Senate Bill No. 715
(By Senators Snyder, Unger, Helmick, McCabe, Plymale and Kessler)
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[Introduced March 23, 2009; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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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 200,000 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, storm water 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 is hereby directed to, in consultation with
impacted stakeholders, establish 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 to, no later than June 1,
2010, and in consultation with impacted stakeholders, 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 Joint Standing Committee on Finance shall, in
consultation with the secretary and impacted stakeholders, 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 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
such rules and regulations meeting 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.
(j) Any proposed capacity expansion of an existing West
Virginia/National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit
containing limitations for the discharge of nitrogen and
phosphorous into the Chesapeake Bay watershed shall further contain
terms and conditions consistent with the requirements of
subsections (h) and (i) of this section.
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.
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