Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Special Session of the VA Legislature

Within hours of returning to Richmond for a special session, the General Assembly budget committees adopted the Governor’s plan to spend $3.5 billion in Federal Covid-19 emergency aid. Below are the plans for investment in water and water infrastructure from a Virginia Press Release last week.

According to that plan Governor Ralph Northam announced that Virginia plans to allocate $411.5 million of the $4.3 Billion that Virginia received in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to reduce water pollution and increase access to clean water across the Commonwealth.

The proposal includes $186.5 million for improving wastewater treatment and nutrient removal at wastewater treatment plants, $125 million to reduce combined sewer overflows funding projects in Richmond, Alexandria, and Lynchburg, and $100 million to assist water systems in small and disadvantaged communities.

These announced investments in water infrastructure are in addition to the more than $300 million in ARP funding that the Commonwealth sent to towns in June and $2.3 billion made available to Virginia’s 133 counties and cities directly from the federal government to meet local response and recovery needs, which include improving access to clean drinking water and to supporting vital wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. These projects are being funded by the national debt instead of the local rate payers needing to fund maintenance and improvement of their utilities. Virginia long ago abandoned "pay as you go."

“Protecting the environment, and particularly providing for sanitary disposal of wastewater, is critical to public health and the economy,” said Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources Matthew J. Strickler. “These investments will put us even closer to restoring the Chesapeake Bay, and will clean up streams and improve septic and sewer systems across the Commonwealth.” Rural and semi-rural residents should look for funding to septic upgrades becoming available. 

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