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2014 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources

Chairman: Emmett W. Hanger, Jr.

Date of Meeting: January 30, 2014
Time and Place: 1/2 hour after adjournment, Senate Room B

S.B. 9

Patron: Garrett

Hunting coyotes on Sunday. Makes it lawful to hunt or kill coyotes on Sundays.

S.B. 48

Patron: Stuart

Prohibition on oil and gas drilling. Prohibits the drilling for oil and gas in the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area. When the General Assembly enacted the Groundwater Management Act in 1973, it declared that the continued, unrestricted usage of groundwater is contributing and will contribute to pollution and the shortage of groundwater, thereby jeopardizing the public welfare, safety, and health. The Act recognized that the state has the right to the reasonable control of all groundwater resources in order to conserve, protect, and beneficially utilize the groundwater of the Commonwealth. The bill would apply to groundwater and the associated aquifers in the coastal plain of Virginia. The bill would also require the Department of Environmental Quality to adopt regulations protecting surface and ground water resources before the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy issues a drilling permit in those areas of Tidewater where such activity is allowed.

S.B. 51

Patron: Stuart

Agricultural operations; local regulation of certain activities. Protects customary agritourism activities at agricultural operations from local bans in the absence of substantial impacts on the public welfare and requires localities to take certain factors into account when regulating agritourism activities. The bill requires a basis in health, safety, or public welfare for a local ordinance that restricts any of several activities: the conduct of agritourism activities, the sale of agricultural or silvicultural products or related items, the preparation or sale of foods that otherwise comply with state law, and other customary activities. Localities are prohibited from subjecting those listed activities to a special-use permit requirement, and in most situations localities are prevented from stringently regulating the sound produced by the listed activities.

S.B. 52

Patron: Stuart

Boating safety course. Exempts persons 45 years of age or older on July 1, 2014, from having to pass a boating safety education course in order to operate a motorboat.

S.B. 53

Patron: Stuart

Regulation of stormwater; waiver of charges for places of worship. Requires a locality that adopts a system of stormwater management service charges to provide for a waiver of at least 50 percent of such charge to any church, synagogue, or other place of worship.

S.B. 154

Patron: Puckett

Hunting on Sundays. Allows hunting on Sundays under certain circumstances. A person may hunt waterfowl, subject to restrictions imposed by the Director of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and a landowner and his immediate family or a person with written permission may hunt or kill any wild bird or wild animal, including nuisance species, if they hunt on the landowner's property. However, the aforementioned hunting activities cannot occur within 200 yards of a house of worship. The bill prohibits the hunting of deer with dogs on Sunday.

S.B. 423

Patron: Hanger

Stormwater management program; regulations; single-family residence. Authorizes the State Water Control Board to adopt regulations that create a procedure for approving permits for individual parcels in a common plan of development, provide a General Permit for Discharges of Stormwater from Construction Activities that omits unneeded information on post-construction water quality standards, and provide reciprocity with other states regarding certification of best management practices. The bill also allows the submission of an agreement in lieu of a permit where land-disturbing activity results from the construction of a single-family residence.

S.B. 425

Patron: Hanger

Stormwater management programs; appeals. Clarifies the appeals process for persons subject to state permit requirements under the Stormwater Management Act. The bill removes Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) authorities from the list of bodies whose actions may be appealed. For appeals of actions of the Department of Environmental Quality (the Department) or the State Water Control Board (the Board), the bill refers to applicable hearing procedures and provides that appeals include an opportunity with judicial review in accordance with certain standards.

S.B. 444

Patron: Norment

Hybrid canines. Authorizes any locality to prohibit by ordinance the keeping of hybrid canines. The bill alters the definition of hybrid canine and requires a veterinarian to report to the local animal control office the initial visit of any hybrid canine.

S.B. 469

Patron: Smith

Stormwater Management Program; localities with minimal Chesapeake Bay watershed. Delays the date on which local governments are required to assume responsibility for administering the Stormwater Management Program from July 1, 2014, to July 1, 2015, in those localities in which less than 11 percent of the land area drains to the Chesapeake Bay.

S.B. 530

Patron: Hanger

Local implementation of Stormwater Management Program. Delays the date that local governments will have to assume responsibility for administering the Stormwater Management Program from July 1, 2014, to July 1, 2015.

S.B. 603

Patron: Stuart

Condemnation of oyster grounds. Prohibits localities from exercising the right of eminent domain to condemn privately leased riparian and general oyster planting grounds. These planting grounds are assigned to persons under a lease agreement approved by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

S.B. 615

Patron: Carrico

Regulating carbon dioxide emissions. Establishes the process for adopting state carbon dioxide (CO2) requirements consistent with the emission guidelines the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to propose under §111d of the Clean Air Act for regulating CO2 emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired electric generating units in June 2014. The bill requires the State Air Pollution Control Board to establish separate CO2 performance standards for coal-fired and gas-fired electric generating units on a case-by-case basis, and based on the best system of emission reduction that has been adequately demonstrated and can be reasonably achieved through measures undertaken at each unit, without requiring the unit to switch fuel. The bill requires the Board to consider on a case-by-case basis whether less stringent performance standards than those required by EPA's Emission Guidelines are warranted, taking into account seven enumerated criteria. Once the Board determines appropriate performance standards, the Board, to the "maximum extent permissible," is to implement the performance standards through flexible regulatory mechanisms, including emissions averaging or emissions trading. Finally, the bill prohibits the state from submitting any §111d plan to EPA inconsistent with the bill, except as is necessary to comply with federal regulations.

S.B. 622

Patron: Stanley

Companion animal surgical sterilization program; fund; penalty. Establishes a fund to reimburse participating veterinarians for the surgical sterilizations they perform on eligible cats or dogs. The bill provides that a surcharge of $50 per ton of pet food distributed in the Commonwealth be deposited in the fund and such pet food be exempted from the existing litter tax. An animal will be eligible for sterilization under the program if it is a feral or free-roaming cat or is owned by a low-income individual or an animal shelter or other releasing agency. The bill establishes penalties for providing false information or submitting false payment requests.

S.B. 671

Patron: Favola

Reporting of water usage. Requires electric generating stations seeking a Virginia Water Protection Permit to submit an estimate of the amount of water that will be withdrawn and consumed for the lifecycle of the fuel used by the proposed generating station.