Virginia's Environmental Quality under George Allen

FEMAesque Debacle-on-the-James Averted?

Earlier this month Josh and lwumom posted information linking blog attacks on RK to Allen supporters whose interests are anything but pro-environment.

What about Virginia?  In 2000 Becky Norton Dunlop and Michael McKenna collaborated on a self-congratulatory article outlining how Virginia Beat EPA.  Published by the Heartland Institute in its Environment News, Dunlop and McKenna proudly outlined how they circumvented implementation of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.[1]

Currently VP of External Relations at the Heritage Foundation, according to the bio blurb at the end of the article, Becky Norton Dunlop served as Secretary of Natural Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1994 to 1998. Michael McKenna was Director of Policy and External Affairs for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality from 1994 to 1997.  Not surprisingly, Dunlop has been an Allen contributor.
What happened to McKenna in 1997?  First some background. In 1996 George Allen attempted to redefine himself as pro-environment while cutting staff at the Department of Environmental Quality by 18.75%.

SETTING THE STAGE: Republican Gov. George Allen's environmental record may become an issue in Virginia's governor race next year. Allen has been taking well-publicized steps to prove he's pro-environment. But environmentalists and Democrats have been biting at his heels, charging him with relaxing anti-pollution laws.

According to local reports, Allen asked the Air Pollution Control Board to relax new regulations for medical waste incinerators and reduce the number of air pollutants the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regulates. DEQ staff has been cut from 800 to 650 as part of a move to streamline government.

Allen has continued to defend loosening of environmental regulations as common-sense reforms that should ease the burden on Virginia industry and spur economic growth in the state. [2]

We have recently endured analogous stage-setting in Allen's reconciliation efforts on one hand with macaca on the other. 

Less than six months later, McKenna resigned.

Michael McKenna, one of Gov. George Allen's (R) top environmental officials, on 1/10 resigned following the disclosure of his memo suggesting news leaks and lawsuits to undermine criticism of the Allen admin.'s environmental record (Rex Springston, RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 1/11).

McKenna, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's spokesperson and policy director, in a 12/20/96 internal memo suggested that the Allen admin. threaten to sue the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the VA General Assembly's investigative arm, which had released a report in 12/96 criticizing the DEQ's lack of pollution enforcement (GREENWIRE, 1/10). But Allen, "who was moving swiftly to stem the controversy" (Ellen Nakashima, WASH. POST, 1/11), and lawmakers from both parties on 1/10 urged McKenna to resign after newspapers last week began to carry the story (Springston, RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH).

T. March Bell, DEQ deputy director, said McKenna "realized it was an inappropriate memo," and apologized for his action. McKenna did not return phone calls (Nakashima, WASH. POST, 1/11). [3]

Less than a month later, Allen was back on track with his pro-environment image building as he recognized September 15-21 as Pollution Prevention Week in Virginia.  The press release is darkly humorous, as the DEQ prints up posters and notepads to encourage everyone to come up with pollution prevention in their "work activities."  Please...

Pollution Prevention Week, or "P2 Week," gives businesses, citizens and government an opportunity to highlight the importance and benefits of pollution prevention. Pollution prevention is often a very efficient environmental management technique because it helps reduce the toxicity and quantity of wastes generated at their source. P2 techniques can help business and industry increase their production efficiency and become more competitive. Businesses and government can realize substantial savings from decreased disposal costs and long-term liabilities. And businesses, government and all citizens of the Commonwealth can benefit from decreased pollution and enhanced environmental quality.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Pollution Prevention is supporting Pollution Prevention Week by encouraging all businesses and other organizations to look for innovative ways to incorporate pollution prevention in their work activities.

To commemorate P2 Week, DEQ's Office of Pollution Prevention has P2 Week posters and notepads that are available upon request and in the lobby of DEQ's central office, at 629 East Main Street in Richmond. The Office of Pollution Prevention maintains an information clearinghouse, and is available to provide technical assistance and guidance on all P2 issues.[4]

George Loper has archived an article, 2000 Virginia U.S. Senate Race:  Allen's Environmental Policies Scorned.

