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2020 Session

Budget Amendments - SB30 (Committee Approved)

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Technical Review of Point Source Nutrient Reductions and WQIF Grant Savings (language only)

Item 377 #4s

Item 377 #4s

Natural Resources
Department of Environmental Quality

Language

Page 380, Line 31, strike "F." and insert "F.1."

Page 380, following line 33, insert:

"2. The Department shall work in conjunction with permittees under the Chesapeake Bay watershed nutrient general permit to conduct a review and identify more cost-effective options for Chesapeake Bay TMDL implementation than the actions assumed in Initiative 52 of the Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan. The Department shall take into account the critical role of facilities that have previously received Water Quality Improvement Fund nutrient removal grants to determine whether their actual performance data and trends provide a technical basis to revise the Plan's assumption of substantially increasing 2025 effluent nutrient concentrations and to reduce the Water Quality Improvement Fund appropriations needed through 2025. The review shall be completed and provided to the Chairs of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, the House Appropriations Committee, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources, and the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources by December 1, 2020. Prior to the 2021 Session of the General Assembly, no funds appropriated under this act shall be expended on any rulemaking activity for imposing new or reduced nutrient wasteload allocations on facilities eligible for WQIF grants except with consent of the permittee; however, the Department shall continue issuing Water Quality Improvement Fund grants for additional nutrient removal projects in accordance with the appropriations under items 379 and C-70 of this act and §10.1-1186.01 and §10.1-2117 of the Code of Virginia."



Explanation

(This amendment directs DEQ to review and identify an alternative point source implementation approach for the Chesapeake Bay TMDL than the regulation stated in Initiative 52 of the Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan. The review would consider technical data on the performance of prior Water Quality Improvement Fund grant recipients, and consider if there is a technical basis to update the Plan and decrease Water Quality Improvement Fund appropriations through 2025.)