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The early ’90s brought environmental cooperation, as Virginia and the U.S. Defense Department signed a charter to promote pollution prevention efforts at military installations.

 

But those years also brought instances of defiance. Case in point: the Kim-Stan landfill in Alleghany County. The landfill operated between 1972 and 1988 as a privately owned facility that accepted 30 to 40 tons of local municipal solid waste daily from the county.

 

But the ownership and operation of the landfill changed in 1988. In the 18 months between November 1988 and May 1990, when the Department of Waste Management terminated the landfill’s operation under court order, 725,000 tons of out-of-state commercial waste were buried at the site—at rates that approached 2,000 tons per day. PCBs, mercury, aluminum, medical wastes and other contaminants leached from the trash and into the Jackson River. The landfill was named a Superfund site in 1999.

 

Virginia made more legislative adjustments during this decade. On July 1, 1992, the Ground Water Management Act replaced the 1973 Ground Water Act. The new law required ground water withdrawal permits to be developed based on need, rather than on well capacity, and called for technical evaluations of the effects of withdrawals.

 

Also in 1992, the State Water Control Board approved special consent orders with Richmond and Lynchburg to implement long-term combined sewer overflow improvement projects. In both cities, overflows into the James River commonly occurred during rainfalls because sanitary and storm sewers were interconnected in older sections of the cities. The sewage treatment plants would back up and overflow as the volume of water overwhelmed them.

 

The board’s approach in Richmond, for example, was to approve a five-year wastewater discharge permit for the city’s sewage treatment plant. An accompanying consent order specified a 12-year construction program at a cost of $80.6 million. Plans called for building large pipelines along the north and south banks of the James River to collect sewage, which otherwise would pour into the river from 32 outfalls.

 

With its vision in place, the new DEQ was destined to become more than a watchdog. On July 1, 1993, the General Assembly established the Virginia Pollution Prevention Program at DEQ. It established a policy of promoting “source reduction” as a form of pollution prevention over other environmental management techniques such as control, treatment and disposal.

 

Recognizing the need for cooperation from the agriculture community, DEQ helped initiate the Virginia Pollution Abatement Program in 1994. Under this program, a new waste management permit for confined animal feeding operations was adopted. The program included nutrient management requirements for livestock feeding operations. Later, poultry farmers joined the program.

 

The summer of 1994 also meant further refinement of DEQ’s responsibilities under Governor George Allen. The department’s regional boundaries were established, replacing almost 20 regional configurations from the pre-DEQ air, waste and water agencies. Six regions were formed—Northern (Woodbridge), Piedmont (Glen Allen), Tidewater (Virginia Beach), Valley (Harrisonburg), West Central (Roanoke) and Southwest (Abingdon)—and satellite offices were established in Kilmarnock, Charlottesville and Fredericksburg. Later, the South Central regional office opened in Lynchburg, and the Kilmarnock office closed.

 

In an effort to keep the public in touch with pollution issues, DEQ began issuing air quality forecasts for the summer ozone season in 1994. The forecasts covered the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas. In Richmond, the non-profit agency RideFinders worked with DEQ to create an Ozone Alert Program, asking businesses and residents to voluntarily reduce emissions on days when high ozone levels were forecast.

 

Ozone controls had begun to pay off by March 1997, when the Hampton Roads area met the national air quality standards for ozone in effect at the time. Richmond received the same designation two months later. And in March 1998, air quality efforts were strengthened in Northern Virginia, as DEQ launched “Air Check Virginia,” an enhanced vehicle emissions inspection program specifically for that region.

 

James E. Sydnor, a former air division director at DEQ, considers the gradual improvement in air quality a distinct success story. “If you look at the total emissions profile from 35 years ago,” he said, “there’s a tremendous reduction, even in the face of growth of people and vehicles. There was a massive effort and expenditure to address the ozone problem.”

 

Another air quality success was a result of an innovative effort by EPA and DEQ to promote industrial operations that went beyond basic compliance with the regulations. Tedd H. Jett, a former environmental manager for Merck & Co., recalled this “regulatory reinvention,” known as Project XL.

 

“The XL premise was for companies to come up with alternatives to existing regulations for environmental concerns,” Jett said. “But the alternative had to be a superior solution. There were 13 XL projects, including Merck’s, approved by EPA.

 

“Some requirements were that we had to identify stakeholders and engage them in development to get their blessing. Representatives from DEQ, EPA, Merck and local citizens sat together for several months to craft an alternative approach to embody the air permit approach,” he said. “An emissions cap was set at a level below the required level. Merck got the permit, and they still have it.”

 

State government cost cutting came into play at the beginning of 1995. This led Virginia to return primary control of the Superfund program to EPA, while DEQ’s state oversight program continued. Later that year, the General Assembly created the Voluntary Remediation Program to encourage voluntary cleanups of potentially contaminated sites for later reuse. The program was designed as a streamlined mechanism for site owners or operators to voluntarily address contamination with the concurrence of DEQ. When the cleanup is satisfactorily completed, DEQ issues a formal certification.

DEQ 2000

 

As the decade came to an end, DEQ staff demonstrated the unity of its efforts by gathering for its first statewide meeting. In December 1999, the entire staff met in Richmond. The two-day DEQ 2000 event focused on the agency’s mission, strategic goals and training.