Bernard McNamee, a spokesman for the Allen campaign who worked in the natural resources policy office during Allen's administration, said air and water quality improved under Allen's administration. Allen's goal was to speed up the permitting process while not hurting the environment, McNamee said. Allen was governor from 1994 to 1998.

McNamee cited a study by a Virginia Commonwealth University group to back up his claim that the air and water improved.

But one of the former employees, Eileen Rowan, who worked for DEQ from 1992 to 1999, said the study was incomplete, in part because the Allen administration did not make data available on ozone levels in the air and nitrogen levels in the water. [5]

From the same article, the biologists did not have good things to say about Dunlop.  Science can be unremittingly inconvenient.

Under Dunlop, "firings, threatened firings and forced moves became constant," Rowan said.

Ralph Bolgiano, a former biologist in the Harrisonburg office, said Dunlop personally intervened to prevent damaging information on the Monterey waste water treatment plant from being released. Bolgiano, who had compiled the data showing the treatment plant was discharging untreated waste, said his findings were questioned by upper management. He said Dunlop told town officials in Monterey that "DEQ staff had forgotten whom it was they worked for." [5]

Were these merely disgruntled employees?  Apparently not. The Roanoke Times leads to the JLARC study; remember JLARC is the entity that McKenna had suggested suing because of their 1996 findings:

A legislative study of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's toxin monitoring program has found substantial problems with how the agency maintains data and disseminates information to the public.

The report, released Monday by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, said that DEQ has refused to release valuable data on toxins to the public; that it has lost or destroyed dozens of what may have been important environmental studies, and that it collected some data without any clear purpose about how to use it.

The report also said that the agency does not appear to fully use the data it does collect and that its system for managing its databases is fragmented and inefficient.

JLARC said the problems outlined in the report raised troubling questions about the quality of Virginia waters.

"Individuals who routinely catch and eat fish from Virginia's waters may have trusted that state agencies would have made them aware of risks," said Robert Rotz, a JLARC staffer. "Unfortunately, the record indicates that over many years and for a variety of reasons, this trust may not have been completely well placed."

JLARC's study was requested by Del. Ted Bennett, D-Halifax County, after The Roanoke Times reported in April that the DEQ had withheld the Virginia Toxics Database from state scientists, its staffers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. DEQ finally released the data to the EPA earlier this year.

The publicly funded pollution database contains historic information about toxins that, many scientists say, could be used to help locate old sources of contamination in state waters.

The database also might have helped pinpoint the sources of polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs in the Roanoke River, which becomes the Staunton River. Bennett's district includes parts of the Roanoke River where contamination was found.

PCBs were used as coolants in electrical transformers until the 1970s; they were banned when it was learned that they could cause skin and liver damage, as well as cancer. In the 1980s, the substance was found in the tissue of fish in the river.

"This report confirms what we already knew," Bennett said. "But for the efforts of the EPA and local citizens we would have had very little action on this."

Many of the problems outlined in the report occurred during the administration of Republican Gov. George Allen.

The Virginia Toxics Database was eliminated because of Allen administration budget cuts, despite objections from DEQ staffers.

Other data also were lost. Before 1994, the DEQ kept a database dating to the 1970s of special studies on water quality in the state. The agency lost track of the database after the budget cuts. The DEQ also eliminated a technical library. Staffers were told they could take what they wanted and the remaining documents were destroyed.

JLARC said the destruction of those documents remains a concern.

"There is a high potential that valuable studies may have been lost," Rotz said.

JLARC said even those studies that still exist have not always been properly used.

For example, citizens in the contaminated areas of the Roanoke River were not told about a 1973 study on PCBs in the affected areas. The 1973 study was briefly mentioned in a 1993 report by DEQ, but the older report seems to have received little or no attention at the agency, according to the JLARC report.

"This is a serious human health issue," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County, a JLARC member. Not only was the EPA denied information, Gartlan said, but the public was not informed about possible health hazards in Virginia waters.

