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It was with a great deal of excitement that Environmental Advocates' Board of Directors President Oakes Ames announced that Val Washington had been named executive director. "Val Washington is widely known and respected in the environmental community and among New York's lawmakers," Ames said. "Her understanding of environmental issues is both wide-ranging and deep. She is superbly qualified to lead the State's premier environmental group."Washington, who served on the Environmental Advocates Board of Directors for more than 20 years, had been acting program director during the 1996 legislative session. In that position, she led the group's program staff during what turned out to be a remarkably successful legislative session. In addition to reviewing hundreds of bills affecting New York's environment that were introduced during the past year, Washington also helped lead a coalition of environmental groups during the complex negotiations with Gov. George Pataki and his staff over the 1996 Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act. Those talks dealt with difficult policy issues, especially the Governor's municipal hazardous waste site "Brownfields" cleanup program. Ultimately successful, the negotiations produced broad environmental movement support for the Governor's proposal. "What started out as a seriously flawed brownfields program, turned into one of the best municipal cleanup strategies in the country," Val says. "The negotiations that took place,over the clean up strandards and liability for any possible post-cleanup injuries, were conducted in good faith by both parties. They were a credit to the environmental community and to the Governor and his staff." Val does bring a wealth of experience with New York State environmental policy to her new position. Before joining Environmental Advocates, she was an assistant attorney general and deputy bureau chief with the state Attorney General's Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB), where she served from June 1984 until July 1995. Val oversaw the administration and supervised the legal work of a 35-person staff. During her tenure, the EPB earned a national reputation for vigorous legal actions to abate acid rain, clean up toxic waste sites and prosecute environmental crimes. In 1982, Val was a special assistant attorney general working on a toxics project that undertook both civil and criminal litigation under new and evolving federal and state laws in pursuit of individuals and corporations responsible for the creation of hazardous waste sites. From 1979 to 1982, she was regional attorney for the Department of Environmental Conservation Region 3. And from 1978 to 1979, Val was counsel to the New York State Olympic Task Force, negotiating contracts for the use of state lands and facilities during the 1980 Winter Olympics. Val has also taught environmental law at Bard Graduate School of Environmental Studies and Albany Law School. She has authored several legal books and numerous articles on environmental issues. She graduated Albany Law School in 1975 and received her B.A. in Social Science from Harper College in 1970. She is the mother of two young children and, with her husband, who has helped set the state's agricultural policies for years, brings a particular sensitivity to the needs of New York's farm families. "After years of working to interpret and enforce the state's environmental laws, I am looking forward to the challenge of helping chart the course New York's environmental policies will take," Val says. |
