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It takes aggressive action to rein in pollutors
Oct. 16, 2006
The only way to tackle our environmental problems is to have regulations with enough teeth to really protect our air, water, land and their occupants - and then enforce them.
The move by Attorney General Robert McDonnell to enforce clean water regulations by taking a Rockingham County polluter to court is a welcome one.
McDonnell wasn't the first to take aim at SIL Clean Water. The Department of Environmental Quality has been documenting problems at its plant and trying to resolve them for years - but without bringing in enforcement muscle. The Rockingham Board of Supervisors wanted the state to bring a long-running problem to resolution. A coalition of three environmental groups forced the issue when it filed notice in August that it intended to sue under the Clean Water Act.
It's good to have the AG on board, but the environmental groups should keep an eye on this to make sure that, as the case plays out, the state is as aggressive and protective as it should be.
Generally, aggressive isn't the word you'd use to describe Virginia's environmental stance. It hasn't been very aggressive about adopting effective regulations or about enforcement. Virginia's approach has been to hope for the best, to rely on corporations and individuals to step up, voluntarily, to do the right thing. Witness, as one of many possible examples, its long-running refusal to limit toxic mercury emissions from power plants.
Even when it does regulate, Virginia often doesn't go as far in protecting air and water as some states, and often it's reactionary, waiting to act until it's forced to. That was the case with the new limit on the catch of menhaden, which are important to the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The state came about only after a multi-state board stepped in to impose its own limit. Virginia also waited to adopt meaningful regulations on nitrogen and phosphorous discharges until it had no choice, because it signed agreements to clean up the Chesapeake Bay or face a federal takeover of the problem.
Regulations won't mean a thing if they aren't enforced, if compliance isn't monitored and if offenders don't face the kind of penalties that are an incentive to comply.
In that context, legal action against SIL Clean Water is both necessary and overdue. It operates a plant that treats waste from poultry processors. That waste is loaded with nitrogen and phosphorous, and the plant's discharges into the North Fork of the Shenandoah River have been many times the amount allowed under its permits.
Too much nitrogen and phosphorous wreak havoc in the water, feeding the algae blooms that kill off the underwater vegetation so vital to marine life. The Shenandoah is a river in trouble on many fronts, damaged by pollution and development. And what goes into the Shenandoah doesn't stay there; it flows into the Potomac River and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.
The fact that Virginia is - finally - taking decisive action against a long-time polluter should bring real progress in efforts to address nitrogen and phosphorous overloads. If this also marks a new willingness by the state to be less shy about using the twin guns of regulations and enforcement, cleaner and better days lie ahead.
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