Del. Tayloe Murphy, D-Richmond County, and Sen. Thomas Norment, R- Williamsburg, co-chairmen of JLARC, asked the commission staff to make further recommendations for legislation that would more clearly define DEQ's role in collecting and monitoring data.

Legislators also wanted to know who made the decision to not release certain data to the public. Many had speculated that the decision was made by upper management at the agency, though JLARC said it could not find any evidence that Thomas Hopkins, the former head of DEQ, or former Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlap made such decisions.

Murphy called that appalling.

"I find it hard to believe that a staff person can make a decision to just not release information to the public," he said. "I'm concerned that one employee can suppress a program as important as the Virginia Toxics Database. If others were involved, it's disturbing that we don't know."

Not all of the report's findings cast a bad light on DEQ. JLARC noted that under current DEQ director Dennis Treacy the agency has a new policy of openness and has made getting information to the public a high priority. It also has made the Virginia Toxics Database accessible again.

Treacy said the DEQ has taken steps to fix problems with its database management system.

"We're doing something that is really new for DEQ," Treacy said. "It used to be it was irresponsible for an agency to give out data without interpreting it for the public. Now in this age of information, it's almost the reverse. It's irresponsible not to give it out and explain it later, and I think we have maybe failed to see that transition." [6]

Improving Regulation of Toxic Substances in State Waters

During the 2000 Session, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 179 and House Bill 404 regarding toxic substances in State waters. The patrons of these bills were Senator Hawkins and
Delegate Bennett. Drafts of the bills resulted from a collaborative effort between staff of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and JLARC to address some longstanding shortcomings in the State+óGé¼Gäós responsiveness to issues involving toxic substances that were noted in a JLARC staff memorandum of July 1999.

Among the provisions contained in the bills are: an increase in the frequency of the State+óGé¼Gäós cycle for conducting fish tissue and sediment assessments; a requirement for a written memorandum of agreement between DEQ and the Virginia Department of Health for the timely transmission and evaluation of water toxic data; and requirements for written State policies on the criteria for fish consumption advisories and for triggering a DEQ assessment of potential sources of toxic contamination. The General Assembly appropriated $300,000 in each year of the biennium to provide funding for the increased frequency of fish tissue and sediment assessments that is proposed in the bills. [7]

The 1999 memo containing the preliminary results is here The report is a 57 page pdf, and Dunlop and McKenna should not be surprised that many of us here in Virginia do care about even just this single sentence from those findings:

Without EPA Pressure Starting Over a Decade Ago, It Appears Unlikely that a Roanoke PCB Advisory Would Exist Today. [8]

The 2000 coauthorship of Dunlop and McKenna make it clear that McKenna was not a mere loose cannon discarded by the Allen administration.  Dunlop continued to make campaign contributions to Allen and she chose to continue her working relationship with McKenna.

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[1] September 1, 2000: How Virginia beat EPA, Becky Norton Dunlop and Michael McKenna, Environment News, The Heartland Institute
[2] August 20 1996: SLANTS & TRENDS - SETTING THE STAGE: Republican Gov. George Allen's environmental record, Medical Waste News, Vol. 8, No. 17 ISSN: 1048-4493, Copyright 1996 Business Publishers, Inc. 
[3] January 13 1997: ACROSS THE NATION - VIRGINIA: DEQ OFFICIAL RESIGNS OVER CONTROVERSIAL MEMO, National Journal, Inc.
[4] September 19, 1997: VIRGINIA DEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: Governor Allen declares Pollution Prevention Week in Virginia, M2 Communications, Ltd.
[5] September 28, 2000: Allen's Environmental Policies Scorned, Tyler Whitley and Paul Bradley, Richmond Times-Dispatch.
[6] July 13, 1999: VIRGINIA DEQ LOST AND DESTROYED WATER DATA, AUDIT FINDS ALLEN ADMINISTRATION BUDGET CUTS BLAMED, Ron Nixon, Roanoke Times & World News.
[7] May 9, 2000: Results of JLARC studies.
[8] July 12, 1999: Preliminary Inquiry: DEQ and VDH Activities to Identify Water Toxic Problems and Inform the Public

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