no limit.

At some point, our various governments are going to have to decide where pro-business ends and pro-environment begins.

Pro-environment is not just some leftist, liberal wacko idea. It is about preservation of the environment now, but it is quickly becoming preservation of humanity. When we have completely fouled this planet, not only will the plants and animals be gone, we will be too. It occurs to me that the generally conservative-held position of pro-life is ironically not often held in conjunction with the generally liberal-held position of pro-environment. Aren't they just about the same thing, when you get right down to it?

SCOTT D. HENRICHSEN

Virginia Beach, May 22, 1995 by CNB