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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
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2008 SESSION
Chairman: Patricia S. Ticer
Clerk: Hobie Lehman
Staff: Martin Farber, Ellen Porter
Date of Meeting: January 28, 2008
Time and Place: 9:30 AM, Senate Room B
The Chair has directed SBs 712 & 748 be removed from the docket.
Patron: Stuart
Application of fertilizers. Requires a commercial applicator of fertilizers to obtain a soil analysis of the property on which he is applying a fertilizer and make that analysis available to the customer at the time the bill is paid. The bill provides a civil penalty of $500 for not providing the customer with the analysis.
Patron: Whipple
Greenhouse gas emissions; mandatory reporting. Requires that the State Air Pollution Control Board adopt regulations requiring the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources. The regulations would apply only to those sources that emit more than a de minimis amount of greenhouse gas and that are already required to report emissions of other air pollutants. The Board is also authorized to adopt regulations that require those same parties to report greenhouse gas emissions from fleets of motor vehicles. Beginning in 2008, the Virginia Department of Transportation is required to provide the Department of Environmental Quality with data necessary to maintain a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for individual road segments throughout the Commonwealth.
Patron: Locke
Financing of energy conservation projects. Authorizes the Virginia Resources Authority to finance energy conservation and energy efficient building projects.
Patron: Deeds
Inspection of food establishments; exception for private homes. Exempts food preparations in private homes from inspections by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services if the food: (i) is sold to an individual for his own consumption; (ii) carries the label "NOT FOR RESALE—PROCESSED AND PREPARED WITHOUT STATE INSPECTION"; and (iii) does not require a license for production or sale.
Patron: Watkins
Stream mitigation banks. Authorizes Henrico County to establish and operate stream mitigation banks so long as the banks are operated in accordance with state and federal law.
Patron: Martin
Application of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. Redefines the localities that are under the jurisdiction of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA). Currently, the CBPA applies to specifically named counties and cities that are defined as being located within Tidewater Virginia. The bill changes the definition of which localities constitute Tidewater Virginia to include only those localities wholly east of Interstate 95. Because the definition of Tidewater Virginia in the CBPA also appears in the stormwater law, to ensure that there is no change in the coverage of the stormwater program, the counties and cities currently listed in the CBPA's definition of Tidewater are delineated in the stormwater law.
Patron: Puckett
National pollutant discharge elimination system permits; mining operations. Provides for permit fees to be submitted from applicants that discharge waters from mining operations. Applicants will pay $5,000 per discharge point from a major facility and $750 for each other discharge point. In addition, applicants will pay an annual fee of $2,500 for discharge points for major facilities and $250 for other discharge points. Permits will remain valid for five years.
Patron: Hanger
Natural resources funding. Provides annual funding for natural resources from (i) 20 percent of the remaining revenues of state recordation taxes that are not currently allocated and (ii) unallocated land preservation tax credits in each calendar year. Of the revenues allocated to natural resources, 17 percent would be used to provide matching grants to local purchase of development rights programs, 16 percent would be distributed to the Virginia Land Conservation Fund, and 67 percent would be distributed to the Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program for agricultural best management practices.
For the moneys allocated to agricultural best management practices, five percent would be distributed to soil and water conservation districts to provide technical assistance for the implementation of agricultural best management practices. The remaining moneys would be used for matching grants for agricultural best management practices, with 60 percent of the moneys used for lands exclusively in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and 40 percent of the moneys used for all other lands in the Commonwealth.
For the moneys allocated to provide matching grants to local purchase of development rights programs, 60 percent of the moneys would be used for grants for local purchase of the development rights programs of counties and cities wholly or partly within the Chesapeake Bay watershed and 40 percent of the moneys would be used for grants for local purchase of the development rights programs of all other counties and cities. In general, for each $1 received, the local purchase of development rights program would be required to provide a $1 match.
Patron: Hanger
Matching grants to local purchase of development rights programs. Provides that in general, local purchase of development rights programs would be required to make a $1 match for each $1 in grants awarded by the Office of Farmland Preservation.
However, if, as of July 1 in the fiscal year, the total “value” of all land in a county or city upon which the real estate tax is imposed does not exceed 70 percent of the total fair market value of all land in the county or city, then for that fiscal year the local purchase of development rights program for the county or city would be required to match each $1 awarded with a match of $0.50. “Value” is defined as the fair market value of land unless the land has been valued under special use value assessment, in which case “value” would mean the use value assessment.
