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2020 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources

Chair: J. Chapman Petersen

Clerk: Patty Lung, Alec Fischbein
Staff: Scott Meacham, David Barry
Date of Meeting: February 25, 2020
Time and Place: 30 Min. after Adjournment - Senate Room A, Pocahontas Bldg.

H.B. 414

Patron: Delaney

Virginia Energy Plan; covenants regarding solar power; reasonable restrictions. Provides that a restriction on solar energy collection devices is not reasonable if application of the restriction to a particular proposal (i) increases the cost of installation of the solar energy collection device by five percent over the projected cost of the initially proposed installation or (ii) reduces the energy production by the solar energy collection device by 10 percent below the projected energy production of the initially proposed installation. The owner shall provide documentation prepared by an independent solar panel design specialist that is satisfactory to the community association to show that the restriction is not reasonable according to the criteria established in the bill.

H.B. 443

Patron: Carroll Foy

Coal combustion residuals impoundment; Giles and Russell Counties; closure. Requires the owner or operator of any coal combustion residuals (CCR) unit, defined in the bill to include a coal ash pond or landfill, at the Glen Lyn Plant and the Clinch River Plant in Giles and Russell Counties, respectively, to close such CCR unit by removing all of the CCR for (i) recycling, known as encapsulated beneficial use, or (ii) deposition in a permitted and lined landfill that meets certain federal standards. The measure requires that any owner or operator beneficially reuse such removed CCR if doing so is anticipated to reduce costs. Such a closure project shall be completed within 15 years of the start of excavation and shall be accompanied by an offer by the owner or operator to provide connection to a municipal water supply for every residence within one-half mile or, if such connection is not feasible, to provide water testing for any such residence.

The bill provides that if the owner or operator moves the CCR off-site, it shall develop a transportation plan in consultation with any county, city, or town in which the CCR units are located and any county, city, or town within two miles of the CCR units for any truck transportation that minimizes the effects on adjacent property owners and surrounding communities. The bill requires the owner or operator of a CCR unit to accept and review on an ongoing basis sufficiently detailed proposals to beneficially reuse any CCR that are not already subject to a removal contract. The bill requires that any entity conducting the closure or corrective action work (a) identify options for utilizing local workers, (b) consult with the Commonwealth's Chief Workforce Development Officer on opportunities to advance the Commonwealth's workforce goals, and (c) give priority to the hiring of local workers.

The bill requires the CCR unit owner or operator to submit two biennial reports beginning October 1, 2023, and continuing until closure of or corrective action at all of its CCR units is complete. One report describes closure plans, progress, a detailed accounting of the amounts of CCR that have been beneficially reused and the amount of CCR that have been landfilled, the utilization of transportation options, water monitoring results, and other aspects of the closure process; the other report contains the beneficial reuse proposals that the owner or operator has received and its analysis of such proposals.

The measure provides that all costs associated with closure of a CCR unit shall be recoverable through a rate adjustment clause authorized by the State Corporation Commission (the Commission), provided that (1) when determining the reasonableness of such costs, the Commission shall not consider closure in place of the CCR unit as an option and (2) the annual revenue requirement recoverable through a rate adjustment clause shall not exceed $40 million on a Virginia jurisdictional basis for the Commonwealth in any 12-month period, provided that any under-recovery amount of revenue requirements incurred in excess of $40 million in a given 12-month period shall be deferred and recovered through the rate adjustment clause over up to three succeeding 12-month periods. The bill provides that costs may begin accruing on July 1, 2020, but no approved rate adjustment clause charges shall be included in customer bills until July 1, 2022; any such costs shall be allocated to all customers of the utility in the Commonwealth as a non-bypassable charge, irrespective of the generation supplier of any such customer; and any such costs that are allocated to the utility's system customers outside of the Commonwealth that are not actually recovered from such customers shall be included for cost recovery from jurisdictional customers in the Commonwealth through the rate adjustment clause. The measure prohibits cost recovery for any fines or civil penalties resulting from violations of federal or state law.

H.B. 491

Patron: Marshall

Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; industrial hemp industry working group; report. Directs the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to convene a working group to assess the opportunities for development and manufacturing in the industrial hemp industry. The Department shall report the analysis of the working group by November 30, 2020, to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources.

