The decade of the ’80s witnessed statewide and national growth in numerous environmental programs, primarily through the “command and control” approach. The development of structured regulatory regimens to reduce pollution and clean up contamination led to dramatic environmental improvement.

 

Reflecting on that period, former DEQ Director Dennis H. Treacy believes that as the ’80s progressed there was “not a lack of caring, but a lack of passion.”

 

“The rules became standard and everybody knew what the rules were,” he said. “The individuals who worked in those agencies and environmental groups quit worrying about the tree, fish or the river, instead worrying about who was good or bad, according to this written set of rules, and that takes the passion out of it. It turns you into a practiced environmentalist, which means that in the ’80s and ’90s you saw people interpreting what the words were on a piece of paper. But I didn’t see the passion for the animals, the air and the water.”

 

At the same time, technological and scientific understanding of how to implement environmental controls was not yet well advanced. For example, Francis L. Daniel, now director of DEQ’s Tidewater regional office, recalled that in the 1980s “ozone was
a big issue in the Hampton Roads area.”

 

Researchers had been trying to zero in on hydrocarbon emissions as a way to control ozone. “But we weren’t getting very far,” Daniel said. A study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Old Dominion University and the Air Pollution Control Board helped change that. NASA used its satellites to map all of Virginia and all its tree types. With new analytical methods and computer models of hydrocarbons released by different tree species, the researchers showed that even if all the hydrocarbons from trees were accounted for, ozone in Hampton Roads still could not be reduced to meet the standards.

 

“That was the message that NASA was trying to send to EPA,” Daniel said. “You cannot solve the problem by thinking in terms of hydrocarbon. At first EPA’s reaction was ‘leave the environment to us,’ so it was that kind of toe-stepping stuff.” But EPA eventually realized that they were going to have to look at other ways to reduce ozone, and attention shifted to nitrogen oxides. “Controlling NOx was the really big thing that helped us.”

 

One significant catalyst for the empowerment of environmental regulators was the revelation of serious environmental catastrophes around the country, including the contamination of large areas with toxic chemicals. Residents of the Love Canal neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, suffered severe health effects from a chemical company’s nearby burial of numerous toxic chemicals. Times Beach, Missouri, near St. Louis, was a small town eventually evacuated and demolished because of dioxin contamination related to the production of the defoliant Agent Orange. Frightening incidents like these heightened the urgency to develop a system for cleaning up toxic waste sites.

 

On December 11, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, known as CERCLA or Superfund. This legislation marked the beginning of the national effort to clean up abandoned sites contaminated with hazardous substances. In Virginia, Nelson County’s U.S. Titanium, Roanoke County’s Matthews Electroplating and Chisman Creek in York County were placed on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1982.

 

This new focus on toxic and hazardous wastes soon was tested by numerous high-profile cases in Virginia.

 

In August 1982, the State Water Control Board issued a consent order directing Olin Chemical Corporation to dredge the North Fork of the Holston River, in Smyth and Washington counties, because of mercury contamination from Olin’s plant in Saltville. From 1895 to 1972, Olin and its predecessor used the site for various chemical operations that released industrial wastewater containing mercury into two large treatment ponds. This caused mercury contamination of the site as well as the North Fork Holston. Soils, ground water, sediment and surface water were affected, and fish in the North Fork became contaminated. The site was placed on the Superfund list September 1, 1983, and years of cleanup followed.

 

Also in 1982, carbon disulfide was identified in ground water samples from residential wells in Front Royal, across the Shenandoah River from the Avtex Fibers site. The rayon manufacturing plant had operated under a number of owners from 1940 to 1989, when the water board revoked its water discharge permit due to contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls. The site made the Superfund list in June 1986.

 

DEQ’s Brad Chewning recalled that Avtex in the 1980s “led the state in toxic discharges, and EPA identified them as one of the biggest polluters in 1987.” But “the crowning blow,” he said, “was that during routine monitoring we found PCBs in fish below Avtex when there should be no reason why high levels of PCB would appear. So we started to investigate where it was coming from and we ran it up to the pipe, and then we started doing some work on the plant site and found it there. What had happened was the [electric] transformers had blown on the roof, the company knew about it, the PCBs escaped into the river, they didn’t tell anybody. A fair amount of time went by before we discovered it.” Cleanup began in the 1990s and has continued, though much of the site is ready once again for productive use.

