A REPUBLICAN VISION AT THE DECENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION UNDER COMMISSIONER MICHAEL ZAGATA HAS RESULTED IN A COOPERATIVE, NON-CONFRONTATIONAL STYLE. BUSINESSES AMD SPORTSMEN LIKE IT. ENVIRONMENTALISTS AREN'T SO UPBEAT.(MAIN)

Byline: YANCEY ROY Staff writer

In a sixth-floor room overlooking the Capital Region's commercial center one day last summer, the new face of the state agency that regulates the environment sharply came into focus.

There, at the Wolf Road headquarters of the Department of Environmental Conservation, executives from the state and General Electric Co. hammered out a settlement involving pollution violations at the GE plant in Waterford.

If the outcome pleased business and industry, it stunned environmentalists. GE Silicones, a $60 billion-a-year unit of the giant corporation, would not pay a fine. Instead, it would spend $1.5 million on tax-deductible local environmental projects.

Commissioner Michael Zagata hailed the agreement as a ``constructive resolution'' solving a 4-year-old case and a harbinger of change.

``This policy represents an intelligent and effective way of providing constructive and creative resolutions to enforcement actions that enhance the environment of the community where the violations occur,'' he said.

Welcome to the new Department of Environmental Conservation, Pataki-style. Under Gov. George Pataki and Zagata, the agency is being reshaped to match the Republican administration's political philosophy.

Companies now are DEC ``customers.'' Instead of fining them, the department is negotiating with firms and allowing industry to have more input about regulations than Pataki's Democratic predecessor, Mario M. Cuomo, would have considered. Zagata says his vision is ``to implement our mission in a way that is more user-friendly'' than previous commissioners.

Under Zagata, the department is pushing for cleanups of …