H.B. 542

Patron: Carr

Regional water resource planning; State Water Control Board regulations. Directs the State Water Control Board to estimate the risk that each locality and region in the Commonwealth will experience water supply shortfalls, to encourage the development of cross-jurisdictional water supply projects, and to adopt regulations designating regional planning areas based primarily on river basin. Each locality in a particular regional planning area shall participate in cross-jurisdictional, coordinated water resource planning, and all localities in each area shall together develop and submit a single regional water supply plan. The bill directs the Department of Environmental Quality to facilitate the creation of the regional water plans by ensuring sufficient coordination among localities, providing planning and other assistance, and ensuring that each regional plan identifies risks and proposes strategies in response. The bill directs that the Board and the Department prioritize the allocation of funds to localities that sufficiently participate in regional planning. The bill contains technical amendments.

H.B. 547

Patron: Delaney

Virginia Energy and Economy Transition Council established. Establishes the Virginia Energy and Economy Transition Council, consisting of 30 members, to develop plans to assist the Commonwealth in transitioning from the use of fossil fuel energy to renewable energy by 2050. The bill provides that the Council sunsets on July 1, 2023.

H.B. 668

Patron: Mullin

Field investigations permit; archaeologist qualifications; penalty. Establishes standards for education, experience, ability, and other factors for a field supervisor who is identified in an application to the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation for a permit to conduct a field investigation, exploration, or recovery operation involving any object of antiquity on state-controlled land or on a state archaeological site or zone. The bill provides that the Director may consider the field supervisor's performance on any prior permitted investigation in determining whether the person meets such standards. The bill provides that conducting an investigation without a permit or willfully misrepresenting information (i) on a permit application or (ii) collected during a permitted field investigation is a crime punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.

H.B. 672

Patron: Willett

State, regional, and local planning; climate change. Establishes a policy of the Commonwealth to prevent and to minimize actions that contribute to the detrimental effects of climate change in the Commonwealth. The bill requires any state agency to examine any new regulation in furtherance of this policy. The bill requires local and regional planning commissions to consider the impacts from and causes of climate change in adopting a comprehensive plan, regional strategic plan, or zoning ordinance.

H.B. 764

Patron: Orrock

Domesticated animal premises; liability for transmission of domesticated animal pathogen. Provides that no owner or operator of a domesticated animal premises, defined in the bill, shall be liable for damages arising from a claim by a person visiting such premises alleging injury or death caused by a domesticated animal pathogen if the owner or operator took reasonable precautions to prevent the transmission of such pathogen. The bill also requires the posting of a warning sign and the provision of a hand-washing station at the premises and provides that liability may arise if the person proves that no warning sign was posted or hand-washing station was provided as required. The provision of the bill protecting the owner or operator from liability shall not apply if the transmission of the pathogen was due to the owner's or operator's gross negligence, willful and wanton conduct, or intentional act.

H.B. 942

Patron: Marshall

Industrial hemp; federal regulations; adoption in Virginia. Directs the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services to conform the regulations of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to any federal regulation adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, immediately upon publication in the Federal Register, that materially expands opportunities for growing, producing, or dealing in industrial hemp in the Commonwealth. The bill exempts such regulatory amendments by the Board from the Administrative Process Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.). The bill contains an emergency clause.

EMERGENCY

H.B. 1002

Patron: Guzman

Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Planning Grant Program. Authorizes the Governor to award grants from the existing Governor's Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund to encourage efforts by political subdivisions to support agriculture and forestry. The bill creates the Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Planning Grant Program, authorizes the Governor to award reimbursable grants to political subdivisions through the Program, and directs the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry to administer and develop guidelines for the Program, including a local matching fund requirement.

H.B. 1034

Patron: Rasoul

Local Food and Farming Infrastructure Fund; Grant Program; political subdivisions. Establishes the Local Food and Farming Infrastructure Fund and directs the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to establish a Local Food and Farming Infrastructure Grant Program for infrastructure development projects that support local food production and sustainable farming. The bill directs the Department to award grants to political subdivisions for projects that include the establishment or maintenance of farmers markets; businesses or organizations that manage the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of food products primarily from local and regional producers; and primarily locally owned processing facilities. Any political subdivision that is awarded a grant is required to oversee the spending of the grant and provide an annual report and a final report to the Department. The bill provides parameters for the payment of the grant amount to each political subdivision and establishes requirements for verification of compliance with award criteria by such political subdivision.

