Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990 TAG: 9004070239
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A troop of EPA officials met publicly Thursday with representatives of cities, companies and military bases included on the agency's list of suspected toxic polluters in Virginia. The EPA released the list of 39 claimed pollution sources last month.
More than 90 percent of the waste treatment plants on the list have protested to the EPA, said Thomas Henry, the agency's regional coordinator for water toxics.
Henry said much of the opposition stems from conflicts in federal and state approaches to the issue. Environmental groups are more closely involved in the process in Virginia than anywhere else in the region, he added.
The list includes localities and industrial plants.
"Controversy over the [list] is certainly strongest in Virginia," EPA regional water management deputy head Richard V. Pepino said.
The EPA won't get much help from the state Water Control Board if the dispute reaches the courts.
The water board, which agrees with only 16 of the Virginia sources on the federal list, will enforce the EPA program but it won't defend the listings in court, said Martin G. Ferguson, chief of the state's permitting programs.
Lawyers representing many of the listed waste dischargers sent a strong signal to EPA Thursday that they are prepared to challenge the agency's actions in federal court.
The suspected polluters wanted to know when and where they could appeal if the EPA requires them to meet stringent limits for chemicals. The EPA has said the chemicals likely endanger aquatic life.
"Obviously, that is a very critical issue for all of us here," said David W. Evans, an attorney representing the city of Richmond, one of the suspected polluters.
EPA attorney Christopher Day said appeals could be made to federal court after the EPA approves plans for preventing toxic pollution in waste discharges.
The agency will propose the plans - limits and schedules for reducing chemical concentrations in waste water - to the water board, which must produce draft permits by June 4.
"All of us are cast under some sort of a pall because of this," said Edward Minor, lawyer for Union Camp Corp.
EPA officials said some of the suspected polluters may not discharge toxic pollution or threaten aquatic life.
If the plant operators can prove the EPA incorrectly included them on the list, they would not have to do anything further, Day said. "The process would end there."
by CNB