The Allen administration wants the Environmental Protection Agency to turn over Superfund sites such as the Avtex Fibers plant in Front Royal to the state because of the EPA's slowness in cleaning the sites, state Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop said Wednesday.

"The Avtex situation is obviously a difficult one," Ms. Dunlop said at a fund-raiser for Republican Delegate Jay K. Katzen, who is seeking a second term in the 31st District. "The EPA has spent $30 million and I don't think they've made a tremendous amount of improvement down there. This is an example of the federal government putting tremendous amounts of money in and virtually no improvement."

That's why she and Gov. George F. Allen support turning the sites over to the states, she said.

"The EPA is a very powerful federal regulatory agency. We think this power should be curbed," she said. "We are solution-oriented in Virginia. We are not control-oriented."

Ms. Dunlop praised Katzen for his support of placing control of government in the hands of the people.

"Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry stood in the early days of this nation for trusting the people and working to see that we had a government with a rein on it," she said. "That's the battle we're in today. Ultimately every aspect of our lives has government control. We need patriots like Jay Katzen in Richmond to stand up to Washington and say, 'No more.'"

The Allen administration is making a "new paradigm in the way we deal with the environment," Ms Dunlop said.

"We believe people are the most important natural resource," she said, and the administration's philosophy is to push for "personal stewardship, getting the community involved and protecting private property rights because we know people take care of what they own."

Kalzen said some people look at the environmental issue as a half empty glass. He sees it as half full.

"All but 2 percent of our rivers and streams are clean," he said. The House race, in which Katzen is being challenged by Democrat Suzanne H. Scheer, is "all about who is going to control your lives," he said. "Whether it's we or a bunch of bureaucrats."

Kalzen boasted of the economic successes in Warren County since Allen was elected governor and accused Ms. Scheer of supporting fees on industries that would chase them away.

"Warren County in the last quarter was the fastest-growing jurisdiction in the state economically," he said. "My opponent can't wait to get those industries here. We're going to charge them for roads and traffic lights. If I had gone to the head of Toray six months ago and said, Mr. Ishii, boy do I have a deal for you - you re going to pay this much for a road, he'd be in Cincinnati now."

Toray Plastics America Inc. is building a plant north of Front Royal, one of several new industries to announce plans for the area in the past few months.

Ms. Dunlop was accompanied Wednesday by her chief of staff Patricia M. Katzen, who is Katzen's wife.