DATE: Saturday, May 10, 1997                TAG: 9705100274

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HARBORTON                         LENGTH:   73 lines

EPA PROVIDES NEW PROTECTION FOR EASTERN SHORE WATER PROJECTS THAT RECEIVE FEDERAL MONEY WILL BE WATCHED FOR POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS.

Starting Friday, the Eastern Shore's drinking water came under an extra measure of protection.

Projects that receive federal financial assistance will be subject to federal review to make sure they don't pollute the aquifer, the Eastern Shore's underground supply of water.

The Environmental Protection Agency took five years, but finally the Sole Source Aquifer designation is approved and in effect.

``We feel it took a long time, but it was worth the work,'' said Jane Ladany.

Ladany and a group of citizens filed the application that led to the Sole Source Aquifer designation. They started in 1992, after three companies planned to build plants for processing contaminated waste.

Ladany and friends believed state and local governments responded weakly to the environmental dangers posed by those businesses.

``They weren't trying to protect the aquifer, was our feeling,'' she said.

So the Bi-County Ad Hoc Citizens Committee on Oversight petitioned the EPA to include the Eastern Shore in its Sole Source Aquifer program. The committee had to prove that the population relies on groundwater for more than 50 percent of its drinking water, and that there is no viable economical alternative drinking water source.

That wasn't hard to do. By then, studies had shown that the Eastern Shore is like a sponge filled with fresh water, floating on a salty ocean. There is very little fresh surface water. So that bubble of fresh groundwater is all the Eastern Shore has to drink.

And a few quick calls to Virginia Beach and Maryland confirmed the obvious: they would not share their scarce water with the Eastern Shore.

Technically, the Eastern Shore's aquifers fit the EPA requirements perfectly. And local governments had no say in whether or not they would be subject to the federal program.

That prospect didn't sit well with many local officials, including the bicounty groundwater study committee.

``They were upset, I think, that a local citizens' body interfered with the way they were handling things,'' said Ladany. ``And they didn't want Big Brother looking over their shoulders.''

Accomack County Administrator Keith Bull said his Board of Supervisors was concerned that the EPA program would add red tape to already complex construction permitting processes. Businesses might not want to locate on the Eastern Shore if getting permits became time-consuming and costly due to EPA involvement.

``They felt this huge federal agency would get hold of something and run in a direction that wouldn't be realistic,'' said Bull.

To calm local anxieties, the EPA held a series of meetings to create a ``memorandum of understanding'' that described how the program would work in Accomack and Northampton counties.

``It gave everybody a much greater comfort level,'' said Bull.

There aren't many activities that will actually be affected by the EPA program. If a construction project is funded totally with private, state or federal money, it won't be reviewed. Only those with partial federal funding, either through grants or loans, will be looked at.

``In reality, the uproar about the Sole Source Aquifer designation has been much to-do about nothing,'' said Terry Wagner, director of the state Office of Groundwater Management. ``The state's position is that there are numerous existing state programs that give a lot of groundwater protection.''

But, he said, the controversy had one good effect. It brought groundwater issues to the community's attention.

Ladany would add one more: the process proved that individuals really can make at least a small difference in public life.

``Citizens' groups are very important in the protection of the environment,'' said Ladany. She doesn't have any plans for continuing her activism.

``But if they ever try to build any more waste incinerators, I'm sure we'll be out there in the midst of it.''

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