Gov. Glenn Youngkin is meeting with governors from other Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement member states Tuesday to recommit to Bay cleanup goals. The initial deadline for those goals is 2025 — and not all of them will be met.
The Republican issued an executive directive to review the state’s Bay agreement-related water programs last week. His announcement noted the progress Virginia has made with its pollution controls: 100% of its goal for sediment reduction, 80% for nitrogen and 62% for phosphorus. Those pollutants harm wildlife and living resources by restricting sunlight and oxygen in the water.
Jay Ford, of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said Youngkin’s directive sets a framework to evaluate Bay agreement-related programs that reduce pollution from agriculture, wastewater plants and more.
“It will help us ensure that the practices we're paying for are doing what we want them to do,” Ford said.
Tuesday’s meeting begins the yearlong “Phase II” of agreement review to determine progress on existing goals — and if they need to be adjusted — new data sources, the impacts of climate change and when the next deadline should be.
“This is a refinement process right now, but we want to make sure that what we're putting down for Phase II reflects what the science is telling us,” Ford said.
In a statement, Youngkin said Virginia is committed to continuing its efforts to protect the Bay.
The executive directive lays out four goals:
- take a leadership role in amending the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement and determine how the agreement provides value to the commonwealth’s water quality goals and legislative mandates;
- re-evaluate investments in the Bay to identify overlaps and gaps within existing funding mechanisms, including a review of the previous 10 years of expenditures and revenues for water quality funds;
- develop streamlined guidance for available agriculture and forestry conservation resources, and identify best management practices being implemented but not recorded;
- launch strategic initiatives to protect living resources, including creating a Statewide Wetlands Technical Team, establishing a Blue Ribbon Oyster Panel and creating a comprehensive management framework for blue crabs
Travis Voyles, state secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, said in an interview that the reviews are about finding places where existing funding is falling short or overlapping with other efforts.
“We’re not talking about reductions in funding, we’re talking about how do we ensure that existing funding is accomplishing what it should and that it is going towards the most effective use,” Voyles said.
He noted that the first goal included in the directive is tied to the Bay agreement’s Phase II and is intended to be wrapped up in a year. The next three goals can be seen as longer-term commitments.
In turn, state legislators are already looking at adding cost effectiveness measures to programs like the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund. One proposal discussed Monday at the State Water Commission would require localities requesting funds to detail the expected cost per pound of a pollutant removed over a project’s lifetime.
The proposal indicates the applications “shall include the total lifecycle capital and operating costs per pound of pollutant removed.”
During Monday’s stormwater meeting, Del. David Bulova (D–Fairfax) said the amendment could create unnecessary work for applicants. He also pointed out that the grants only cover setup costs for the projects — meaning the lifecycle costs are paid by localities.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality already has data to project lifecycle costs of such projects, Bulova said.
“I hate to do it on the fly and add extra work for localities that are really struggling,” he said, adding that he’d like to sit back and let the executive directive’s review process unfold.
The executive directive and the programs being reviewed will be discussed during the upcoming General Assembly session. However, Voyles said the directive was written to be accomplished with existing state resources. In other words, it might not need GA approval for new funding.
Youngkin is set to meet with other members of the Bay agreement executive council on Tuesday.
