Del. Keith Hodges
Sponsored bills
Directs the Department of Environmental Quality (the Department) to convene a work group to (i) assist the Department in carrying out the 2017 recommendation of the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Advisory Committee that an aquifer storage and recovery banking system be developed and (ii) study and identify the components of a groundwater trading program. The work group shall report its recommendations no later than July 1, 2020.
Directs the Marine Resources Commission to develop a fast-track regulatory permitting program for the selection and use of appropriate sites in Tidewater Virginia for the disposal of material dredged in such region, to be effective no later than July 1, 2019.
Exempts guidance documents, defined in the bill, from the requirements of the Administrative Process Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.), provided that the agency that developed the guidance document certifies that the document conforms to the definition of a guidance document. Each guidance document is then subject to a 30-day public comment period through the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall website, after publication in the Virginia Register of Regulations and prior to final publication by the agency. If a comment received during the public comment period asserts that the guidance document is contrary to state law or regulation or that it should not be exempt, the adoption of the guidance document shall be delayed an additional 30 days, during which time the agency shall address the comments and provide a response in writing. The bill also provides that guidance documents do not include agency (i) rulings and advisory opinions, (ii) forms and instructions, (iii) bulletins and legislative summaries, (iv) studies and reports, and (v) internal manuals and memoranda.