The Commonwealth of Virginia's 1998 Bay Program Highlights
Chesapeake Bay Programwowe I seauch i comments
THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA'S
1998 BAY PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
INTRODUCTION
With Governor Gilmore's commitment to improve water quality, unprecedented funding and continuing
efforts to develop tributary strategies, 1998 has been a banner year in Virginia's cooperative efforts as
part of the Chesapeake Bay Program, to improve the water quality and living resource habitats of the
Chesapeake Bay and its lower tributaries. Here is a brief listing of 1997-98 successes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Water Quality Improvement Act of 1997
The driving force behind creating the WQIA and Water Quality Improvement Funds is Virginia's
commitment to reach the CBP goal of a 40% reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus entering the Bay from
1985 levels during the year 2000. Currently much of the funding created through the WQIA is used to
implement the Shenandoah-Potomac Nutrient Reduction Tributary Strategy completed by the state in
1996. While Virginia's commitment to the Bay was the impetus for the WQIA, it is a statewide program
that provides funds to reduce point and nonpoint sources of nutrient enrichment.
In 1997, $15 million was committed to the WQIA with $10 million directed to point sources and $5
million to nonpoint sources. In the 1999-2000 biennium budget, Governor Gilmore and the General
Assembly appropriated $53.85 in WQIA funding, allocating $37.1 million for point sources and $16.75
million for nonpoint sources. The following represent recent accomplishments made under the WQIA.
•	In December 1997, the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) issuedl6 water quality
improvement project grants totaling $1,037,458 in WQIF funds. These projects ranged from
septic tank pump out cost-share to experimental projects using the enzyme Phytase to reduce
phosphorusin poultry and hog waste. Special projects for 1998 are now being considered, with 61
projects vying for $2.35 million in Virginia's Bay basin. In 1997 a total of $1.5 million was
directed to the Agricultural Cost- Share Program. This year, $5.2 million was made available to
Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) for cost-share in the Bay basin.
•	Outside the Chesapeake Bay basin, in 1997 DCR funded $1 million in agricultural cost-share and
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The Commonwealth of Virginia's 1998 Bay Program Highlights
$1,527,975 for 18 different water quality projects across the state. This year, $500,000 is available
for Virginia cost-share outside the Bay basin and 13 projects are being considered for $1.5 million
in special project funding.
•	Using $10 million in WQIA funds as the initial cost-share, the Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) signed eleven grant agreements for point source WQIF funding, totaling
$50,054,461. These projects will achieve about three quarters of the Strategy's point source
nitrogen reduction goal.
•	The Chesapeake Local Assistance Department (CBLAD) provided four staff to support, among
other things, the implementation of the WQIA grants through the management of eight grants
totaling $467,479.
•	DEQ is negotiating to purchase additional nutrient reduction from the Blue Plains facility in the
District of Columbia pursuant to authorization contained in the budget legislation. Increased
removals at Blue Plains, made possible by this contractual agreement, will enhance Virginia's
chance of meeting the 40% nutrient reduction goal. Point source reductions from 1985 to 1997 ~
nitrogen (-4%) and phosphorus (-38%), despite a 28 percent increase in wastewater flow ~
illustrate the progress being made.
•	DCR provided more than $500,000 to SWCDs to hire twelve additional technical assistance staff.
They will work with farmers in the design and installation of hundreds of best management
practices (BMPs). In addition, four new practices have been added to the BMP cost-share program
to provide farmers with added motivation to obtain and implement a nutrient management plan.
•	In recognizing nutrient management planning as a significant means to reduce nonpoint nutrient
loading, DCR has taken three steps to make it more available to farmers: establishing soil testing
as a cost-share BMP, paying certified nutrient management planners by the acre to write plans for
Shenandoah-Potomac farmers, and providing cost-share for split application of nitrogen to corn
and small grains.
