DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707170492

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   29 lines

VA. SEEKS SHUTDOWN OF U.S. GOVERNMENT FOR UNHEALTHY AIR

If the federal government was serious about the environment, it should have closed government operations in Washington today, keeping government workers and their polluting cars off the road, Virginia's environmental chief suggested Tuesday.

The White House declined.

State Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop, in a letter Tuesday night, called on Erskine Bowles, President Clinton's chief of staff, to declare an ozone emergency so that only essential federal workers would report to their jobs today.

Dunlop cited alerts issued Monday and Tuesday about unhealthy air in the Washington area. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments had issued another ozone alert for today.

The dispute marked a new twist in ongoing differences between the administration of Gov. George F. Allen and federal officials on environmental matters. EPA officials have questioned the state's commitment to enforcing pollution laws.

Dunlop denied that her ozone emergency request was adversarial. ``If the EPA declares these (air pollution) levels to be unhealthy, we think it's incumbent upon us to try to demonstrate leadership,'' she said.

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