THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160307
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
State money for environmental protection in Virginia has dropped 45 percent since 1989, according to a study released Monday by conservationists, who warned that the trend poses risks to clean air, water and soil.
The study, conducted by Friends of the Earth, a national environmental group, comes as the Allen administration has proposed reducing state funding again through 1997, by some $10 million.
That includes a 51 percent cut for inspections of industrial plants, toxic waste pits and other pollution sources, and a 32 percent drop in money for enforcement of environmental laws, the study said.
``This would be an all-time low,'' said Patti Jackson, executive director of the James River Association, at a news conference at the Capitol.
Michael McKenna, director of policy and planning for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said such numbers can be deceiving. While not disputing a smaller state role in environmental programs, McKenna said industry and taxpayers have picked up the slack, and then some.
He pointed to one section of the study that showed that total environmental spending in Virginia - including state funds, permit fees, special taxes and federal aid - has climbed from $82 million in 1987 to a projected $201 million in 1997.
``The citizens of the commonwealth are spending more on the environment, period,'' McKenna said, noting that industry fees and federal aid still derive from the same source: taxpayers.
Velma Smith, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said that when inflation is considered, Virginia spent $75.9 million on the environment in 1989, compared to a request from Gov. George F. Allen to allocate $44 million in 1997. That amounts to a 45 percent decline, after inflation.
Virginia greatly increased its environmental commitment after signing the Chesapeake Bay Agreements in 1987. In the two years after joining hands with neighboring states to clean up the Bay, Virginia upped its environmental ante from $52 million in 1987 to $80 million in 1989, according to the study.
Since then, however, state dollars have slid, to a proposed $62 million in the current fiscal year and $59 million in 1997, the study said.
The study also found that the federal government has been paying for an ever-increasing share of state environmental programs, from about $16 million in 1987 to over $82 million in the projected 1997 budget.
Environmentalists saw an irony here: Allen, a Republican, has consistently fought what he calls federal intrusion into state matters, yet his administration has become more reliant on federal dollars to pay its environmental bills.
Jackson said budget cuts in the late 1980s and early '90s, under Democratic administrations in Richmond, were due to the national recession. But now, she said, the reductions under Allen are part of a less-government-is-good-government policy that she and other environmentalists feel endangers the environment.
To drive home this point, four citizens from different corners of Virginia spoke Monday on their frustrations with an ever-shrinking state environmental department that, as they said, seems more interested in satisfying industry than protecting natural resources.
``Under the current leadership, they seem to be doing as little as possible to meet minimum federal requirements,'' said Conway Moy, a King George County resident who has tried, unsuccessfully, to fight numerous industrial permits issued near his community.
Other environmentalists wore badges to the news conference saying ``Read the JLARC report on DEQ,'' a reference to a recent study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission that found morale inside the state Department of Environmental Quality extremely low because of numerous changes and cutbacks by the Allen administration.
McKenna, who was appointed to his DEQ post under Allen, said he has heard such frustrations before, and that they stem from the painful change in streamlining government under a Republican administration.
``Every indicator, every single indicator in air quality and water quality, shows that air quality and water quality are improving,'' he said. ``No data can get around that.''
Asked if he believes state reductions are the cause for such improvements, McKenna said: ``These are trends we've inherited, and trends that we've continued.''
Environmentalists said Monday they were hoping to persuade lawmakers to add more money to the proposed 1996-97 budget, and to stop program shifting that Allen has suggested.
One move, for example, would shift the Natural Heritage Program, which tracks endangered species in Virginia, from the Department of Conservation and Recreation to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The move would cut about $600,000 from the program, and put much of its operations in limbo, environmentalists warned. by CNB