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2011 SESSION

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11103850D
HOUSE BILL NO. 2058 Offered January 12, 2011 Prefiled January 11, 2011 A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 10.1-2128.1 and 62.1-44.118 of the Code of Virginia, relating to impaired waters water quality reports. ---------- Patron-- Poindexter ---------- Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  That §§ 10.1-2128.1 and 62.1-44.118 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 10.1-2128.1. Virginia Natural Resources Commitment Fund established.

A. There is hereby created in the state treasury a special nonreverting fund to be known as the Virginia Natural Resources Commitment Fund hereafter referred to as "the Subfund," which shall be a subfund of the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund and administered by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The Subfund shall be established on the books of the Comptroller. All amounts appropriated and such other funds 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 as provided in subsection B solely for the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program administered by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

B. Beginning on July 1, 2008, and continuing in each subsequent fiscal year until July 1, 2018, out of such amounts as may be appropriated and deposited to the Subfund, distributions shall be made in each fiscal year for the following purposes:

1. Eight percent of the total amount distributed to the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program shall be distributed to soil and water conservation districts to provide technical assistance for the implementation of such agricultural best management practices. Each soil and water conservation district in the Commonwealth shall receive a share according to a method employed by the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation in consultation with the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board, that accounts for the percentage of the available agricultural best management practices funding that will be received by the district from the Subfund;

2. Fifty-five percent of the total amount distributed to the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program shall be used for matching grants for agricultural best management practices on lands in the Commonwealth exclusively or partly within the Chesapeake Bay watershed; and

3. Thirty-seven percent of the total amount distributed to the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program shall be used for matching grants for agricultural best management practices on lands in the Commonwealth exclusively outside of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

C. The Department of Conservation and Recreation, in consultation with stakeholders, including representatives of the agricultural community, the conservation community, and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts, shall determine an annual funding amount for effective Soil and Water Conservation District technical assistance and implementation of agricultural best management practices pursuant to § 10.1-546.1. Pursuant to § 2.2-1504, the Department shall provide to the Governor the annual funding amount needed for each year of the ensuing biennial period. The Department shall report include the annual funding amount to the Chairmen of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees by October 15 of each year as part of the reporting requirements in § 62.1-44.118.

§ 62.1-44.118. Status reports on progress; legislative oversight.

The Secretary of Natural Resources shall submit the impaired waters clean-up plan as described in § 62.1-44.117 no later than January 1, 2007, to the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, the House Committee on Appropriations, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Senate Committee on Finance. Thereafter, a progress report on the implementation of the plan shall be submitted semiannually to these committees of oversight. This report may include reports required by §§ 2.2-220, 10.1-1193, 10.1-2127, and 10.1-2134 Reports shall be due on May 1 and November 1 of each year. Water quality reporting requirements in subsection D of § 10.1-2127, subsection C of § 10.1-2128.1, and § 10.1-2134 shall be annually consolidated in the November 1 report. If there are questions as to the status of the clean-up effort the chairman of any of these committees may convene his committee for the purpose of receiving testimony. The executive branch departments and the Secretary of Natural Resources may request a meeting of any of the committees to inform them as to the progress of the clean-up or to propose specific initiatives that may require legislative action.