Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ)

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Role

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ) is the state agency responsible for regulating pollution and protecting the environment in Virginia. VA DEQ operates within Virginia's executive branch of government, reporting to the governor. The VA DEQ is overseen by the Natural and Historic Resources Secretariat, who is appointed by the governor, with the VA DEQ Director an appointee of the governor. As a result, the agency's priorities and activities can be highly sensitive to the political ideology of the governor, as well as budgetary direction from the Virginia General Assembly.

For residents concerned about coal dust pollution, this matters because the VA DEQ does not operate independently. Its willingness to expand air monitoring, focus on environmental justice, and pursue enforcement is shaped by political leadership, legislative funding, and pressure from regulated industries who lobby elected officials and interact with VA DEQ employees.

The Virginia General Assembly established VA DEQ by statute, most notably in Creation of Department of Environmental Quality, which consolidated several earlier environmental agencies to form VA DEQ. Today, VA DEQ has more than 1000 staff across a Central Office in Richmond and six regional offices, including the Tidewater Regional Office, which covers Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton, and the surrounding localities.

VA DEQ staff issue air and water permits, conduct inspections, operate air monitoring programs, respond to complaints, and enforce regulatory compliance, for example, with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This breadth of activities gives the VA DEQ technical expertise and statewide reach but can mean that localized problems like coal dust pollution compete with many other demands for limited staff time and resources. Inspection and enforcement teams are relatively small compared to the scale of the industrial activity they oversee. This limits the frequency of inspections, slows complaint response times, and encourages negotiated compliance with industries.

Permitting

For coal dust, VA DEQ's authority flows primarily through environmental permits. Coal terminals, bulk material handling facilities, and associated operations are regulated under the Virginia Air Pollution Law and federal authority delegated to the state under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. VA DEQ issues and enforces air permits pursuant to regulations adopted by the State Air Pollution Control Board and codified in Title 9 of the Virginia Administrative Code. VA DEQ issues and enforces water permits under the Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES).

Coal export terminals in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point operate under minor New Source Review (NSR) air permits. These permits govern operational practices, emission limits, and monitoring requirements. Once an NSR permit is issued, it becomes the primary legal framework VA DEQ uses to evaluate compliance. If fugitive coal dust is weakly addressed—or framed narrowly—in a permit, VA DEQ's ability to respond later to residents' complaints is significantly limited.

Permit documents and related correspondences are accessible at: Air Permits and Water Permits

Other resources include:

Permit modifications (NSR permits do not expire) are among the most important moments when coal dust mitigation controls can be strengthened, but these processes are often technical, poorly advertised, and difficult to navigate without support.

Citizen Boards and Regulatory Framework

Although the VA DEQ issues and administers permits and enforces regulations like the NAAQS, VA DEQ does not write binding air quality regulations. That authority rests with the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board (APCB), a citizen board of members appointed by the governor. The APCB adopts, amends, and repeals air pollution regulations under the Virginia Administrative Process Act. VA DEQ staff develop proposed regulatory language, prepare technical analyses, and make recommendations, but final decisions are made through votes of the APCB.

For coal dust, this distinction matters because:

  • VA DEQ staff may acknowledge community concerns but defer to existing regulations;
  • stronger controls on fugitive dust require regulatory change, not just enforcement of existing laws; and
  • public comment periods before the APCB are one of the few formal mechanisms for residents to influence air quality regulations in Virginia.

Notices of regulatory actions that will be voted on by the APCB are posted on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall and published in the Virginia Register of Regulations. However, these venues are rarely accessible to the general public without guidance.

The NAAQS, Monitoring, and Their Limits

Fundamentally, the VA DEQ is focused on regulatory compliance rather than environmental projection. The NAAQS are the most powerful air quality regulation in Virginia. The NAAQS are based on six "criteria pollutants" identified by the EPA. Criteria pollutants, which include fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and coarse particulate matter (PM10), also known as dust, must not exceed the concentration thresholds defined in the NAAQS. For particles that could include coal dust, these are:

  • The PM10 NAAQS is a 24-hour average mass concentration of 150 microgram per cubic meter (μg/m3), not to be exceeded more than three times over three years.
  • There are two PM2.5 NAAQS: a 24-hour average mass concentration of 35 μg/m3 and a recently revised annual average mass concentration of 9 μg/m3.

The NAAQS are set to protect public health, including the health of more sensitive individuals such as those with asthma as well as children and elders. That said, there is no known safe level of exposure to PM2.5, with documented health impacts below the NAAQS.

To determine NAAQS compliance, the VA DEQ measures the concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 using EPA-designated regulatory air monitors.[1][2] When locations have pollutant concentrations that exceed the NAAQS—and—when those concentrations are measured using EPA-designated regulatory air monitors, regulatory action is triggered, which can include stricter permitting requirements for nearby industries, emission reductions plans, enforcement measures, and public health advisories.

