THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510180396
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Hampton Roads probably will be dropped from a national list of smog-polluted areas, ending years of environmental limits on local business and industry, a senior federal official said Tuesday.
``That will be a top priority for us,'' said Mary Nichols, assistant administrator in charge of air pollution at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. ``This should be pretty exciting for people here.''
Nichols made her comments after a speech before the Virginia Advisory Board on Air Pollution, meeting at the Ramada Plaza Resort in Virginia Beach.
She also told the board that EPA Administrator Carol Browner this week approved the removal of Charles City County from the greater Richmond smog area, releasing that central Virginia county from strict federal scrutiny.
Becky Norton Dunlop, secretary of natural resources in Virginia, said such federal actions illustrate a positive but overlooked fact: Air quality across the commonwealth is improving.
If approved in Hampton Roads, the change would lift numerous restrictions on industries that emit chemicals and solvents into the air, saving business millions of dollars that it otherwise would spend on sophisticated anti-pollution technology.
When mixed under intense sunlight, invisible fumes from manufacturing plants, cars, dry cleaners and household paints cause excessive ground ozone, or smog, a proven respiratory hazard.
If reclassified as an ``attainment zone,'' Hampton Roads' cars and trucks would be spared the hassle of mandatory tailpipe inspections every two years.
Gasoline stations would continue to sell cleaner-burning reformulated fuels as part of a required 10-year regional strategy to keep smog readings low, officials said.
But gas pumps would not be outfitted with special vapor-recovery devices, which are awkward to handle and would likely increase the cost of gasoline.
More than any other benefit, however, local officials said a clean-air designation would enhance economic development.
``If you're a new business or an expanding business, this would make us a lot more attractive,'' said Dwight Farmer, transportation director for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
Like Nichols, Farmer is confident that the region will get its regulatory reprieve. He said commission staff will send a letter this week to the EPA asking for removal.
``We think it's a matter of following through the process,'' he said. ``We think this will happen.''
The likelihood that Hampton Roads will be removed from the national smog list comes just months after the EPA was poised to penalize the region for too much smog.
In January, the EPA told the region that it planned to downgrade Hampton Roads from a ``marginal'' to ``moderate'' pollution zone, a designation carrying mandatory tailpipe tests and other restrictions.
But Gov. George F. Allen and other state and local officials protested, asking for one more summer smog season to prove that conditions are better.
And it worked.
Despite a record heat-wave that encouraged smog elsewhere on the East Coast, Hampton Roads experienced no smog violations this summer and early fall, state officials said.
Hampton Roads is now eligible for regulatory relief because the region has violated safe smog conditions just three days inthe past three years. It has not recorded a single hour of heavy smog since 1993, according to state monitoring stations.
Under the 1990 Clean Air Act, smog-troubled cities can ask to be removed from the national pollution list if they score no more than three violations over three consecutive years.
Removal from the list, however, does not mean an end to monitoring. Air samples will continue to be taken, and if Hampton Roads experiences a rash of violations, the EPA could return to stricter oversight.
KEYWORDS: AIR POLLUTION SMOG EPA by CNB