Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 25, 1991 TAG: 9102250112
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It's disappointing that at a time when the environment is very high on the minds of the public that we didn't see more legislative advancements," said Joseph Maroon, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Virginia chapter. "I don't know that we are better off than we were in December."
The session ended Saturday night.
Even the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, the state land-use law that seeks to protect water quality in the bay, came under fire. One bill would have required the state to pay localities half of what they figure they will lose by leaving some land undeveloped. That legislation never left a House of Delegates committee.
"The thing that has troubled me this session is the number of bills that have tried to undermine environmental efforts," said Patricia Jackson, executive director of the Lower James River Association. Environmental lobbyists said they were disappointed that legislators:
Halted an effort to boost a statewide recycling movement by defeating the bottle bill, which proposed charging a 10-cent deposit on beverage containers.
Extended the deadline from 1992 to 1994 to require solid waste landfill operators to comply with stricter guidelines to more effectively seal dumps.
Weakened a bill that would have required the state Water Control Board to adopt stricter state Health Department water-quality standards, including one for dioxin, a suspected cancer-causing chemical made when wood pulp is bleached to make paper. Instead, new legislation requires the water board, when adopting a new standard that deviates from the Health Department's, to explain why.
Killed a bill that would have placed a one-year moratorium on issuing licenses to first-time watermen, which environmentalists claim would have been a step toward prevention of overharvesting of fisheries.
Facing budget cuts were the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department, which oversees the implementation of the bay act; the state Council on the Environment; and the College of William and Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
Legislators delayed implementation of tougher landfill regulations until 1994 because the state can't afford to enforce them earlier, according to Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount. Legislators made many spending cuts to close a $2.2 billion budget shortfall.
Among the session's victories, environmentalists say, was a ban on expanding the Craney Island disposal site in the Hampton Roads harbor. Another was a "storm-water runoff bill," which would permit localities to tax residents for storm-water control measures ordered by the Environmental Protection Agency. The latter bill, however, may be a casualty of Gov. Douglas Wilder's pledge against tax increases.
Legislators approved three Wilder proposals. One creates an environmental emergency fund from pollution fines. Another requires industry to get pollution insurance in case an environmental accident causes a shutdown. The third mandates environmental impact studies for some road projects, as determined by Natural Resources and Transportation department heads.
The state bottle bill made its farthest trek through the Senate in its nine years, clearing two Senate committees before it was killed on the Senate floor. The defeat was attributed to the war, which began days after the session opened and may have diverted attention from the bill.
by CNB