H.B. 1136

Patron: Lopez

Department of Environmental Quality; Hazardous Waste Site Inventory. Directs the Department of Environmental Quality to compile and maintain a Hazardous Waste Site Inventory, consisting of a list of sites permitted by or in corrective action under the Department at which the disposal of hazardous waste has occurred. The bill requires the Inventory to be published by July 1, 2021, and updated annually.

H.B. 1237

Patron: Wilt

Beehive distribution program. Changes the process for the granting of basic beehive units by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services from a first-come, first-served process to one based on random selection and limits applicants to three beehive units per household per year.

H.B. 1310

Patron: Webert

Department of Environmental Quality; notice of disposal of certain fill materials. Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to establish a process whereby any person that receives coverage under the General Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) Permit for Discharges of Stormwater from Construction Activities and that will be transporting fill from a project site for disposal shall disclose certain information about the disposal to the Department. The bill provides that the Department shall disclose such information to every locality where such fill will be disposed of.

H.B. 1313

Patron: Hodges

Chief Resilience Officer. Directs the Governor to designate a Chief Resilience Officer to serve as the primary coordinator of resilience and adaptation initiatives in Virginia and as the primary point of contact regarding issues related to resilience and recurrent flooding. The bill directs the Chief Resilience Officer, in consultation with the Special Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Adaptation and Protection, to identify and monitor areas at the greatest risk from recurrent flooding; review and comment on plans for the construction or substantial reinforcement of a substantial flood defense or catchment area, at the request of the locality containing such defense or area; and initiate and assist with the pursuit of funding for resilience initiatives. The bill also expands the list of programs with which localities and the Commonwealth are required to coordinate as part of their flood control efforts.

H.B. 1329

Patron: Kory

Chesapeake Bay Preservation Areas; local ordinances; penalties. Directs localities in Tidewater Virginia to incorporate certain penalties into their ordinances protecting the quality of state waters in Chesapeake Bay Preservation Areas.

H.B. 1375

Patron: Hodges

Living shorelines; resiliency. Includes a shoreline practice that may enhance coastal resilience and attenuation of wave energy and storm surge in the definition of living shoreline for purposes of establishing and implementing a general permit regulation that authorizes and encourages the use of living shorelines as the preferred alternative for stabilizing tidal shorelines.

H.B. 1430

Patron: Gooditis

Industrial hemp extract; approval as food or ingredient; regulations; fund; emergency. Provides that an industrial hemp extract, as defined in the bill, is a food and is subject to applicable laws and regulations. The bill establishes (i) requirements for the production of an industrial hemp extract or a food containing an extract and (ii) conditions under which a manufacturer of such extract or food shall be considered an approved source. The bill authorizes the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt regulations establishing contaminant tolerances, labeling requirements, and batch testing requirements, and it provides that moneys collected under the chapter shall be deposited in the Virginia Industrial Hemp Fund, created by the bill. The bill directs that by November 1, 2020, (a) the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry report a plan for the long-term sustainability of funding for the industrial hemp program and (b) the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (the Department) report regarding recommended legislative or regulatory amendments necessary to (1) allow a registered industrial hemp grower to grow industrial hemp with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration of no greater than one percent and (2) authorize the Department to modify its industrial hemp program to respond to any final hemp regulation adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The bill provides that the Department shall not be prohibited from adopting a tiered approach to testing of THC concentrations at the processor level if such approach is not prohibited by federal law. The bill contains an emergency clause.

EMERGENCY

H.B. 1458

Patron: Murphy

Water protection permits; administrative withdrawal. Authorizes the State Water Control Board to administratively withdraw an individual or a general coverage water protection permit application if it is incomplete or for failure by the applicant to provide the required information after 60 days from the date of the latest written information request made by the Board. Prior to an administrative withdrawal, the bill requires the Board to provide (i) notice to the applicant and (ii) an opportunity for an informal fact finding proceeding. The bill also authorizes an applicant to request suspension of an application review by the Board that does not affect the Board's ability to administratively withdraw the application.

