ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
IN A CASE INVOLVING the District of Columbia government and the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia's attorney general, a presumed aspirant to the governor's office, will take a different tack than he has before.
In two previous lawsuits, Attorney General Jim Gilmore accused the federal Environmental Protection Agency of going too far in its zeal for clean air and water. But in legal action expected to be filed today, Gilmore blasts the EPA for not going far enough to protect the Chesapeake Bay.
Gilmore is a probable candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, and the environment is expected to be a campaign issue. The Chesapeake Bay step could be seen as an attempt to avert political backlash against him for enforcing Gov. George Allen's environmental policies.
"We're trying to say that, as much as we support Governor Allen, Jim Gilmore will be his own man with his own views," explained Dick Leggitt, a Gilmore campaign consultant.
Gilmore said he plans to intervene in a federal lawsuit over the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant, operated by the District of Columbia on the Potomac River.
Gilmore contends the EPA is failing to protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed by agreeing to the District's plan for improving maintenance at Blue Plains, which serves 2 million people in Washington, Virginia and Maryland.
"We don't see why they are going so soft on their fellow federal entity," Gilmore said.
Last year, an EPA inspection found that Blue Plains posed a "significant risk to the public health and the environment" because of deteriorating equipment and inadequate maintenance. An EPA-District agreement reached last month calls for $20 million in improvements over the next two years.
Gilmore said the plan is inadequate because the EPA will allow Blue Plains to exceed some permitted levels in discharges into the Potomac.
In past lawsuits, Gilmore has portrayed federal regulators as overzealous, not lax. One lawsuit challenged an EPA plan for vehicle-emission inspections in Northern Virginia. The other challenged EPA pressure to expand public input in air and water permits.
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, the presumed Democratic nominee for governor next year, saluted Gilmore's intervention in the Washington case.
"I live right across the river from Blue Plains, and I smell it all the time," Beyer said. "Anything that can be done to make it better, I support. Sometimes everyone has to pile on to make something happen."
The environment looms as a concern in the 1997 governor's race because of the debate stirred by Allen's attempt to relax what he calls stifling regulations on business.
The Allen administration has eased permits for industries, slashed the enforcement budget of the state Department of Environmental Quality, and served notice that it will eliminate regulations that are stricter than federally required.
Many career regulators, who asked to remain anonymous, have said they feared retaliation if they enforced environmental laws.
"Of all the strengths and weaknesses of the administration, I think the one that is going to be the most lamented for a long time is their environmental record," Beyer said.
Last month, Allen appointed Gilmore as chairman of a special environmental commission. No other members have been named.
The commission "gives him a chance to look beyond the enforcement area," said Del. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights. "Part of the future vision has to be Jim Gilmore's because he will be the candidate next time."
Gilmore said he hoped the commission study would include finding ways to recruit "clean" industries and promote companies that develop technologies to clean up the environment.
"I want to pursue some exciting new ideas," Gilmore said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
Some environmentalists said they fear the commission is designed simply to repackage Allen's policies.
"They can either change their attitude toward the environment or they can change the way people perceive their attitude," said Albert Pollard, a lobbyist with the Sierra Club.
"If it's the former, we're behind them 100 percent. If it's the latter, it's just cynical politics."
Cox confirmed that one of the commission's jobs would be to highlight some Allen administration successes, such as the elimination of a 2,000-case backlog in dealing with underground fuel-storage tanks.
"We need to do a better job of telling people about what we have done and where we plan on taking the state," Cox said.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Gilmore. color.by CNB