Compromise Preserves Board's Permitting Clout

Panel Overseeing Air Pollution Urged Scrutiny of Power Plant in Alexandria

After weeks of intensive lobbying and negotiations, environmentalists and industry officials have hammered out a compromise on a bill that would have stripped permitting power from the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board.

The citizen panel oversees regulations that affect the control and reduction of air pollution. The board has urged stronger scrutiny of the Mirant power plant in Alexandria.

The aging, coal-fired plant provides electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes in the District and Maryland and also affects Northern Virginia residents because it fouls the air. Alexandria officials said they think pollutants emitted from the plant are giving residents respiratory ailments, and they have applauded the air board's role in the debate.

The compromise was a victory for Alexandria officials, who had asked state environmental agencies to impose restrictions on the Mirant plant, on the Potomac River north of Old Town.

"I'm pleased to report we won that fight," said Del. David L. Englin (D-Alexandria), who had called stopping the original measure his top legislative priority.

He said the final outcome turned the bill on its head but gave industry leaders enough of what they wanted that in the end they accepted the transformation.

"We're very pleased with how it turned out," said David Anderson, a spokesman for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "All sides came together to agree on reforms that would make the process more predictable, efficient and rational."

The transformed bill passed the House and the Senate last month with unanimous support.

The original bill, strongly supported by business interests in the state, would have gutted the authority of three citizen boards -- the Air Pollution Control Board, the Water Control Board and the Waste Management Board -- and vested all responsibility for their permitting decisions in the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The new bill retains the boards and preserves their power to issue or deny permits, but gives them 90 days to take action. It also requires them to document the reasons for their decisions. The number of members on the air pollution board was expanded from five to seven, which both sides said will provide a further opportunity to influence decisions.

The new legislation is a "positive outcome," said Debra Raggio Bolton, Mirant Mid-Atlantic's vice president and general counsel, noting that the company supported the decision to expand the air board to seven members.

The final bill also would strengthen financial conflict-of-interest rules for board members.