Aegis Regulatory Alert- March 2022 - Virginia Regulatory Changes

VA SB250 Nonhazardous solid waste management facilities; increasing annual fees. Permit fees for Virginia’s nonhazardous solid waste management facilities will now be adjusted annually by the change in the United States Consumer Price Index for all items, all urban consumers (CPI-U), as published for the previous year.  CPI-U for the annual period ending Feb 2022 is 7.9% and is projected to continue climbing.  Therefore, annual permit fees for all nonhazardous solid waste management facilities will be increasing to various degrees depending on the type of facility.  Additionally, the new annual assessed fee for all active captive landfills is a flat $32,000 fee (no longer dependent on tons landfilled per year), and surface impoundments are assessed a flat $12,000 permit fee.  The Solid Waste Board shall prescribe the manner and scheduling for fees imposed and may allow for quarterly payment of any such fees. 

VA HB1224 Stormwater management; proprietary best management practices. Where proprietary best management practices (BMPs) were previously only approved for use if another state, regional, or national certification program has verified and certified the BMP’s nutrient or sediment removal effectiveness, the Virginia State Water Control Board is updating its regulations for BMP approval providing the BMP’s effectiveness met or exceeded all of such previously mentioned program’s established test protocol requirements.  The DEQ will review any proprietary BMP (prior to December 31, 2021) that was previously on the Virginia Stormwater BMP Clearinghouse (Virginia Stormwater BMP Clearinghouse (vt.edu)) with submitted documentation verifying the BMP met or exceeded all test requirements for nutrient or sediment removal effectiveness.  Therefore, changes to the approved list of proprietary BMPs may occur pending DEQ review. 

SB 657 Air Pollution Control Board and State Water Control Board; transfer of authority. Effective with the March 2022 legislative session, permit authority has been transferred from Virginia’s citizen-led Air and Water Boards to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).  The boards retain their respective regulatory authority.  This significant administrative change should effectively streamline environmental permitting by directly involving DEQ’s capable technical resources in the process, while re-focusing the influence of often-politicized citizen boards.  With these changes, Virginia businesses can expect uniformity and consistency with the state environmental permitting process.  Virginia was one of only a few states previously granting such permitting authority to citizen boards. 

 Virginia Business Ready Sites Program Fund created.  During its March 2022 session the Virginia legislature established the Virginia Ready Sites Program Fund.  This program replaces the previous Major Employment and Investment Project Site Planning Grant Fund. This new program will review and authorize grants from the Virginia Brownfields Restoration and Economic Redevelopment Assistance Fund for site remediation activities at priority sites with economic benefit potential from redevelopment.  Information about the grant guidelines and the application process can be found at https://www.vedp.org/brownfields.

 For more information, please contact Scott Mortimer at smortimer@aegisenv.com, or call us at 888-675-1220.