Bill Text: VA SB708 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Nutrient Offset Fund; established.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2010-03-14 - House: Left in Appropriations [SB708 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2010-SB708-Introduced.html
10104190D Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia: 1. That §§62.1-44.19:15 and 62.1-44.19:18 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 10.1-2128.2 as follows: §10.1-2128.2. Nutrient Offset Fund established; purposes. A. There is hereby created in the state treasury a special nonreverting fund to be known as the Nutrient Offset Fund, hereafter referred to as "the Subfund," which shall be a subfund of the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund and administered by the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. The Subfund shall be established on the books of the Comptroller. All amounts appropriated and such other moneys as may be made available to the Subfund from any other source, public or private, shall be paid into the state treasury and credited to the Subfund. Interest earned on moneys in the Subfund shall remain in the Subfund and be credited to it. Any moneys remaining in the Subfund, including interest thereon, at the end of each fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund but shall remain in the Subfund. Moneys in the Subfund shall be used solely for the purposes stated in subsection B. Expenditures and disbursements from the Subfund shall be made by the State Treasurer on warrants issued by the Comptroller upon written request of the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. B. The Director of the Department of Environmental Quality shall use moneys in the Subfund only to purchase nutrient offsets. The Director of the Department of Environmental Quality may enter into long-term contracts with producers of nutrient offsets to purchase such offsets using moneys from the Subfund. Priority shall be given to nutrient offsets produced from facilities that generate electricity from animal waste. C. The Director of the Department of Environmental Quality shall make nutrient offsets purchased pursuant to subsection B available for sale to owners or operators of new or expanded facilities required to offset nutrient loads pursuant to subsection A of § 62.1-44.19:15 through the watershed general permit at the price established pursuant to subsection C of §62.1-44.19:15. D. For the purposes of this section, "nutrient offset" means nutrient reductions certified by the Department of Environmental Quality as nutrient offsets under the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Nutrient Credit Exchange Program (§62.1-44.19:12 et seq.). §62.1-44.19:15. New or expanded facilities. A. An owner or operator of a new or expanded facility shall comply with the applicable requirements of this section as a condition of the facility's coverage under the general permit. 1. An owner or operator of a facility authorized by a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit first issued before July 1, 2005, that expands his facility to discharge 100,000 gallons or more per day, or an equivalent load directly into tidal waters, or 500,000 gallons or more per day, or an equivalent load, directly into nontidal waters shall demonstrate to the Department that he has acquired waste load allocations sufficient to offset any increase in his delivered total nitrogen and delivered total phosphorus loads resulting from any expansion beyond his waste load allocations or permitted design capacity as of July 1, 2005, and will install state-of-the-art nutrient removal technology at the time of the expansion. 2. An owner or operator of a facility authorized by a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit first issued before July 1, 2005, that expands his facility to discharge 100,000 gallons or more per day up to and including 499,999 gallons per day, or an equivalent load, directly into nontidal waters, shall demonstrate to the Department that he has acquired waste load allocations sufficient to offset any increase in his delivered total nitrogen and delivered total phosphorus loads resulting from any expansion beyond his permitted capacity as of July 1, 2005, and will install, at a minimum, biological nutrient removal technology at the time of the expansion. 3. An owner or operator of a facility authorized by a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit first issued before July 1, 2005, that expands his facility to discharge 40,000 gallons or more per day up to and including 99,999 gallons per day, or an equivalent load, directly into tidal or nontidal waters, shall demonstrate to the Department that he has acquired waste load allocations sufficient to offset any increase in his delivered total nitrogen and delivered total phosphorus loads resulting from any expansion beyond his permitted capacity as of July 1, 2005. 4. An owner or operator of a facility authorized by a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit first issued on or after July 1, 2005, to discharge 40,000 gallons or more per day, or an equivalent load, shall demonstrate to the Department that he has acquired waste load allocations sufficient to offset his delivered total nitrogen and delivered total phosphorus loads, and will install (i) at a minimum, biological nutrient removal technology at any facility authorized to discharge up to and including 99,999 gallons per day, or an equivalent load, directly into tidal and nontidal waters, or up to and including 499,999 gallons per day, or an equivalent load, to nontidal waters; and (ii) state-of-the-art nutrient removal technology at any facility authorized to discharge 100,000 gallons or more per day, or an equivalent load, directly into tidal waters, or 500,000 gallons or more per day, or an equivalent load, directly into nontidal waters. B. Waste load allocations required by this section to offset new or increased delivered total nitrogen and delivered total phosphorus loads shall be acquired in accordance with this subsection. 1. Such allocations may be acquired from one or a combination of the following: a. Acquisition of all or a portion of the waste load allocations from one or more permitted facilities in the same tributary; b. Acquisition of nonpoint source load allocations through the
use of best management practices acquired through a public or private entity
acting on behalf of the land owner. Such best management practices shall
achieve reductions beyond those already required by or funded under federal or
state law, or the Virginia tributaries strategies plans, and shall be installed
in the same tributary in which the new or expanded facility is located and
included as conditions of the facility's individual Virginia Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System permit; c. Acquisition of allocations purchased through the Nutrient Offset Fund established pursuant to §10.1-2128.2; or d. Acquisition
of allocations 2. The Board shall give priority to allocations acquired in
accordance with subdivisions 3. Notwithstanding the priority provisions in subdivision C. Until such time as the §62.1-44.19:18. Nutrient allocation compliance and reporting. A. Each permitted facility shall be in compliance with its
individual waste load allocations if: (i) its annual mass load is less than the
applicable waste load allocation assigned to the facility in the general
permit; (ii) the permitted facility acquires sufficient point source nitrogen
or phosphorus credits in accordance with subdivision 1. A permittee may acquire point source nitrogen or phosphorus credits from one or more permitted facilities only if (i) the credits are generated and applied to a compliance obligation in the same calendar year, (ii) the credits are generated by one or more permitted facilities in the same tributary, (iii) the credits are acquired no later than June 1 immediately following the calendar year in which the credits are applied, and (iv) no later than June 1 immediately following the calendar year in which the credits are applied, the permittee certifies on a form supplied by the Department that he has acquired sufficient credits to satisfy his compliance obligations. 2. A permittee may acquire nitrogen or phosphorus credits
through payments made into the B. Until such time as the C. On or before February 1, annually, each permittee shall either individually or through the Association file a report with the Department. The report shall identify (i) the annual mass load of total nitrogen and the annual mass load of total phosphorus discharged by each permitted facility during the previous calendar year, (ii) the delivered total nitrogen load and delivered total phosphorus load discharged by each permitted facility during the previous year, and (iii) the number of total nitrogen and total phosphorus credits for the previous calendar year to be purchased or sold by the permittee. The report shall contain the certification required by federal and state law and be signed by each permittee for each of the permittee's facilities covered by the general permit. D. On or before April 1, annually, the Department shall prepare a report containing the annual mass load of total nitrogen and annual mass load of total phosphorus discharged by each permitted facility, the number of point source nitrogen and phosphorus credits for the previous calendar year for sale or purchase by each such facility, and to the extent there are insufficient point source credits available for exchange to provide for full compliance by every permittee, the number of credits to be purchased pursuant to this section. Upon completion of the report, the Department shall promptly publish notice of the report and make the report available to any person requesting it. E. On or before July 1, annually, the Department shall publish notice of all nitrogen and phosphorus credit exchanges and purchases for the previous calendar year and make all documents relating to the exchanges and purchases available to any person requesting them. |