Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 29, 1990 TAG: 9006290230
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In angry letters to Gov. Douglas Wilder and air board Chairman Wallace Reed, Dungannon farmer and environmental activist Richard Austin accused the board of being two-faced. The board says it wants to hear citizens' concerns but has deprived them of a voice in the Louisiana-Pacific issue, Austin said.
"It will be sad to conclude," Austin wrote Reed, "that you and [air board administrators] are but bureaucratic functionaries who will trick citizens of Virginia in order to kiss the tail pipes of polluting industries."
Reed said the board had no choice but to dismiss the appeal at its June 8 meeting after the appeal was found to be incomplete. He and Mike Overstreet, director of the Department of Air Pollution Control's Abingdon region, said the dismissal does not mean Austin and others will be excluded from further discussions about the permit.
The air board also might reconsider dismissal of the appeal, Reed said, if it is found that those who appealed were not provided with complete information on how to file as Austin has claimed. "It's never been our practice . . . to take advantage of people and shut them out," Reed said.
The appeal is the first dismissed by the board, probably because only three or four have been filed in the board's history, he said, adding that the board wanted to set a precedent that it would not do the work for those who were appealing its decisions.
Waferboard is a building material similar to plywood that is made by gluing wood chips together in a heated press.
In October, the board gave conditional approval of a new permit for the Scott County plant that allows increased production from 8.22 tons to 10 tons per hour. Louisiana-Pacific had threatened to pull the plant out of Dungannon unless it got a new permit.
The plant has not increased its production yet because it hasn't met all the board's conditions.
Among other things, the board asked the company to study ways to reduce the fumes from glue storage tanks, look for ways to track smoke and fumes continuously and determine whether the plant can comply with new standards for formaldehyde emissions.
One of the board's two main grounds for dismissing the appeal was that it didn't contain a statement explaining how the citizens could be adversely affected by the permit. The citizens also failed to give a written promise that they would attend a hearing on the appeal.
The board didn't have to dismiss the appeal; it could have told the citizens it was incomplete, Austin said. "They knew we were deeply involved. They knew we had a deep stake in the case." He said the Abingdon lawyers representing the citizens may file suit against the state as early as next Tuesday.
Reed acknowledged the citizens have been helpful as the board processed the waferboard's application for a new permit.
In September, Louisiana-Pacific agreed to a $54,236 state fine for exceeding production limits set in its old permit. Those violations, which occurred between mid-1988 and the middle of 1989, were uncovered during a public hearing on the new-permit request.
A spokeswoman for Wilder said Thursday the governor had not yet received Austin's letter.
by CNB