 

Another of Virginia’s historic environmental disasters struck on October 31, 1983, when the Rhinehart tire dump erupted in flames in Frederick County near Winchester. Up to 7 million tires burned, making it one of the largest tire fires in history. The fire produced a hot oil stream from the incomplete combustion of tire rubber, and the oil flowed from Massey Run to Hogue Creek to the Potomac River. The smoke plume spread a 50-mile trail across four states. An EPA emergency team controlled the fire within a few days, but the tires continued to smolder for six months. In 1986, the site entered the Superfund program.

 

Sussex County April 2006

This fire raised national awareness of the dangers of tire piles and eventually led to numerous state waste-tire programs, tire storage regulations and increased tire recycling efforts.

 

The legacy of past industrial operations surfaced again in the mid-1980s, this time in the Shenandoah Valley. Virginia reached a settlement with DuPont Company in 1984 in a mercury contamination case. The DuPont plant in Waynesboro had used mercury as a catalyst for fiber production between 1929 and 1950. During that time, strict storage and disposal regulations did not exist, and mercury made its way to the South River and the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. A serious contamination problem was discovered in the 1970s.

 

DuPont agreed to fund a 100-year monitoring plan for mercury in the rivers. This fund is managed by DEQ and supports monitoring for fish, water and sediments. Scientists originally expected that the mercury levels would decline over time; however, information collected during the last 20 years indicates that levels are remaining stable, with no clear decreases in mercury levels.

 

The year 1986 brought a new administrative focus to Virginia’s environment, as the position of secretary of natural resources was formed in the governor’s Cabinet. The new secretariat handled environmental agencies that were previously under the commerce and resources secretariat.

 

This also was the time when Virginia established innovative programs to focus on key environmental concerns. For example, Virginia created the Coastal Zone Management Program in 1986 to protect coastal areas. This program is a network of state agencies and local governments that administers laws, regulations and policies for the benefit of Virginia’s 5,000 miles of shoreline.

 

In 1987, the Virginia Revolving Loan Fund was established to channel federal money into wastewater treatment plant upgrades. The Virginia Resources Authority was set up as the financing arm for these low-interest loans.

 

To Richard Burton, this was a high point of his time with the water board. “We got that statute created, we got that organization set up, we got it financed. Now it has several billion dollars worth of bonds out there for municipalities to build the necessary treatment systems that result in the kind of water quality improvement that we’ve seen. It’s pretty unique, and Virginia was a model nationwide for that type of system.”

 

The late 1980s were significant years for the growth of Virginia’s waste management efforts. On July 1, 1986, the Waste Management Board and the Department of Waste Management were created to consolidate the waste management-related programs of several state agencies. Stricter regulations were developed and implemented for landfills as Virginia began a more aggressive effort to protect public health and the environment.

Timothy G. Hayes, a Richmond attorney who has been closely involved in numerous environmental initiatives, called these changes “probably some of the best technical landfill standards of any state in the country.” These “very advanced and detailed technical regulations for landfill construction were adopted in 1988, years before the federal standards were adopted. It really brought Virginia into the modern age. As a result, the state was able to ensure that landfills constructed after 1988 were protective of the environment,” he said.

 

Solid waste also was making national headlines. The Mobro 4000 garbage barge, which set sail in 1987 from Islip, New York, was supposed to unload in North Carolina. But that state rejected the barge, as did its next intended destinations in Mexico and Belize. The barge eventually returned to New York to have its load incinerated. This saga pushed waste minimization and recycling to the forefront of how waste was managed.

Aware of the impact of news coverage of the garbage barge, Virginia legislators established a statewide recycling mandate in 1989. It required that 25 percent of municipal solid waste be recycled by 1995, and there were interim goals of 10 percent by 1991 and 15 percent by 1993. The first recycling rate reported was 19.7 percent in 1991, well above projections. Virginia has since implemented a two-tiered recycling mandate: 15 percent for rural localities and those with high unemployment, and 25 percent for all others.

 

Harry E. Gregori Jr., a former division director at DEQ, considers the recycling program a huge success. “We initiated a dramatic program related to mandatory recycling. There was a significant change in how local governments and businesses reacted, in terms of offering opportunities for citizens to recycle—and convenient opportunities—because recycling is all about being convenient.”