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2019 SESSION

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HB 2064 Ground water withdrawals; allocation.

Introduced by: Betsy B. Carr | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Ground water withdrawals; allocation. Requires any person applying for a ground water withdrawal permit in the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area (EVGMA) who proposes to use 50 percent or more of the water to be withdrawn for human consumption to submit documentation of such use to the State Water Control Board (the Board). The bill requires the Board to conduct a technical evaluation to determine whether the proposed withdrawal, when combined with all existing lawful withdrawals, will lower water levels in any confined aquifer. The bill prohibits the Board from issuing a permit for such human consumptive use if the withdrawal would lower levels in any confined aquifer below a point representing 80 percent of the distance between the land surface and the top of the aquifer. For a use that does not qualify as a human consumptive use, the bill prohibits the Board from issuing a permit if the withdrawal would lower such levels below a point representing eight percent of the distance between the land surface and the top of the aquifer.

The bill requires any existing permittee who wishes to be considered a human consumption permittee to submit water use data to the Board showing that 50 percent or more of the ground water withdrawn during the year ending July 1, 2020, was used for human consumption. The bill directs the Board to evaluate the effects of withdrawal for each permit holder in the EVGMA as of July 1, 2019, and to modify the permit of any permit holder whose withdrawals will lower the water in a contained aquifer to a level below 80 percent (for a human consumption permittee) or eight percent (for any other permittee) of the distance between the land surface and the top of the aquifer. The bill authorizes the Board to charge a fee of up to $10,000 for each such technical evaluation. Certain provisions of the bill are set to expire on July 1, 2021.


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