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2011 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources

Chairman: Patricia S. Ticer

Clerk: Patty Lung, Ray Ferguson
Staff: Ellen Porter, Martin Farber
Date of Meeting: February 21, 2011
Time and Place: 9 a.m., Senate Room B, General Assembly Building

H.B. 1556

Patron: Wilt

Bear hound training.  Allows the training of dogs to hunt bears to occur at night.  Currently, the training of dogs to hunt bears is limited to one-half hour before sunrise until four and one-half hours after sunset.

H.B. 1624

Patron: Knight

Department of Environmental Quality; consent agreements.  Authorizes the Executive Director of the Department of Environmental Quality, when the State Water Control Board is not in session, to enter into consent orders with persons who have violated the water control laws or provisions of their ground water permit or surface water management area permits.

H.B. 1625

Patron: Knight

Qualified fumigation facilities exempted from regulations.  Exempts facilities referred to as qualified fumigation facilities from various state and federal regulations. The bill defines the types of facilities that are exempted. However, the operators of such facilities must provide written notice to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) prior to conducting fumigation activities and are required to post signage that is visible and legible from the public right-of-way 24 hours prior to any fumigation operation which will remain in place 24 hours after the completion of any fumigation activities.  The signage will state that fumigation activities are occurring at the site. The bill also directs the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to conduct air monitoring at fumigation sites and makes its findings available to the Virginia Department of Health by July 1, 2013.

H.B. 1715

Patron: Wilt

Notification of conservation easement. Removes the requirement that the person recording the conservation easement mail a certified copy to the Attorney General. The bill does require that copies of the easement and any associated plats be mailed to the commissioner of revenue for the locality in which the property under easement is located, the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, and any other public body named in the instrument. If the easement is on lands where there is a historic place or landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the Virginia Landmarks Register, notice of the date and place of recordation has to be given to the Department of Historic Resources rather than the Virginia Historic Landmarks Board, which currently receives such notice.

H.B. 1830

Patron: Scott, E.T.

Agriculture; resource management plans.  Allows owners of agricultural land who implement and maintain a resource management plan to be deemed as being in full compliance with applicable state water quality requirements. The presumption does not extend to those operations (i) required to obtain a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit, (ii) required to obtain a Virginia Pollution Abatement Permit, and (iii) otherwise required by law to implement a resource management or nutrient management plan. The Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services, by regulation and with the assistance of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, shall determine the criteria necessary for qualified resource management plans. The bill sets out minimum criteria for the regulations.

H.B. 1889

Patron: Wilt

Tracking dogs.  Allows the use of tracking dogs to find wounded or dead bear or deer during archery, muzzleloader, or firearm bear or deer hunting seasons, so long as those who are conducting the retrieval effort have permission to hunt on or have access to the land and don't have a weapon in their possession.

H.B. 1988

Patron: Kilgore

Property conveyances; mineral mining; ownership of underground void.  Provides that, unless expressly excepted by the instrument creating an interest in a coal mineral estate, the owner or the lessee of coal retains the right to any coal remaining in place after the removal of surrounding coal, as well as the shell, container chamber, passage, space and void opened underground that was created by the removal of the coal. Such void opened underground may be used by the owner or lessee for any purpose in the furtherance of removal of coal. The bill will not affect contractual obligations entered into prior to July 1, 2011, or any determination of ownership rights in natural gas or coalbed methane.

H.B. 2310

Patron: Cosgrove

Conveyance of state-owned bottomlands. Creates an administrative procedure that allows the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to convey title to filled subaqueous bottomlands if the applicant can provide evidence that such fill was lawfully deposited. The bill also removes the requirement that grantees compensate the Commonwealth in an amount equivalent to 25 percent of the assessed value of the specified parcel. Grantees will pay a fee to the Commonwealth in an amount reasonably related to the costs to effect the conveyance.

H.B. 2368

Patron: Ware, R.L.

Supplemental environmental projects.  Authorizes the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board, the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and courts to provide for the undertaking of supplemental environmental projects through orders. A "supplemental environmental project" is an environmentally beneficial project undertaken as partial settlement of a civil enforcement action that is not otherwise required by law. The project must have a reasonable geographic nexus to the violation or, if no such project is available, advance objectives of the law or regulation violated. Categories of qualifying projects are listed in the bill, as are factors to be considered in determining the appropriateness and value of a project. The project must be agreed to by the person who is subject to the order and is enforceable as is any other provision of the order. A board, agency, or court decision to agree to a project is not subject to appeal. A similar authority was granted to the Department of Environmental Quality in 1997.