ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
The House of Delegates wants to give people more leeway to sue the state over permits issued to businesses and localities that discharge air or water pollution.
Legislators voted 62-38 Tuesday to improve the legal "standing" of individuals, local governments and businesses - referred to in the bill as citizen standing - wanting to sue over a state permit, a move environmental leaders have pushed for since 1987.
"It's a nice margin. There's a good strong group of Republicans voting for it," said Kay Slaughter, an attorney with the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center. Among the 11 GOP supporters were Dels. Tommy Baker of Pulaski County and Morgan Griffith of Salem.
In past years, the legislature wrestled with citizen standing on an "abstract level," said Del. Tom Jackson, D-Hillsville. Jackson told his colleagues Tuesday how "it affected real people, like in Bland County."
For several years, Bland County residents and its Board of Supervisors have fought a proposed commercial medical waste incinerator that would burn 40 tons of infectious waste on a daily basis. Last year, the state Air Pollution Control Board approved an air pollution permit for the facility.
Under Virginia's current law, the residents and the board have little chance of getting into court. But the Board of Supervisors is taking its best shot.
The county appealed the incinerator permit Monday in Bland County Circuit Court, said County Attorney James Cornwell.
"The clock was running," Cornwell said. "So, obviously, we couldn't wait for the General Assembly."
Virginia's standing laws are the most narrowly defined in the country, environmentalists say. For water pollution permits, only the person seeking the permit can sue. For air pollution permits, people must show financial, substantial and immediate harm to sue.
Under the bill passed Tuesday, the permits could be challenged in court by any person or group who participates in the public comment process, as long as that person or group can prove that granting the permit would cause injury - standards that meet federal requirements, Slaughter said.
Opponents, including officials in the Allen administration, fear that loosening the law would open a floodgate of frivolous lawsuits, delaying the permit process and impeding economic growth. Gov. George Allen has vetoed similar measures in the past.
"Other states' experience, according to the testimony I heard [Tuesday] does not bear that out," Griffith said. He said it was a tough vote for him, but he was also concerned that Virginia was not complying with federal law.
Allen last year sued the U.S . Environmental Protection Agency, which had rejected the state's air program because of the standing issue. The EPA could enact sanctions this summer against Virginia, including withholding millions of dollars in highway funds.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where it likely will be heard in a committee headed by Democrat Madison Marye, of Shawsville.
But even if it passes into law, a court decision in favor of the Allen administration would render the legislation moot, said Del. Tayloe Murphy, D-Richmond County, the bill's sponsor.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB