THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 7, 1995 TAG: 9503070348
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided not to penalize Hampton Roads for its lingering smog pollution - at least for now.
The reprieve effectively removes the region from a federal fast-track toward mandatory vehicle-emissions testing, more expensive gasoline at area pumps and new limits on industries that emit smog-causing pollutants.
The EPA is expected to announce ``in several months'' whether Hampton Roads will be pulled from this sanctions train for good, said Ruth Podems, an agency spokeswoman in Philadelphia.
``It's all very much up in the air right now,'' Podems said Monday.
The decision to at least delay sanctions will be published as a formal notice in the Federal Register, probably later this week, officials said.
It represents a victory for local officials and Gov. George F. Allen, who have protested that penalizing Hampton Roads was unfairly harsh, given the region's relatively mild smog, and could damage the local economy.
``I think this is a positive indication that there truly is some flexibility with regard to air pollution and the Clean Air Act,'' said Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop, who has testified before Congress on the need to ease federal clean-air rules.
Environmental and health groups, however, have argued that the region needs tougher limits to diminish smog levels that, while mild, still fail federal standards.
Smog - created from chemicals emitted by cars, industrial plants, bakeries and even backyard barbecues - is known to damage the human respiratory system. Children and the elderly are especially susceptible.
On Jan. 17, the EPA announced that it would downgrade Hampton Roads within 60 days from a ``marginal'' to ``moderate'' air-pollution zone.
The reclassification carried a host of new restrictions, including mandatory emissions-testing of cars and trucks. It stemmed from the region's failure to meet a 1993 deadline for cleaning up its air.
By 1993, the region was not supposed to register more than three smog violations over a three-year period. It recorded six days of poor air.
More recently, air quality has improved. Last year, for example, the region counted no smog violations at its three tracking stations. Local officials, hoping to avoid a downgrade, implored the EPA to take that statistic into account.
Podems said the main reason the EPA has decided to reverse its downgrade designation, at least for now, is that the agency received so many negative comments from state and local officials.
EPA staff members will comb through those comments now to decide whether Hampton Roads should be returned to its ``marginal'' status.
The governor sent the EPA an 18-page protest package of letters and statistics, while the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission issued its own request to reconsider the downgrade.
Frank Daniel, regional director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said his staff has done little work since the downgrade to prepare for its required 15 percent reduction in smog pollutants by 1996.
``There's no hot irons in the fire,'' Daniel said.
He said that if rejected by the EPA, Hampton Roads would likely rely on emissions testing, reformulated gasoline now on sale at many area stations and special anti-emissions nozzles on gas pumps to reach the 15 percent goal.
KEYWORDS: AIR POLLUTION by CNB