Where Are Monitors Located?: The location of regulatory air monitors is critical. However, the VA DEQ has never operated such monitors in Southeast Newport News or Lambert's Point. The VA DEQ currently measures PM10 at just two locations in Hampton Roads: one monitor at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton and one monitor at the NOAA Storage Facility in Norfolk. Both monitors are too far away from the coal export terminals to routinely record evidence of airborne coal dust. In 2015, the Southeast CARE Coalition collected 1000 signatures and petitioned the VA DEQ to install regulatory air monitors in Southeast Newport News.[3][4] However, the VA DEQ did not act.
Are the NAAQS Protective?: First, coal dust typically contains high levels of toxic metals, including mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), arsenic (Ar), cadmium (Cd), as well as crystalline silica. These substances are harmful when inhaled or ingested and are known to cause cancer, fetal defects, and neurological damage, even at very low doses. Coal dust also contains high levels of transition metals, including iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu) that can induce oxidative stress in our bodies. Because coal dust has high concentrations of metals, there is reason to believe it causes harm at exposures below PM10 NAAQS, with there being no safe level of PM2.5 composed of any material. Read more: Health Impacts of Particles and Coal Dust
Second, wind-blown coal dust includes many particles that are larger than PM10, with PM10 defined as the total amount of particles with a diameter equal to or less than 10 micrometers. This means that the vast majority of the mass of coal dust particles that deposit into Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point are not actually considered an air pollutant under the NAAQS.

The VA DEQ also conducts more targeted monitoring studies, partly to determine if regulatory air monitoring should be done. The VA DEQ received $526,603 in grant funds from the EPA for the Tidewater Air Monitoring Evaluation (TAME) to measure PM2.5 and PM10 and partner with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) on a health risk analysis in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point, Norfolk. Despite the funding, implementation of TAME has been repeatedly delayed, and, as of January 2026, TAME is yet to start. Keep in mind, the VA DEQ evaluates results against the NAAQS, even for TAME. If PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations remain below these thresholds, the VA DEQ is likely to use the results from TAME to falsely conclude there is no coal dust problem.

Complaints, Inspections, and Enforcement in Practice

Residents can encounter VA DEQ through the complaint process, submitting reports of odors or visible emissions. Complaints are formally logged and may trigger inspections by VA DEQ staff from the Tidewater Regional Office. However, enforcement depends on whether inspectors can document a clear violation of an existing permit or regulation at the time of inspection. In the case of episodic coal dust emissions, the inspector may not be there to see it happen. If no violation is observed by the inspector, cases are closed. This has produced a long-standing pattern in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point in which complaints accumulate over years without resulting in structural changes to coal handling practices.

Enforcement discretion is shaped by VA DEQ staffing levels, what evidence is available and what evidence is needed according to existing regulations and laws, and political oversight. Civil penalties and permit modifications are possible but rare in cases involving fugitive coal dust.

Environmental Justice and Institutional Constraints

VA DEQ has acknowledged environmental justice. However, environmental justice is not a binding legal standard in most permitting or enforcement decisions. Disproportionate impacts on Black and low-income communities in Newport News and Norfolk are recognized rhetorically but rarely decisive unless tied to explicit statutory requirements.

In 2020, the VA DEQ hired consultants to produce a report on how to best integrate environmental justice into the work of the agency. This report, titled Environmental Justice Study for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, contained various recommendations including the creation of an Office of Environmental Justice headed by an Environmental Justice Director. In 2021, the VA DEQ established the Office of Environmental Justice with the stated mission "to ensure the fair and meaningful involvement of all people in the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies across all DEQ programs." The Office is tasked to work collaboratively across VA DEQ to advance environmental justice.

Under Governor Glenn Youngkin (2022–2026), the Office of Environmental Justice was significantly downgraded. from direct oversight by VA DEQ leadership to where it now sits as part of VA DEQ's Cross-Media Programs. This lead to the resignation of former Office of Environmental Justice Director Renée Hoyos in 2023, who also cited a diminished commitment by the VA DEQ to environmental justice and inadequate community engagement as reasons for her departure. For communities affected by coal dust, this institutional rollback has reinforced perceptions that health risks and lived experience are subordinated to industrial and political interests for the VA DEQ.

Relevance

The VA DEQ is both a focus of community frustration and potentially a platform for advocacy. Activists and residents have long criticized the agency for its slow response to coal dust complaints and its failure to implement more stringent controls on coal handling and transportation. Taken together, VA DEQ's size, structure, and institutional positioning help explain why coal dust remains a persistent problem. VA DEQ has the authority to act, but that authority is exercised within a system shaped by political oversight, limited resources, narrow regulatory tools, and shifting commitments to environmental justice.

For impacted residents, this means:

  • VA DEQ is necessary but insufficient on its own;
  • sustained public pressure, documentation, and coalition-building are essential; and
  • federal engagement, for example, with the EPA, public records requests, and coordinated advocacy often become critical leverage points.

Tidewater Regional Office

Residents with environmental concerns can contact VA DEQ Tidewater Regional Office staff through a variety of methods:

  • Phone: 757-518-2000.
  • Reporting: Pollution reports can be submitted through the myDEQ Portal. They are monitored after hours and on weekends.
  • Records Requests: Concerned residents seeking information, can make requests to the VA DEQ for records through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA).
  • Mail: Tidewater Regional Office, 5636 Southern Blvd., Virginia Beach, Virginia 23462.

Documents

References

  1. ↑ Code of Federal Regulations, Appendix D to Part 58—Network Design Criteria for Ambient Air Quality Monitoring.
  2. ↑ U.S. EPA, List of Designated Reference and Equivalent Methods.
  3. ↑ Clift, Southeast Petition Get 1000 Signatures, Daily Press, October 30, 2015.
  4. ↑ Clift, Air Petition Delivered to State Leaders, Daily Press, December 4, 2015.
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