DEQ combines Lynchburg, Roanoke regional offices

As a result of October’s wide-sweeping state budget cuts, the Department of Environmental Quality has combined the Lynchburg and Roanoke regional offices, effective Monday.

The new Blue Ridge Regional Office will serve 24 counties and 9 cities and will be the agency’s largest geographical district, said DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden. The move is mostly administrative, with both offices remaining open. “If you worked with Lynchburg, that would continue and also the same for Roanoke,” he said.

The consolidation won’t result in significant cost savings, Hayden said, “it was mainly how to deal with the vacant positions we had.”

Hayden did not know the breakdown of how many positions have been eliminated from the Lynchburg’s South Central or Roanoke’s West Central offices, but said, statewide, nine jobs were cut in May and 58 positions were eliminated last month.

In that first round of cuts was former South Central Regional Office director Thomas Henderson, who retired.

Since the cuts began, about 25 percent of DEQ’s budget has been axed, with 15 percent of that coming in October, Hayden said. Consolidating the two offices was part of a plan approved by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine in October, along with cutting 58 positions statewide. Of that cut, 35 positions were vacant and about 20 of those laid off were able to find new jobs within the agency, Hayden said. Before the cuts, the agency employed about 850, but that number is now fewer than 800.

Future cuts are possible, but that won’t be decided until after the General Assembly meets next year, Hayden said. “We’ve had to make a lot of reductions already. We’re hopeful we won’t have to do it again.”

The news caught area planning officials by surprise.

“I’m dumbfounded,” said Bedford County planning director George Nester. “We use DEQ for a number of things related to any type of discharge into a stream, we use them for any type of environmental violation that could be related to anything. They cover a big area for support for the county. I’m really surprised as that is a huge area.”

Lynchburg environmental planner Erin Hawkins said she couldn’t comment because she had just heard of the consolidation. The city works with the agency in two main areas, including ongoing water studies and development projects where there are stream and wetland impacts, by ensuring all permits are filed and rules are enforced, Hawkins said.

Hayden said the consolidation won’t cause changes for those needing DEQ services, but ongoing statewide cuts will impact various types of monitoring work the agency does. It also means department heads and other workers are taking on extra duties and some jobs won’t be done as often.

“As far as the regional office consolidation goes, it won’t mean any changes for the people who work with DEQ, however as part of the budget cuts, the positions we eliminated on a statewide basis, we will be doing somewhat less than what we had in the past,” Hayden said.

“We won’t be able to check water quality as often, for example, or we may not have the same inspection rate. But that’s not because of the office consolidation.”