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2017 SESSION
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 10.1-2128.2 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 10.1-2128.2. Nutrient Offset Fund; purposes.
A. There is hereby created in the state treasury a special
nonreverting fund to be known as the Nutrient Offset Fund, hereafter
referred to in this section as "the Subfund," which shall be a
subfund of the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund and administered by the
Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. The Subfund shall be
established on the books of the Comptroller. All amounts appropriated and such
other moneys as may be made available to the Subfund from any other source,
public or private, shall be paid into the state treasury and credited to the
Subfund. Interest earned on moneys in the Subfund shall remain in the Subfund
and be credited to it. Any moneys remaining in the Subfund, including interest
thereon, at the end of each fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund
but shall remain in the Subfund. Moneys in the Subfund shall be used solely for
the purposes stated in subsection B. Expenditures and disbursements from the
Subfund shall be made by the State Treasurer on warrants issued by the
Comptroller upon written request of the Director of the Department of
Environmental Quality.
B. The Director of the Department of Environmental Quality
shall use moneys in the Subfund only to purchase acquire nutrient
offsets credits or allocations from point or nonpoint sources that
achieve equivalent point or nonpoint source reductions in the same tributary
beyond those reductions already required by or funded under federal or state
law or the Watershed Implementation Plan prepared for the Chesapeake Bay
Total Maximum Daily Load pursuant to § 2.2-218. The Director of the
Department of Environmental Quality may enter into long-term contracts with
producers of nutrient offsets credits to purchase such offsets
credits using moneys from the Subfund. Priority shall be given to
nutrient offsets produced from facilities that generate electricity from animal
waste. Credits in the Subfund shall be listed in a registry maintained
by the Department of Environmental Quality.
C. The Department of Environmental Quality shall establish a procedure to govern the distribution of moneys from the Subfund that shall include criteria that address (i) the annualized cost per pound of the reduction, (ii) the reliability of the underlying technology or practice, (iii) the relative durability and permanence of the credits generated, and (iv) other such factors that the Department deems appropriate to ensure that the practices will achieve the necessary reduction in nutrients for the term of credit.
D. The Director of the Department of Environmental
Quality shall make nutrient offsets credits purchased
acquired pursuant to subsection B available for sale to owners or operators
of new or expanded facilities pursuant to § 62.1-44.19:15, and to permitted
facilities pursuant to § 62.1-44.19:18. The Director shall consider
recommendations of the Secretary of Commerce and Trade consistent with the requirements
of the State Water Control Law (§ 62.1-44.2 et seq.) in the sale of nutrient
credits to new or expanding private facilities.
D. E. For the purposes of this section, a
"nutrient offset credit" means a nutrient reduction
certified by the Department of Environmental Quality as a load allocation,
point or nonpoint source nitrogen credit, or point or nonpoint
source phosphorus credit under the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Nutrient Credit
Exchange Program (§ 62.1-44.19:12 et seq.).