Sponsored bills
Authorizes the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality (the Department) to issue grants from the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund for water quality improvements, including cost effective technologies to reduce loads of total phosphorus, total nitrogen, or nitrogen-containing ammonia, in order to meet certain requirements of ammonia-related regulations that are more stringent than those adopted by the State Water Control Board (the Board). The bill also requires the Department to prepare a preliminary estimate of the amount and timing of Water Quality Improvement Grants required to fund projects to reduce loads of nitrogen-containing ammonia at certain levels based on an estimate of the anticipated range of costs for all publicly owned treatment works if the Board were to adopt the 2013 Aquatic Life Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Ammonia published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This bill is identical to
Directs the State Water Control Board (the Board) not to adopt certain U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) freshwater ammonia water quality criteria (the Criteria) unless the Board includes in such adoption a phased implementation program consistent with the federal Clean Water Act with certain funding and timing considerations. The bill also directs the Department of Environmental Quality to (i) identify any other states that have adopted the Criteria as of July 1, 2018; (ii) identify those procedures for the implementation of the Criteria that will minimize the impact of such implementation on Virginia sewerage systems while complying with the Clean Water Act; and (iii) report its findings to the Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, the Senate Finance Committee, and the House Appropriations Committee by November 1, 2018. The bill provides that the inclusion of the implementation program in the Board's current regulatory action shall not require reproposal of the current action. This bill is identical to