Patron: Wagner
Uranium mining. Establishes a 15-member executive branch commission to assess the risks and benefits of developing uranium resources in Virginia.
Patron: Houck
Marine Resources Commission; permits in emergency situations. Allows the Commissioner to waive the normal permitting requirements during emergency situations if he finds that such obligations are inadequate to protect, maintain, or repair existing public water, wastewater, and other utility systems.
Patron: Hurt
Fishing license; exemptions for persons assisting disabled persons. Exempts nondisabled persons from having to obtain a fishing license when assisting a disabled person to fish as long as the disabled person possesses a valid fishing license. There is already an exemption for those assisting disabled hunters, and this exemption will now extend to disabled fishermen.
Patron: Norment
Animal protection and fighting; penalty. Broadens the Class 6 felony applicable to the crime of dogfighting to the fighting of any animals, including cocks, and the possession of any materials intended to enhance the ability of animals to fight. Attending an exhibition of animal fighting or permitting a minor to become involved in animal fighting is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Animals that are the subject of such criminal charges may be forfeited to the locality, but the owner may post bond to retain his ownership interest and repossess the animals if the court issues a finding of not guilty. Law-enforcement officers would be permitted to conduct searches at any time upon the issuance of warrants. Currently, such officers may only conduct searches during the day.
Patron: Norment
Dam safety. Exempts the owners of historically significant dams that do not present an imminent danger from having to correct deficiencies identified in a dam safety inspection conducted by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Patron: Ticer
Used motor oil; annual survey of individual practices. Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to conduct and publish an annual survey of consumers to analyze: (i) trends in the numbers of individuals who change their own motor oil, oil filters, or antifreeze; (ii) the proportion of such individuals who properly dispose of motor oil, oil filters, or antifreeze; and (iii) the reasons that individuals choose not to properly dispose of motor oil, oil filters, or antifreeze.
Patron: Reynolds
Recovery of fire fighting costs by localities; volunteer fire or rescue. Allows the recovery of expenses incurred by a locality, or by any volunteer fire or rescue squad, for fighting or extinguishing a fire. Expenses recovered on behalf of a locality shall be paid to the locality, and those recovered on behalf of a volunteer fire or rescue squad shall be paid to the volunteer fire or rescue squad.
Patron: Norment
Hampton Roads Sanitation District. Redefines the term “sewage disposal system.” The bill also provides that all construction contracts, except in cases of emergency, that the District’s Commission may let for construction, or materials in connection with such construction, shall be let after public advertising and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002, as well as all subsequent amendments and additions to Virginia public procurement law. The bill also requires that the Virginia Department of Environment Quality approve any substantial change in the method used by the Commission for treating and disposing of sewage and industrial wastes so as to prevent the pollution of any waters within the District as effective and satisfactory for the purpose intended. Further, the District may enter into any contract that the Commission determines to be necessary or appropriate to place any obligation or investment of the District, as represented by bonds or the investment of their proceeds, in whole or in part, on the interest rate, cash flow or other basis desired by the Commission.
Patron: Edwards
Fossil fuel combustion products permit. Requires any applicant seeking approval for the use of fossil fuel combustion products as structural fill to (i) publish a notice of his intent to apply for approval for the project from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), (ii) hold a public meeting to answer citizen's questions, and (iii) submit minutes of the meeting to DEQ. The DEQ is not to issue the permit until the applicant has fulfilled these requirements.
Patron: Herring
Brownfields; public notice of voluntary remediation plans. Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to notify the owners of neighboring properties when there is an application to participate in the Voluntary Remediation Program. The owners of neighboring properties will be permitted to participate in a public comment process prior to the adoption of a voluntary remediation plan and demand a public hearing on the Department's approval of a voluntary remediation plan or issuance of a certificate of satisfactory completion of remediation. Bars the Department from issuing any certificate of satisfactory completion of remediation without the consent of the owners of neighboring properties if any substance identified by federal guidelines pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act has been found on the subject's property and in groundwater concentrations in excess of the applicable maximum contaminant level.
Patron: Newman
Water safety enforcement. Requires the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to provide an enhanced enforcement effort on Smith Mountain Lake during the summer months.