The Virginian-Pilot
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Environmental quality declines at Virginia Beach

By Scott Harper
Sunday, December 17, 2000

Virginia's environment continues to improve, though conditions in Virginia Beach have worsened since 1985, while those in Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk are about the same, a study concludes.

The Virginia Environmental Quality Index, which weighs seven criteria, from air quality to breeding birds to wetlands, found only two localities in and around Hampton Roads making ecological progress: the city of Hampton and Accomack County on the eastern shore.

Only one jurisdiction in the region, Virginia Beach, showed an overall decline in environmental quality, as judged from data and public records between 1985 and 1999 analyzed by Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

For Virginia Beach, the data indicates "statistically significant declining trends" in population growth's negative impacts on natural resources and releases of toxic substances.

Funded by the Virginia Environmental Endowment at more than $70,000, the index was first published last year and immediately made headlines. It was frequently quoted by former Gov. George F. Allen in his successful bid for a U.S. Senate seat, mostly to deflect criticism of his environmental record.

While governor, from 1994 to 1998, Allen often was accused of cutting environmental corners to benefit businesses. But Allen and his supporters cited the first VCU study as proof that air, water, wetlands and forests improved during his administration.

Allen's secretary of natural resources, Becky Norton Dunlop, used the index as the basis for a book published this fall that claims her unconventional policies and practices had worked — an assertion that Virginia environmental groups reject as political fiction.

In a news release, Greg Garman, the center's director, described the 2000 index "as a dramatically improved research tool" compared with last year's version. The university's Web site cautions that the index is not intended to be a policy instrument.

Overall, the 2000 index notes several statewide trends over the past 15 years: Air quality has improved; water quality has not, though the amount of nutrient pollutants entering waterways has decreased; airborne and waterborne toxics released into the environment have not significantly decreased; and wetlands continue to be lost, though not at a statistically significant rate.

Several experts gave mixed reviews to the index and its conclusions.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a large environmental group, expressed concern over "serious limitations in data," though it generally agreed with the conclusions.

John Carlock, an environmental specialist with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, cautioned about reading too much into such studies, noting how new regulations, not real environmental conditions, can shade findings. Air quality, for example, could be construed as getting worse — only because the federal government toughened standards, not because air pollution had increased.