Development of Virginia's Lower Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategies
Staff from Virginia's natural resource agencies worked closely with local governments and other
stakeholders in the watershed to develop the Shenandoah-Potomac Tributary Strategy. This very public
process has served as the model in developing strategies for the Rappahannock, York, and James rivers
and the Bayside tributaries on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The strategies for the lower tributaries differ from the Shenandoah-Potomac's in that predetermined
nutrient reduction goals did not exist. Thus, part of developing the strategies involves working with CBP
modeling data and local stakeholders to develop nutrient reduction goals.
Interim strategies for the York and James were finalized in July. Using the recently upgraded Chesapeake
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The Commonwealth of Virginia's 1998 Bay Program Highlights
Bay Water Quality Model, the tributary teams are working to develop goals and complete all four
strategies in early 1999.
Significant reductions in nutrient loadings to Virginia's lower tributary basins have been achieved even
while strategy development proceeds. The most recently available data show that since 1985 nitrogen has
been reduced by approximately 15 percent and that phosphorus has been reduced by approximately 40
percent in these lower Bay tributaries.
The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act
Those implementing Virginia's first state land use management program, the Chesapeake Bay
Preservation Act ("Bay Act"), continue to work with Tidewater Virginia localities, soil and water
conservation districts (SWCD),and planning district commissions (PDC) to protect the water quality of
the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries by managing impacts from the use and development of land. The
goal of the Bay Act is to achieve a no-net increase in nonpoint source pollution. Eighty-four units of
local government, with land draining to the Chesapeake Bay, are subject to the provisions of the Bay Act.
During 1998 the following was accomplished:
•	Fifteen additional local government comprehensive plans were reviewed for compliance with the
Bay Act. All 84 local governments now have ordinances incorporating Bay Act requirements into
local law, and 57 have had comprehensive plans that provide protection to environmentally
sensitive areas reviewed by the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department (CBLAD.)
•	In fiscal year 1998, CBLAD began evaluating local government implementation of water quality
performance standards through the investigation of complaints. Over 140 complaints have been
reviewed.
•	In fiscal years 1997 and 1998, CBLAD provided 36 grants totaling $896,233 to local governments
and PDCs within Virginia's lower tributary basins and an additional $269,280 to local
governments and PDCs within the Shenandoah-Potomac Tributary basins for land use and water
quality planning projects.
•	During 1998, CBLAD commented upon approximately 70 state agency and local site plans,
assuring compliance with the Bay Act.
•	In FY 1998, CBLAD provided $395,000 in grants to 11 Tidewater Virginia SWCDs. This
resulted in bringing over 33,800 acres of farmland under conservation plans and added an
additional 71 miles of buffer areas to Virginia's waterways.
Virginia Pollution Prevention Efforts
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The Commonwealth of Virginia's 1998 Bay Program Highlights
In 1998, Governor Gilmore reorganized the central office of the Departmentof Environmental Quality
and created the Office of Pollution Prevention(OPP), which provides a number of outreach services,
ranging from broad informational materials such as the program newsletter to industry-specific
workshops to pollution prevention opportunity assessments at individual facilities. Participation in the
program is voluntary and includes businesses, industry, government agencies and individuals.
The program also has a number of pollution prevention initiatives underway, including promoting
"Businesses for the Bay", integrating pollution prevention into DEQ's environmental programs,
implementing the Tangier Island consumer pollution prevention project, developing the Virginia
Environmental Services Network, providing grants to businesses and local governments, and seeking
partnerships with other organizations. With 155 participants to date in the Businesses for the Bay
program and the highest level of participation among the Bay states, Virginia is leading by example in
this innovative means to help protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay.
Virginia's Citizen Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Initiative
In 1998, DCR and DEQ formalized an initiative that will benefit citizens ~ and streams ~ across the
Commonwealth, by extending the network that collects data on water quality. In separate ceremonies the
directors of DCR and DEQ signed agreements with Virginia SOS ("Save Our Streams"), a project of the
Izaak Walton League of America, to harness citizen commitment to local water quality, and provide the
tools to allow them to work as a team. These agreements mark the first time Virginia has sought to
develop consistent standards for citizen water quality monitoring. The result will be a wealth of reliable,
usable data statewide.
