MONTGOMERY
The state's environmental regulators approved pollution rules Tuesday similar to those previously thrown out by the Alabama Supreme Court because they were imposed without public comment.
But environmentalists complained the new rules make it easy for industries to get permission to discharge chemicals or waste into the state's rivers and lakes.
The rules bring the state into compliance with a Supreme Court ruling in March that invalidated the Alabama Department of Environmental Management's pollution procedures because they had not been formalized as "rules," which require public comment, said spokesman Scott Hughes.
This time public comment was permitted, but their concerns were reflected only in a couple of phrases in the six-page document.
"These rules are new and improved, the same as always. They're great for industry - anyone can get a permit," said Ray Vaughan, an attorney for the environmental group WildLaw in Montgomery. "There's no point in having this rule if everyone qualifies."
The regulations deal with how the state will issue pollution permits to companies that want to put waste in Alabama's waters.
The permits will be allowed as long as the industries can demonstrate that their pollution won't worsen the condition of waterways that fish and wildlife currently live in, Hughes said.
"As long as the discharge doesn't result in a change in class of waters where the discharge is going," he said, dumping would be approved by ADEM.
The Environmental Management Commission unanimously approved the rules. The only discussion came from Commissioner Patrick Byington, who wanted an amendment that would ask the companies what negative impacts their pollution would have on the environment.
As approved, the rules only ask companies what benefits they'll bring to the community.
"We should be asking deeper questions here," Byington said. "These questions to me do not get to the core of what we're looking for. ... We should at least beg that question."
The Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation will file suit Wednesday in Montgomery circuit court to stop the rules, said attorney Mike Odom.
After the Supreme Court originally ordered the state to formalize its pollution permit process, the Environmental Management Commission created "emergency" rules that were identical to those thrown out by the court. Environmentalists sued, saying there was no emergency.
The case was settled June 12, with the emergency rules being withdrawn and pollution permits being granted to 10 companies that had already completed the application process.
The new rules approved Tuesday bring the state into compliance with the procedure for creating regulations, and environmentalists now are going to argue over their substance, Vaughan said.
