Governor Kaine Announces Progress in Bay Cleanup Efforts

Press Release

Governor Kaine Announces Progress in Bay Cleanup Efforts

- Virginia expects to meet Bay nutrient reduction goals for wastewater by end of 2010 -

Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced Virginia's largest wastewater treatment facilities and industries within the Chesapeake Bay watershed expect to meet their nutrient reduction goals by the end of 2010. Facilities will reduce the amount of nutrients in wastewater by participating in Virginia's nutrient trading program and installing pollution control technology.

Nutrient reduction goals will be met through a combination of aggressive state cost-share funding, innovative legislative tools and efficient local government planning.

"This will be a huge step forward for Virginians and the Chesapeake Bay," Governor Kaine said. "I am pleased that industry and state and local government officials have worked together to meet this important commitment. We have made a significant investment to protect the Bay, we have spent the money wisely and we are accomplishing what we set out to do."

The goal of nutrient reduction is to improve water quality to support plants and animals throughout the Bay and its tidal tributaries by meeting and maintaining water quality standards. This requires a combined effort to reduce point source - or discharge points from wastewater treatment plants and industry - and nonpoint sources of nutrients and sediment.

Facilities will reduce the amount of nutrients in wastewater by participating in Virginia's nutrient trading program. Nutrient trading allows for the transfer of "credits" among existing facilities to meet their required nutrient limits and is anticipated to save the Commonwealth and the localities up to $200 million.

Trading will also reduce the costs of upgrading pollution control technology, which are estimated at about $1.4 billion to install by the end of 2010. Wastewater treatment plant improvements installed before 2011 are expected to reduce the annual amount of nutrients discharged by about 8 million pounds of nitrogen and 1 million pounds of phosphorus, as compared with 1998.

"The nutrient trading program is one of the most comprehensive efforts ever conducted in Virginia to reduce nutrient pollution," Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant Jr. said. "It also will strengthen an important partnership between wastewater facilities and agricultural producers that will lead to nutrient reductions from several sources."

"We recognize that meeting the 2010 deadline is a significant challenge," Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Director David K. Paylor said. "The municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities have answered the call to reduce nutrient pollution in Virginia's watersheds, and the result certainly will be a healthier Bay."

DEQ oversees point sources to ensure that wastewater treatment plants and industry meet specific limits on the amount of nutrients entering each Bay tributary, including reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Bay watershed. DEQ expects that the scheduled deadline of December 31, 2010 will be met based on plans developed by these facilities.

"The Chesapeake Bay Foundation applauds Governor Kaine and the General Assembly for their commitment and leadership in funding pollution reductions from local sewage treatment plants to meet 2010 Bay cleanup goals," said Ann F. Jennings, Virginia Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "CBF looks forward to working with the Kaine administration and the legislature to continue this positive momentum to fully restore Virginia rivers and the Chesapeake Bay."

"The treatment facilities from local government and industry, as members of the Virginia Nutrient Credit Exchange Association, are showing their combined commitment to a cleaner Bay by joining in partnership and helping conserve state grant monies while improving water quality by making the needed plant improvement to remove nutrients. It's been a real team effort, between the Virginia Association of Municipal Wastewater Agencies and DEQ," said Mark Haley, President of the Exchange Association and Director of the Hopewell Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility.

In addition to nutrient trading, facilities will reduce the amount of nutrients in wastewater by installing pollution control technology. The Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF) provides grants to assist localities with plant improvement construction costs. The Fund's point source program has received a total of $380 million for grants since its inception in 1997, which includes about $205 million proposed by Governor Kaine and former Governor Mark R. Warner, and which the General Assembly supported, for wastewater treatment projects in the current biennium.

The WQIF provides grants ranging from 35 percent to 75 percent, depending on need, for designing and installing nutrient reduction technology at publicly owned wastewater plants. The fund also will sell credits from nutrient reductions to facilities that cannot find trading partners.

Lawmakers and Governor Kaine authorized issuance of an additional $250 million in bonds to support technology upgrades after July 1, 2008. In addition, the Virginia Resources Authority complemented these initiatives by issuing more than $240 million in bonds this year for upgrades to 10 facilities in the Bay watershed.

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