H.B. 1509

Patron: McQuinn

Virginia Food Access Investment Program and Fund. Creates the Virginia Food Access Investment Program and Fund to provide funding for the construction, rehabilitation, equipment upgrades, or expansion of grocery stores, small food retailers, and innovative food retail projects, defined in the bill, in underserved communities.

H.B. 1552

Patron: Levine

Tethering animals; adequate shelter. Provides that outdoor tethering of an animal does not meet the requirement that an animal be given adequate shelter (i) unless the animal is safe from predators and well suited and well equipped to tolerate its environment or (ii) during a heat advisory or during the effective period for a severe weather warning.

H.B. 1609

Patron: Mugler

Nutrient credit use; land-disturbing activity by wastewater utility. Provides that when a publicly owned wastewater treatment works conducts land-disturbing activities in order to construct or expand a facility, it may comply with the water quality requirements associated with such land-disturbing activities by generating and using point source nutrient credits, point source phosphorus credits, and sediment credits through the operation of its existing treatment facilities. The bill requires the treatment works to notify the Department of Environmental Quality of its plan, to adopt a ratio of 10 point source nitrogen credits for each point source phosphorus credit used, and to classify the credits as permanent using a means acceptable to the Department. The bill limits to 10 pounds per year the application of point source phosphorus credits to a single project other than a water reclamation and reuse project.

H.B. 1622

Patron: Plum

Open-Space Lands Preservation Trust Fund; acquisition of interests in property. Authorizes the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, in administering the Open-Space Lands Preservation Trust Fund, to provide grants to persons conveying to the Foundation fee simple title or other rights, interests, or privileges in property and to provide grants to localities acquiring such interests. Current law authorizes the Foundation to provide such grants for the acquisition of open-space and conservation easements.

H.B. 1641

Patron: Ayala

Coal ash ponds; drinking water well; resident notification. Requires a utility, defined in the bill as the owner or operator of a coal ash pond, to complete a survey of all drinking water wells within 1.5 miles of each of its ponds by October 1, 2020, and to notify residents via mail and a local newspaper posting that the survey will be conducted.

H.B. 1642

Patron: Ayala

Coal ash ponds; well monitoring program; drinking water well testing. Requires each utility, defined in the bill as the owner or operator of a coal ash pond, to commission an independent well water test on behalf of the owner of any well located within 1.5 miles of such coal ash pond by January 1, 2021, and requires such test to be conducted once per year during each of the five years following the approval of the closure of the coal ash pond and once every five years thereafter. The bill provides that if any test exceeds groundwater quality standards for constituents associated with coal ash, the Virginia Waste Management Board shall instruct the utility to provide alternative water supplies to the owner of the well. The bill requires the Department of Environmental Quality to consider the results of the tests in its permitting, monitoring, or enforcement proceedings.

H.B. 1674

Patron: Hodges

Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area; provisional surface water withdrawal permit. Authorizes the State Water Control Board to issue a provisional surface water withdrawal permit within the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area to an applicant that has not identified an end user for the water. Such permit shall not allow the withdrawal of water until an end user has been identified and the permittee has provided a report containing information on the need for and proposed use of the surface water, a description of the raw water intake, and other information. The bill provides that once the Department of Environmental Quality approves the report, the permittee shall request a permit modification. Finally, the bill provides that no potential withdrawal amount of any provisional permit shall be used in the calculation of available water when assessing a subsequent surface water withdrawal application in the affected stream reach if the provisional permit has not been modified to reflect an end user, the Department and the subsequent applicant have found the provisional withdrawal to be inappropriate, and the provisional permit holder has failed to state that an end user will be secured within 12 months.

H.B. 1707

Patron: Aird

Clean Energy Advisory Board. Expands the membership of the Clean Energy Advisory Board (the Board) from 15 to 17 members. The measure specifies that one of the new members shall be an expert with experience implementing low-income and middle-income incentive and loan programs for distributed renewable energy resources and that the other new member shall be an attorney who maintains a legal practice dedicated to rural development, rural electrification, and energy policy. The measure also repeals the sunset provision for the Board, which is scheduled to expire on July 1, 2022, and directs the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, in consultation with the Board, to develop guidelines to administer any public power renewable grant program established by the general appropriation act.