Other Accomplishments That Benefit Virginia Waterways and the ChesapeakeBay
The Agricultural BMP Tax Credit is a statewide incentive that gives farmers a monetary break for
voluntarily using Best Management Practices (BMPs) on their farmland. The tax credit, to be claimed
when preparing 1998 state income tax forms, is 25 percent of BMP installation costs. For every $1,000
spent on conservation practices, a farmer can claim a $250 tax credit. The maximum credit an individual
can receive in a tax year is $17,500. In many cases, the tax credit can be used on BMPs installed using
cost-share. So, a farmer can install a BMP with the state paying 75 percent of the cost through cost-share
and then get a tax credit for the 25 percent that he invested, resulting in the farmer paying just over 10
percent of the actual cost.
The Adopt-A-Stream Program is another Gilmore Administration supported water quality initiative to
come out of the 1998 Virginia General Assembly. The legislation introduced by Virginia Delegate
Harvey B. Morgan was a recommendation of the Governor's Commission on Environmental Stewardship
chaired by then-Attorney General Jim Gilmore. DCR, working with an advisory group made up of
interested citizens and representatives from leading water quality groups, has developed a program
manual and has started to accept stream adoptions from groups across the state.
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The Commonwealth of Virginia's 1998 Bay Program Highlights
On July 22, 1997, a ground-breaking ceremony was held in Richmond for the Bosher's Dam Fish
Passage. Bosher's Dam is the last of five dams on the James River in Richmond to be breached. Once
completed, the vertical slat fish passage will open over 137 miles of James River and 168 miles of
tributaries between Richmond and Lynchburg to spawning shad and river herring. It is estimated that
this project in concert with water quality improvements, fishing restrictions and restocking will not only
restore species populations, but will also result in commercial and recreational fisheries valued at $5
million - $7 million per year. This project is the result of partnerships between state and local
governments, foundations, corporations, and fishing, hunting, and conservation organizations.
Four new Oyster Reef Broodstock Areas were constructed in June and July 1997 in the Coan, Yecomico
and Lynnhaven rivers and in the Pungoteague Creek on Virginia's Eastern Shore. With these new reefs,
the number of reefs constructed in Virginia since 1993 increases to thirteen. In addition, an artificial reef
permit has been obtained for a new near-shore reef at Chincoteague, off Virginia's Eastern Shore, and
additional permits have been submitted to establish new reefs in Hampton Roads and in the Chesapeake
Bay near Cape Charles and Nassawadox.
As part of the American Shad Restoration Program, the Commonwealth of Virginia annually stocks 5 to
7 million shad in the James and Pamunkey rivers. This is accomplished with the help of 12 commercial
fishermen who have participated in the program since 1995. In 1997, the results of the first stockings
were realized with the return of hatchery issued adult shad in the Pamunkey. In addition, the Pamunkey
Indian Tribe has operated a shad hatchery on the Pamunkey River since 1918. On April 13, 1998,
renovations to this hatchery, made possible through a CBP grant in partnership with the Virginia
Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, were dedicated.
CONCLUSION
The Commonwealth of Virginia and its citizens have achieved significant progress in meeting our shared
commitment to reduce nutrient loadings to the Chesapeake Bay through development and
implementation of the Shenandoah-Potomac strategy, and are now following that same tested approach
in developing final strategies for the lower tributaries. In addition, much progress has been made in other
areas of improving the water quality and living resource habitat of Virginia's waterways through the
cooperative efforts of state and local government, industry, farmers and citizen conservation groups.
Governor Gilmore and the Commonwealth are committed to continuing in this spirit of cooperation as
we move forward with the many programs and initiatives highlighted here today on behalf of a cleaner,
healthier and more resilient Chesapeake Bay system.
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For more information, contact the Chesapeake Bay Program Office, 410 Severn Avenue, Suite 109, Annapolis, MD 21403,
Tel: (800) YOUR-BAY, Fax: (410) 267-5777.
Last modified 12/15/98.
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