The blueprint for going green was drawn in Virginia

In 1977, Allied Chemical Corporation was fined $13.2 million for polluting the James River with Kepone, a highly toxic insecticide, causing the worst environmental disaster in Virginia history. Of that amount, $8 million was set aside to create a non-profit grantmaking foundation — the Virginia Environmental Endowment.  

From this unique beginning, VEE launched and helped develop many elements of the robust environmental policy and advocacy landscape that now exists in the Commonwealth. 

Environmental law and advocacy as we know it has evolved over time. Many aspects of the field we know today didn’t exist until the 1970s. Gerald McCarthy is one of the pioneers of environmental work in Virginia.

He was VEE’s first executive director, and served as the head of VEE for 35 years. In his new book, Blueprint for Going Green: How a Small Foundation Changed the Model for Environmental Conservation, he gives an up-close account of the creation of VEE and the important role it played in establishing environmental conservation organizations like SELC.  

We recently caught up with McCarthy to talk about his book, the endowment that provided some of SELC’s first funding, and Virginia’s environmental movement.  

How did you first get involved with environmentalism and conservation?  

When I was in the Air Force, I did a lot of my own [environmental jobs] research.  I began talking to people, companies, and organizations, and in a few months – especially back in the 1970s when we didn’t have environmental experts and lawyers and environmental scientists were few and far between – a guy like me became so knowledgeable people were asking me about my expertise. By the time I was ready to leave the Air Force I knew pretty much what I wanted to do and where I wanted to do it. 

What are some of the challenges you faced as you worked to set up the endowment?  

We started from scratch with the endowment itself and, when we looked around for help in the nonprofit space, these other organizations didn’t exist. And most of what exists now, exists because we gave them a grant. It’s hard to believe, but in 1977 there was hardly anyone doing any of this work. 

We decided to go out and meet people – or invite them to meet us – and we spent most of the summer of 1977 listening to people. We eventually adopted a program and told people what we’d like to explore and called for proposals on how they’d go about addressing things like water quality and examining the law. 

We were getting slaughtered in courts and at the regulatory boards because nobody was representing the public interest.

Gerald McCarthy

How did you first encounter the idea of the Southern Environmental Law Center? 

In 1982 we talked the Environmental Defense Fund into coming to open an office in Richmond. Just as they were leaving, I met [SELC Founder] Rick Middleton. We are both still delightfully surprised at how lucky we were to find each other at that moment. SELC was brand new. It was just him and [General Counsel] David Carr, and I think ours was the second grant they’d ever gotten. As you’ll see in the book, we thought research and science and education were all important, but we were getting slaughtered in courts and at the regulatory boards because nobody was representing the public interest, so at that point, we decided we needed to start supporting advocacy and we also helped create the Virginia Conservation Network.

What have you found to be the greatest rewards of your career?  

Part of the book addresses the legacy of Governor Linwood Holton. I spent time working with Governor Holton. He was just a remarkable character and his administration did a lot of good for all sorts of people in Virginia, including environmental work.  

What would you say to those currently doing environmental work and those who want to in the future? 

I hope to see more pollution prevention, not just control. We’ve done a lot over the last 50 years, but there’s still work to do.