COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 715
(By Senators Snyder, Unger, Helmick, McCabe, Plymale and Kessler)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported March 27, 2009.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §22-11-30, relating
to the protection of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed; and
nutrient reductions projects.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §22-11-30, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 11. WEST VIRGINIA WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT.
§22-11-30. Chesapeake Bay Restoration Initiative.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares that:
(1) The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are valuable
natural resources providing both recreational and economic
opportunities to citizens living in and around the Chesapeake Bay
watershed. Eight West Virginia counties, and a collective
population of more than two hundred thousand citizens, are within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The protection and promotion of the
environmental health and integrity of the Chesapeake Bay is
accordingly in the best interests of the State of West Virginia.
(2) The Chesapeake Bay has been identified by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency as an impaired water due to
excess nitrogen and phosphorous entering the bay from its various
tributaries. These pollutants, commonly referred to as nutrients,
result in depleted dissolved oxygen supplies and other factors
which impact the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay and its
watershed.
(b) West Virginia is among six states from which nutrients
flow into the Chesapeake Bay. In order to restore the Chesapeake
Bay, these states have agreed to reduce the amount of nutrients
contributed to the Chesapeake Bay by sources located within their
respective jurisdictions.
(c) Among the sources of nutrients discharged into the
Chesapeake Bay watershed are wastewater discharged by West Virginia
wastewater treatment facilities, stormwater discharged from various
sources, wastewater discharged from agriculture-related activities
and other sources of wastewater related to both natural and
man-made impacts which are not specifically set forth herein.
(d) The need to provide and maintain affordable and high-
quality public infrastructure services and to safeguard existing
industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy in the
Chesapeake Bay watershed are essential to the continued economic
growth and quality of life of West Virginia communities within the watershed. Protection of these communities' economic vitality and
the Chesapeake Bay are critical interests of the state. The
capital costs of nutrient removal processes, if borne by individual
rate customers of sewer services or by individual business owners,
would result in significant increases in rates for an essential
public service, deferral or cancellation of other critical
infrastructure extensions and/or improvements and act as a
disincentive for business growth, both commercial and agricultural,
in these communities, if not the shrinking of industrial and
agricultural activity in the watershed. Therefore, a holistic
program, while assuring the protection of the Chesapeake Bay, must
include: (1) A nutrient trading and off-set program to allow for
efficiencies within the watershed to assure that public moneys are
placed to best use; and (2) a capital improvement program to assist
those required to install capital improvements to obtain the
reductions in nutrients previously agreed to by the state.
(e) The secretary, in consultation with affected stakeholders,
is hereby directed to establish no later than June 1, 2012, a
program of nutrient trading and off-sets. Pending establishment of
such a program, the secretary is authorized to consider and
implement interim trading and offset programs as necessary and
appropriate for individual permittees in order to protect the
Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
(f) The secretary is hereby directed, no later than June 1,
2010, and in consultation with affected stakeholders, to report to
the Joint Legislative Commission on State Water Resources the status of proposed performance standards necessary for wastewater
treatment facilities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed for any
reduction of nutrients in the watershed required to protect water
quality in the Bay.
(g) The Secretary and stakeholders shall, no later than June
1, 2012, consider and recommend to the Legislature a program
establishing a new and independent source of funding for capital
improvements made necessary by the imposition of nutrient removal
requirements.
(h) The secretary shall, pursuant to the requirements of the
West Virginia Water Pollution Control and applicable rules, modify
existing West Virginia/National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System permits containing limitations for the discharge of
phosphorous and nitrogen into the Chesapeake Bay watershed so as to
make said limitations effective and final only upon the completion
of the requirements set forth in subsections (e), (f) and (g) of
this section and final approval by the Legislature of the
recommendations contained in subsection (g) of this section.
Further, upon the approval by the Legislature of the requirements
as set forth in subsections (e), (f) and (g) of this section, and
final approval by the Legislature of the recommendations contained
in subsection (g) of this section, the secretary shall further
modify those permits set forth in this subsection and further grant
affected entities a reasonable period of time to attain affordable
compliance with any requirement related to the discharge of
nitrogen and phosphorous into the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
(i) Should it be determined based upon new information or the
issuance of a final total maximum daily load for the Chesapeake Bay
that modifications to nutrient loading requirements contained in
West Virginia/National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
permits are necessary to be consistent with this new information or
the final total maximum daily load, the secretary shall recalculate
such loading requirements and modify such permits consistent with
this information.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is for the protection of the
Chesapeake Bay Watershed and nutrient reduction projects.
§22-11-30 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.)