Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408290038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Office of Environmental Response and Remediation, formed in 1991 and located in Richmond, is being eliminated, said program Director Brett Burdick. He is one of the last employees of the program and will leave his post Thursday.
The office has coordinated emergency responses, an average of 8,000 pollution complaints per year, and investigations "ranging from major oil rig spills to 'my dog smells funny,' " Burdick said. Those functions now will be handled strictly by the department's six regions.
The Department of Emergency Services, which has coordinated with the DEQ all along, still will respond to environmental emergencies as well as natural disasters.
Specifics on how each region will set up its programs will be left up to the six regional directors, expected to be named early next week. But Burdick said that overall, the decentralization should improve service - a chief aim of the Gov. George Allen's administration.
"It makes you be a little more responsive. You can tailor your response program to your clientele, so to speak," he said. For instance, the Roanoke region won't have to be prepared for a shipping channel collision, and the Virginia Beach region won't have to prepare for a coal mine explosion, Burdick said.
The decentralization also may help shorten response time to oil spills, hazardous material spills and other environmental emergencies.
"We've been asking for this for a while," said Kip Foster, spokesman for the water division of the Roanoke region. He said the elimination of the central office probably won't mean added work to the region, which already handled almost all complaints locally.
From July 1993 to this June, the region handled 946 complaints dealing with air, water and waste pollution, not all of which turned out to be urgent, Foster said. There are 30 DEQ employees trained at various levels of emergency response in the Roanoke region.
One benefit of the decentralization will be improved safety for those employees because of closer coordination with the Department of Emergency Services, Foster said. That agency has more equipment and protective clothing - such as oxygen tanks, "moon suits" and mobile chemical testing labs - to deal with situations involving unknown pollutants.
One such Department of Emergency Services unit is based in Roanoke, Foster said.
Burdick said that DEQ Director Peter Schmidt assured him the transition will be complete within six weeks. Eliminating the central office is part of Schmidt's plan to streamline the agency.
Most of the environmental response office's 15 employees have been transferred elsewhere in the department, Burdick said.
by CNB