VA Register of Regulations
Will be published 10/26/2009 Volume 26 Issue 4 (not currently out)
MAIL WRITTEN COMMENTS TO: The Regulatory Coordinator, VA DCR 203 Governor Street, Suite 302, Richmond VA 23219 fax 804-786-6141; e-mail coordinator at reqcord@dcr.virginia.gov between Oct 26-Nov 25 SNAIL MAIL RECEIVED BY NOON. Office of the Governor, Patrick Henry Building 3d Fl, 1111 E Broad St, Richmond, VA 23219
Dear Governor Kaine,
DCR/Dir Joseph Maroon, Chair/SWCB Campbell
Comments by VA Chapter Water Quality Chair, David Bernard:
The runoff from development, both during and after construction, is a major source of water pollution. By September 2008 an advisory panel to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) that included environmental scientists and development engineers had drawn up new regulations that would have eliminated much of the nutrient and toxic pollution that comes off development. The destruction caused by high volumes of stormwater would have been ameliorated. The higher standards would not have been cost-prohibitive by any means.
In the weeks before submitting these regulations to SWCB for final approval, DCR recommended a number of changes, all of which seriously weakened the new rules. These changes include:
- Allowing higher phosphorus runoff in non-Chesapeake watersheds, despite the nutrient pollution problem in Albemarle Sound and the Gulf of Mexico.
- Raising the threshold for regulated lands from 2500 square feet to an acre.
- Allowing Urban Development Areas (UDA, a planned high density development) in the Chesapeake watershed to establish a weaker phosphorus runoff standard.
- Allowing a higher rate of runoff into an “unstable channel” (a streambed that had already suffered from urban stormwater runoff,) and exempting smaller parcels of land from the volume restriction altogether.
- A “grandfather” clause that allows developments permitted by 2010 to be built according to the old rules, even if construction is not completed until 2019.
Runoff from development is the fastest growing new source of water pollution in Virginia. Despite this, the SWCB accepted all of these recommendations. The developers win, Virginia’s water loses.
In the Summary of Public Comment 28 Sep 2009 the SWCB indicates, “During the 60-day public comment period that ran from June 22, 2009 to August 21, 2009, 3,421 comments were received on the two stormwater regulatory actions (Parts I, II, III and Part XIII). The comments included those received during the five public hearings held around the state, those submitted on Virginia’s Regulatory Town Hall website, and those directly provided to the Department of Conservation and Recreation on behalf of the Board. A majority of the comments received were supportive of the proposed regulations.”
We ask that the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board GO BACK to the original proposed regulatory actions and reinstate stricter guidelines in support of our waters.
Sincerely,
PDF: VSWCB Summary of Public Comment and Response
PDF: Tributary Strategy - W. Tayloe Murhpy
PDF: CBF Challenges Increase in Shenandoah-Potomac Pollution
LINK: Complete File Set of Tributary Strategies - www.naturalresources.virginia.gov/Initiatives/WaterQuality
Falls of the James Group, Sierra Club
PO Box 25201
Richmond, VA 23260
Virginia State Water Control Board, Mr Joseph Maroon, DCR Director christine.watlington@dcr.virginia.gov; joseph.maroon@dcr.virginia.gov ChrisFrench Alliance Chesapeake Bay; Chuck Epes Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Greg Velzy; Michael.Fletcher@dcr.virginia.gov; Robert.Steidel@richmondgov.com
From: John Zeugner, Chair, Falls of the James Group, Sierra Club
Date: 18 August 2009
RE: Review Comments & Support, DCR Proposed Stormwater Regulations
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on DCR’s proposed Stormwater Regulations. I am officially representing our 1,850 Sierra Club members in the greater Richmond region.
We attended the Stormwater Regs Public Hearing held in Richmond in July and offered oral testimony then.
We strongly support these regulations and are opposed to ANY weakening or dilution. They must be implemented as soon as is practical (July1, 2010) and local governments and the private sector must be held to following the letter of the law. The health of our streams, rivers, and the Ches Bay watershed is vitally dependent on better management and controls over water quality and quantity, plus the components of the regs promoting groundwater recharge are critical to the sustainability of the Commonwealth, for adequate drinking water and agriculture.
Tyla Matteson - York River Group
If I could zoom out for a moment, I’d like to consider the big picture - human settlements in the Bay watersheds, impervious surfaces and point and non-point sources (run-off), climate change, warming and weather. As our planet warms, the Bay heats up, stressing it’s biota further and expanding its "dead zone". Sea level rise will create net losses of wetlands, and weather extremes add to total Bay system distress -- larger peak-storms accelerate erosion and sedimentation, and drought leads to more algae blooms and concentrates most other water-borne toxins.
With environmental factors getting worse, and development in the bay watershed growing unimpeded, it is imperative to pass DCR’s proposed Stormwater Regulations, and concurrently tighten up on other state and local programs: land disturbance permits and low impact development regs, better Erosion & Sedimentation Control; better regulations for agricultural and forestry operations; better wetlands, CBPAs, and riparian buffer protection; and follow (and adopt) smart growth principles.
Developers and local governments may whine and contend these regs will be ruinous, but we believe that a weakening of these regs, and/or delays, will bring about the quick and catastrophic demise of the Chesapeake Bay, thus severely crippling Virginia’s economy, degrading our health and well-being, and condemning future generations to an impoverished quality of life.
Please pass these DCR Stormwater Regulations as proposed, without weakening or delay.
Contact info: John J Zeugner AICP
6408 Roselawn Rd, Richmond, VA 23226
804-288-5005 jjzeugner@comcast.net
CC CBF, ACB, JRA, HJRSAC, City of Richmond
PDF: CBF and JRA promote new Stormwater Regulations
