DATE: Wednesday, November 5, 1997           TAG: 9711050565

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   56 lines

CHESAPEAKE BAY CLEANUP GOVERNOR TURNS GREEN

In his waning days as Virginia governor, George F. Allen has pleasantly shocked environmentalists with a generous plan to clean Chesapeake Bay. His biennial budget bill, for the period July 1, 1998, through June 30, 2000, will call for spending $60 million in state funds to decrease the levels of oxygen-robbing nutrients in the Bay.

The General Assembly will consider that bill this winter, after Allen has left office. There's no guarantee that legislators will approve the expenditure or even that the next governor will support it, but asking for the money should help polish Allen's badly tarnished environmental image. He'll surely cite the request repeatedly if he runs for the U.S. Senate in 2000.

Allen announced his proposal for the Bay at a meeting last week of the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council, whose members are the governors of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, the mayor of Washington and the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Afterward, Thomas J. Ridge, the Republican governor of Pennsylvania, quipped to Allen, ``I'm delighted to see you leave the executive council wearing a white hat.''

In Allen's four years in office, Virginia has been the black hat among the three states. It has done the least to reduce the levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in the Bay by 40 percent by 2000. Phosphorus levels actually are rising in the lower James River and throughout much of the Rappahannock River, both of which feed into the Bay.

The $60 million is the amount Allen administration officials estimated that Virginia must spend to do its part toward the 40 percent reductions.

``It's obviously welcome news, albeit a little late,'' said Joseph Maroon, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia. ``Hopefully, this will help us catch up, although I'm sure this will get a lot of scrutiny from the General Assembly.''

Additional money could be spent on the Bay cleanup if the state has surpluses in fiscal 1999 and 2000. Under the Water Quality Improvement Act of 1997, 10 percent of that surplus would be spent on the Bay, along with Allen's $60 million.

In announcing the spending proposal, Allen said, ``Virginia's economic strength is bringing forth a renaissance of expanding opportunity and growth which allows the commonwealth to make this investment in the health of the Chesapeake Bay.''

That statement is consistent with Allen's professed goal of putting business first, the environment second. Implicit in the statement is the notion that the environment need not be so well protected when business is weak.

We disagree. The environment needs protecting all the time. Less would need to be spent now if the Bay had been better protected over the past four years.

Still, Allen's proposal is welcome. It could fall victim to the car-tax debate that is sure to preoccupy the General Assembly, but we hope not.

The $60 million that Allen seeks would do a great deal to reduce pollutants from farms, treatment plants and city streets.

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