THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 31, 1995 TAG: 9508310473
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Facing objections from the U.S. government and environmentalists, Virginia has shelved plans to deregulate a notoriously toxic boat paint at major shipyards in Hampton Roads, state officials said Wednesday.
But the officials also said they would press forward with their proposal to drop limits on tributyltin, or TBT, in state water-pollution permits if they can overcome the objections.
``We still think we're doing the right thing,'' said Michael McKenna, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
The department suggested the change last fall after Newport News Shipbuilding, the largest private employer in Hampton Roads, complained that a 50-parts-per-trillion permit limit was too difficult to meet and would hamper its competitiveness.
``No other state has these numerical limits, so, of course, they're concerned about being at a disadvantage,'' McKenna said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is worried that erasing permit limits, as passed in 1989 by the Virginia Water Control Board, would encourage TBT use at shipyards and ultimately could harm water quality and marinelife.
Before lifting its objections, the EPA wants a study conducted of possible impacts on the Chesapeake Bay and local tributaries, such as the Elizabeth and James rivers.
But no one is willing to pay for what would be an expensive, tedious analysis. So the process has hit a stone wall.
For now, though, two big shipyards - Newport News Shipbuilding and Norshipco - find themselves operating without an updated state pollution permit and with no fast resolution in sight.
The yards can still apply TBT, but must inform the state before doing so and must catch paint residues with plastic tarps and other control devices as best they can.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, are claiming victory for stopping a state regulatory change, at least temporarily, that they believe would create opportunities to use a boat paint accepted around the world as one of the most toxic to humans and marine life alike.
TBT, a tin-based antifoulant, is most effective in keeping barnacles off hulls, thus decreasing navigational drag and maintenance costs. But when the paint leaches into water or is sand-blasted off hulls at shipyards, TBT also injures marine life and increases toxicity of water.
``The withdrawal is an admission by DEQ that (environmentalists) were correct in concluding that the draft permits did not protect the Elizabeth River and the Chesapeake Bay,'' said Roy A. Hoagland, staff attorney and assistant director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia. ``We hope the re-drafted permits will correct the errors and include TBT limits.''
After learning that the state was proposing to do away with TBT limits at Norshipco and Newport News Shipbuilding, the Bay foundation and the James River Association petitioned for a public hearing on the matter, in the hope of overturning the move.
A hearing was originally approved. But in a letter Wednesday to the Bay foundation, the regional director of DEQ, Frank Daniel, said the hearings had been canceled and the draft permits pulled from consideration.
``We feel that it would not be proper to conduct a public hearing on these permits at this time since we are not sure what direction they may take from this point on,'' Daniel wrote. by CNB