Fearless Objection Takes Lawmakers By Surprise: Water Board Chairman Sounds Warning on Environmental Bill
By Rex Springston, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Feb. 5–When W. Shelton Miles dropped a bomb on the state Senate subcommittee, you could almost see the blood drain from one lawmaker’s face.
“This is extraordinarily unusual,” said Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan.
“It is extraordinary,” Miles replied.
Miles, chairman of the State Water Control Board — a citizen panel that rarely takes stands on legislation — was opposing a bill that would strip power from the board.
The proposal, considered the most important environmental legislation in years, would affect anyone who cares about water and air pollution.
Here is what was so strange in that meeting last week: Miles told subcommittee chairman Watkins that all seven water board members appointed by then-Gov. Mark R. Warner and his Democratic colleague, sitting Gov. Timothy M. Kaine — oppose the bill.
Kaine supports it.
The prospect of gubernatorial appointees opposing a bill backed by the governor seemed to bowl over Watkins. Some governors, he said, would seek resignations for such insubordination.
It may come to that, Miles said in a lilting Southside accent. “We feel that strongly.”
The subcommittee sent along the bill without a recommendation. The Senate conservation committee is scheduled to take it up today.
Industry favors the bill; environmentalists oppose it.
But Miles, a 50-year-old Baptist preacher and cattle farmer in Campbell County, has emerged as a lightning rod in the debate.
Asked in an interview if he was angry, Miles said, “I don’t do anger real well, but I am passionate.”
That word — passion — keeps coming up when you ask people about Miles.
Bud Oakey, a lobbyist for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, sees it as a problem. “We cannot enforce environmental policy by passion. We have got to enforce environmental policy by science.”
The water board and the State Air Pollution Control Board can issue permits limiting industries’ emissions. The powerful water board also punishes polluters.
The state Department of Environmental Quality provides staff for the boards, but the panels are independent representatives of the public.
Under the proposal, the boards’ permit and enforcement powers would go to the director of the DEQ, who also is appointed by the governor.
The boards then would be merged with a third board, which handles waste issues. The new, 11-member board would be limited to issuing regulations, as the waste board is now.
“This is the biggest piece of state environmental legislation since the early’90s,” when the DEQ was formed, said the environmental agency’s former director, Robert G. Burnley.
A House committee on Saturday endorsed the bill but suggested it be studied for a year.
The chamber’s Oakey said the water and air boards have made emotional, unscientific and unpredictable decisions that are distressing to businesses. But he was lacking in examples.
“I’ve heard stories, but I don’t have an inventory of them. It’s not any one example; it’s the opportunity for that to occur and occur.”
Supporters also say the measure would help industries get their pollution permits faster while maintaining opportunities for the public to comment.
“This is good government and streamlining and efficiency,” said Kaine spokesman Kevin Hall. “This governor takes a back seat to no one in his commitment to environmental stewardship and regulation.”
Kaine appreciates Miles’ work on the water board and has not asked for any resignations, Hall said.
The measure is being proposed in the House by R. Steven Landes, R-Augusta, and in the Senate by Phillip Puckett, D-Russell.
Miles said the changes would make government less open. Talking to the DEQ staff is not the same as addressing a panel of concerned citizens, he said.
“This is such a fundamental change that environmental protection is going to suffer. The average citizen, the average locality, the average business — all those people are going to be cut out of the loop. This bill’s good for the big boy, and that’s it.”
The proposed system even could be bad for big business if a governor appoints a “tree hugger” as DEQ director, Miles said.
Miles, an independent, rates former Democratic President Harry S. Truman and Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, a Republican, among his political heroes. Mark Warner, whom he also admires, appointed him to the water board in 2004.
Miles traces his roots to Quakers who moved to the Campbell County area below Lynchburg in the late 1700s. He and his wife of 27 years, Jody, own the 250-acre River Bluff Farm on the north bank of the Staunton River. He has worked to protect rivers for two decades.
Miles, who met Jody in church, also is pastor of First Baptist Church of Republican Grove in Halifax County.
After years of wrestling cows and dealing with emotional issues that arise in church, Miles said he isn’t worried about any potential fallout from his opposition to the pollution-board bills.
“What motivates me?” he asked. “I have convictions.”
And passion.
Contact staff writer Rex Springston at rspringston@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6453.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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