DATE: Friday, August 15, 1997               TAG: 9708150001

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   65 lines

WASTE MISMANAGEMENT A LOT OF RUBBISH

An overloaded truck filled with medical waste crashed on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in May. A mysterious barge loaded with foul-smelling garbage that no one wanted to claim was docked in Portsmouth last week. These incidents leave many of us wondering - what's next?

In an article headlined ``Rural Virginia's Unsavory Choice: Take in Trash or Pay More Tax,'' The Washington Post on Sunday reported that Virginia is importing 2 million tons of trash each year, making it the second largest garbage importer in the country, after Pennsylvania. Most of the fetid stuff is being trucked from the Northeast to landfills in Sussex, King George's, King and Queen, Gloucester and Brunswick counties. Much of the refuse passes through Hampton Roads.

These relatively poor, rural counties are increasingly willing to trade some of their landscape for cash. In return, they are able to build schools, jails and other public buildings without raising property taxes.

Ultimately, however, the price for such trade-offs may be high if Virginia's environment is irreparably damaged or the health of its citizens is endangered.

There is an alarming lack of control over what kind of and how much refuse may be hauled into the commonwealth. In a first step toward state regulation, the General Assembly this year ordered a study on interstate trash. It required landfills to begin reporting the amount of out-of-state trash received by volume, type and place of origin. Unfortunately, it will be at least a year before the results of this study are available.

On the federal level, a coalition of states (not including Virginia) has been trying to introduce legislation allowing the regulation of interstate shipments of trash. That proposal has been killed each of the last seven years in a congressional committee headed by Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr. of Richmond. Bliley was quoted in the Post as saying: ``My position is that the government should not interfere - neither the state nor the federal government.''

Bliley is wrong.

This is precisely the sort of activity government ought to be worrying about. It is imperative that federal regulations exist to protect the health and well-being of citizens whose interests might be ignored by local officials desiring to amass cash without raising taxes.

Virginians appear to be increasingly concerned about what kind of materials are being hauled on their highways and waterways and what's being buried in their soil. They want and deserve ironclad guarantees that hazardous materials are being kept out of Virginia or, if permitted, are properly handled and carefully monitored.

Those living near these rural landfills worry, with cause, about the possible contamination of their drinking water due to seepage of contaminated run off.

Residents of Hampton Roads are owed an explanation about the garbage barge that was parked on the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth last week. It is simply unacceptable that a reeking barge filled with who-knows-what was allowed to foul the air - and possibly the water - with no apparent accountability.

Portsmouth city officials, who arranged to have the barge towed away, need to tell the citizens what they know about the origins of the vessel, where it is now and who is responsible for parking it in their midst. It might also be nice to know what sort of waste was aboard.

So far, Hampton Roads has had a few minor scares involving imported waste materials. But with hundreds of thousands of tons passing through the region, these should be considered a wake-up call. Citizens should demand that government tightly regulate the interstate garbage-hauling industry before there is an environmental emergency.

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