This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
On the banks of Aquia Creek in Stafford, Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Wednesday signed a slew of bills designed to protect Virginia’s clean water from harmful forever chemicals and aid communities as sea levels rise due to climate change.
She was joined by the lawmakers who proposed the measures and Secretary of Natural and Historical Resources David Bulova.
“Water is essential. For our bodies, for our food, for our businesses to be successful. It sustains the existence of every living thing,” Bulova said to the crowd gathered for the ceremonial bill signing at Widewater State Park.
Many of the bills Spanberger signed into law expand the state’s existing environmental protections and climate resilience efforts.
Through the coastal resilience and flood protection master plans, projects to mitigate flooding and help communities that see recurring flooding are planned well into the future. House Bill 237, sponsored by Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, directs agencies to additionally consider how wetlands may migrate.
“(The bill) will help plan for long term survival of our tidal wetlands by identifying migration corridors moving inland as sea levels rise,” Spanberger said.
HB 521, by Del. Phil Hernandez, D-Norfolk, aims to offset wetlands loss due to development.
Construction in wetland locations already requires special permits. The new law enshrines in state code a Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement goal: that construction permits also require developers to offset any wetlands loss due to their project.
The law also establishes a stakeholders workgroup to further study net zero tidal wetlands loss and natural flood mitigation methods.
This measure builds on the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement, which requires member states to reduce their sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus discharges into waterways to restore the health of the Bay. Virginia recommitted to the pact last year.
HB 390 by Virginia Beach Democratic Del. Alex Askew establishes the Habitat Policy Oversight Committee, which will give input on coastal resiliency legislation and regulation changes that impact wildlife habitats.
Virginia already provides environmental justice guidance to communities most impacted by certain projects permitted through the Department of Environmental Quality. The program engages traditionally disenfranchised communities and helps them understand DEQ programs that could help them access clean water, tax incentives and other initiatives.
HB1266, sponsored by Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, expands the community outreach aspect of the program by including information on cumulative impacts of certain permits, such as air pollution or exposure to contaminants in water.
The Resilient Virginia Revolving Fund was created in 2022 to provide localities means to implement flooding resiliency projects like hazard mitigation, home buyouts, or loans and grants for private property owners to complete mitigation projects.
HB 70, by Del. Michael Feggans, D-Virginia Beach, now encourages the Department of Conservation and Recreation to prioritize low-income areas and projects that utilize nature-based solutions for the grants. The measure also allows third-party organizations and nonprofits to assist localities in accessing the grants.
“We need to be able to have creative ways to have areas that already have ways to reduce flooding and utilize those infrastructures and be able to enhance them,” Feggans said Wednesday.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), otherwise known as forever chemicals, and their presence in wastewater and biosolids spread on Virginia farms as fertilizer were a major talking point for legislators this year.
The governor signed a package of bills that represent the state’s first steps towards testing for the presence of the chemicals, and to set limits on how much can be present in biosolids before it becomes unfit to spread on land, where it could possibly contaminate waterways and crops.
HB 1443, by Del. Lopez, phases in the testing of biosolids for PFOA and PFOS, substances which are under the umbrella of PFAS.
The state doesn’t currently test sewage sludge turned into fertilizer for the chemicals, but that will change under Lopez’s law. Surrounding states have set lower PFAS limits for biosolids – leading to the sludge being shipped to Virginia and raising concerns among agricultural communities.
“I expect in the years to come we will continue to talk about PFAS and how to address the ongoing threat that it poses,” Spanberger said.
Another new law highlighted Wednesday is SB 138 by Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, and Del. Nadarius Clark, D-Suffolk, which requires public wastewater treatment facilities, industrial companies that use PFAS, and airport or fire fighting facilities to test their discharge for the presence of PFAS each quarter.
If such a facility meets certain criteria after a year, they will not have to continue testing for the chemicals. This will help the state’s efforts to identify facilities that may be sending the chemicals into waterways and inform strategies to manage it.
State agencies and localities are waiting for lawmakers to finalize the budget, so they can determine what kind of funding they can expect from the commonwealth’s coffers over the next two years.
The budget has been stalled by debates over whether the state should continue to exempt data centers from sales and use tax. Spanberger acknowledged the impasse at Wednesday’s bill signing, and said settling the spending plan would put localities at ease and shore up critical resiliency priorities.
Budget action is necessary, the governor said, “as it relates specifically to some of these resiliency or infrastructure projects, the real health of our landscape, and the ability of our communities to make investments in projects that aren’t just impactful from a local perspective but are necessary from an economic investment and a tourism perspective,” Spanberger said.
“So I know the budget must move forward and it must move forward quickly.”