Fort A.P. Hill received a superior designation from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for environmental stewardship.

The Caroline County Army post was cited as an Exemplary Environmental Enterprise, the second level on a three-step program.

"The program is to encourage industries and businesses to voluntarily adopt pollution-control measures," DEQ spokeswoman Julia Wellman said yesterday after the announcement in Richmond.

"It means they've already been implemented and have made progress," she said.

Among its accomplishments, A.P. Hill increased recycling of wastes from 5 percent in 1999 to 33 percent last year, and started a basewide hazardous material management program to track how the substances are being used and stored.

The base has been ramping up its pollution-control and prevention efforts for several years. Last year, the 76,000-acre Army training site received the Chesapeake Bay Program's outstanding achievement award for environmental stewardship among federal facilities.

A.P. Hill is the first military installation in Virginia to receive the exemplary designation.

DEQ yesterday also announced that 78 other Army facilities, including Fredericksburg's National Guard Armory, were accepted into the Environmental Excellence (E2) program. That means they are in the early stages of implementing an environmental management system and pollution-prevention program.

Twelve facilities statewide have received DEQ's top Extraordinary Environmental Enterprise designation.