The Department of Environmental Quality is looking into UVa’s power plant to determine if they’re violating the federal Clean Air Act or Virginia law. The investigation was prompted by UVa’s recent application for a permit to increase output. Jake Mooney has an extensive article in today’s Progress.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Are state agencies under a different set of rules? Since UVA is a state owned enterprises are they exempted from normal rules? For example there is only one public building that you can legally smoke a cigarette in- the State Capital!
Guess how that happened.
The short answer, as it applies to UVa’s heating plant, is that it’s complicated. UVa says it’s exempt from state air-quality laws not because it’s a state agency but because it’s a nonprofit. UVa is exempt from all kinds of other rules as a state agency (local zoning comes to mind) but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.
DEQ, meanwhile, concedes that the university is exempt from some laws as a nonprofit, but maintains that it’s not exempt from others that basically say the same thing.
One interesting thing is that when the DEQ penalizes a private company, fines can result. That doesn’t really happen if UVa is penalized, though, since that would basically amount to a transfer of funds between two state agencies. So they generally just try to work out other solutions that don’t involve fines.