THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510180417
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The Allen administration got an earful Tuesday night from a small but feisty crowd at City Hall: Stop messing with the environment.
Sam Forrest, a Republican who voted for Gov. George F. Allen two years ago, drove from Richmond to deliver such a message to state officials holding a public meeting on proposed changes to more than 50 state environmental rules.
``I wanted change,'' Forrest said, ``but not on environmental laws that are going along pretty well. The governor's missed the boat on this one.''
Most of the 50 attendants were especially peeved with a state-recommended deregulation of tributyltin, or TBT, a highly toxic boat paint, from water-pollution permits at major shipyards in Hampton Roads.
The proposal, said Kim Coble, a senior scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, is ``not only illegal, it's irresponsible and is not what the citizens of Virginia want.''
Peter Schmidt, Allen's appointed director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, defended the idea of dropping numerical limits from shipyard permits, saying it represents a simple way to balance environmental protection and economic competition.
``There's not a known technology to meet this limit,'' Schmidt said of the 50-parts-per-trillion ceiling that Newport News Shipbuilding and Norshipco were supposed to adopt in limiting discharges of TBT into state waters.
The limit, Schmidt added, is one of the strictest in the nation. He also argued that TBT levels have steadily been dropping in the lower Chesapeake Bay since Virginia adopted a virtual ban on the anti-foulant in 1987.
Both shipyards' permits currently are in limbo. The state shelved its concept of a limitless permit for TBT this summer after the Bay foundation and the James River Association protested the move and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised objections.
Schmidt said Tuesday that the state is studying a new, less onerous numerical limit. Negotiations between the state, the shipyards, the EPA and scientists from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are continuing, he said.
Not everyone was bothered by the TBT proposal directly. Instead, they were upset with how it was brokered - by state officials, internally, without initial public input.
They worried this method was becoming a trend in resetting environmental policy in Virginia.
``You're making all your decisions behind closed doors and completely dismissing everything the public has just told you that doesn't fit your political agenda,'' chided Elizabeth Gibbs, a lawyer and mother who also drove to Norfolk from Richmond for the meeting. Her comments were followed by a standing ovation from the audience.
The hearing was the first of two public meetings on an idea Allen initiated shortly after winning election - reforming state environmental rules. His administration selected more than 50 regulations covering issues from air pollution to hazardous waste to water quality.
Schmidt said before the meeting that his staff already has made recommendations for changes to the first 25 regulations under review. They are on the desk of Becky Norton Dunlop, secretary of natural resources.
Comments received Tuesday and next Wednesday in Spotsylvania will be incorporated into staff suggestions and forwarded to Allen. The process is expected to last until next summer. by CNB