THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 8, 1995 TAG: 9508080252
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
After two months of review, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided to block Virginia's plan for deregulating the use of TBT, a notoriously toxic boat paint, at major shipyards in Hampton Roads.
The EPA, however, did not entirely reject the state plan, saying only that it was inappropriate because of the lack of information about TBT pollution in the Elizabeth River and lower Chesapeake Bay.
Given this dearth of data, the EPA urged area shipyards and state scientists to conduct a detailed study of what is causing high amounts of TBT, or tributyltin, to continue plaguing local waters.
For now, the EPA decision puts on hold a key water-pollution permit for Newport News Shipbuilding and leaves unresolved the fate of Virginia's plan to scrap TBT limits from such permits at all local shipyards.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality first proposed its plan this spring, in response to complaints from Newport News Shipbuilding that TBT permit limits as recommended were too strict.
The state originally wanted the shipyard to restrict its discharge to 50 parts per trillion - a figure company officials said was almost too small to even monitor and amounted to a virtual ban on TBT use.
Environmentalists were furious when they discovered that state officials proposed, without calling a public hearing, to deregulate a pollutant widely regarded as one of the most toxic and tightly controlled on the planet.
Regulated in England, France and most U.S. coastal states, TBT has been shown in numerous studies to be harmful to human health and toxic to some shellfish. One study, by Old Dominion University, found that baby fish exposed to TBT levels common in parts of the Elizabeth River did not develop tails.
Chuck Epes, a state Department of Environmental Quality spokesman, said Monday that his bosses had not yet decided whether to undertake a new TBT study, which could take months and thousands of dollars to complete.
Another option under review, Epes said, is to install TBT limits in pollution permits that are less onerous than those previously employed.
``We're pleased the EPA agrees with us that there's a lot of questions in regard to regulating TBT,'' Epes said. ``It's clear there's no cut-and-dry answers here.''
Environmental groups, led by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, also were pleased with the EPA decision but vowed to fight any effort to scrap TBT limits altogether.
``We believe that, clearly, the shipyards are a problem, and that limits are needed,'' said Joseph H. Maroon, CBF's executive director in Virginia. ``If they take those limits off, the sky's the limit.''
Virginia first passed restrictions on TBT in 1988. They virtually barred TBT use on recreational boats but allowed major shipyards to continue minimal application of the tin-based paint within permit limits with certain safeguards in effect.
One foundation scientist, Kim Coble, found it ironic that the Elizabeth River has been targeted in the multistate Chesapeake Bay Agreements as a toxic hot spot in need of cleanup, yet Virginia wants to take an action that, as she says, would ``without question lead to more TBT pollution in that river.''
The Bay foundation has won a public hearing on the Newport News Shipbuilding permit controversy, which is expected to be held in September.
A similar dispute over TBT limits in Norshipco's pollution permit, however, seems to have escaped scrutiny because, as EPA regional permits director Robert Koroncai said, ``We just missed that one when it came through us.''
At Newport News Shipbuilding, eight of 21 ships that were repaired at the Peninsula yard last year contained TBT, said spokeswoman Jerri Fuller Dickseski.
``As we diversify, we're beginning to work on more commercial ships . . . such as cruise ships, which want TBT paint,'' Dickseski said. ``It's a customer requirement.''
KEYWORDS: TBT TOXIC BOAT PAINT U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
SHIPYARD by CNB