DATE: Saturday, July 26, 1997               TAG: 9707260384

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   43 lines

STATE ANSWERS EPA'S QUESTIONS ABOUT RESTRUCTURING OF DEQ

The state Department of Environmental Quality on Friday sent the federal government a packet of information about its controversial restructuring.

Also Friday, state politicians and environmentalists criticized the restructuring at a press conference in Norfolk, calling it ``spiteful'' and politically motivated.

Del. W. Tayloe Murphy Jr., D-Warsaw, said the plan to remove 30 senior managers who have decades of experience in regulating clean air, water and soil has become an embarrassment in environmental circles across the country.

Moreover, Murphy said, the plan represents another example of how environmental protection has taken a back seat in Virginia under the Republican administration of Gov. George F. Allen and his appointed secretary of natural resources, Becky Norton Dunlop, a former aide to Ronald Regan.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency two weeks ago demanded answers to 16 questions about how DEQ will administer federal anti-pollution programs after the restructuring.

The EPA set a July 25 deadline for a response. The information will not actually reach the agency's regional headquarters in Philadelphia before Monday, but EPA spokeswoman Ruth Podems said that will not matter.

The DEQ refused to release a copy of the response until EPA receives it.

If the federal officials do not like the DEQ's answers, they could take over the state's administration of some environmental programs.

``We just want to make sure their staff infrastructure can handle the demands of the regulations they have to enforce,'' Podems said.

Thomas Hopkins, the DEQ director, has assured state legislators the state will not lose control of the programs.

DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said the package sent to the EPA includes supporting documents.

``The goal is to address their concerns and assure them we are doing our jobs,'' he said.

The restructuring will give DEQ five layers of management instead of the four recommended by the General Assembly's investigative agency. Thirty employees, many with decades of experience, were laid off but invited to compete for 34 new positions.

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