Though the previous decades brought a multitude of change to Virginia’s environmental efforts, the 2000s have been a time for refining tactics. DEQ is building on the broad range of progress that has come from successful implementation of regulatory programs. This regulatory foundation is leading to new perspectives as environmentalism morphs into new forms.

 

David Bailey, a former scientist with the water board and now an environmental attorney, has seen the evolution. “You don’t find many industries who deny their obligation to help protect their environment,” he said. “It’s unheard of anymore, but in the late ’70s and early ’80s there were plenty around threatening this, and threatening that.

 

“The enforcement period was a very difficult and challenging time. There were huge controversies within the agency over enforcement, because enforcement was something the agency had never known. I think industry and businesses of all kinds also recognize, in increasing numbers, that Virginia is a good place to be because its environment is being maintained. It’s almost a complete reversal of what we had in the ’70s when people were threatening to leave the state if we made them clean up. Now they come willingly, and they want to be part of the clean state and a clean environment.”

 

The environmental initiatives of the 21st century are designed to achieve that kind of respect for natural resources. For example, in January 2000, Governor Jim Gilmore unveiled the Virginia Naturally initiative in his State of the Commonwealth address. Through this effort, the state committed “beginning with the class of 2005” to provide a meaningful outdoor stream or Chesapeake Bay experience for every student. Virginia Naturally now reaches hundreds of educators and thousands of students each year to help ensure a better understanding of environmental science in primary education.

 

Also in 2000, Virginia’s commitment to the Bay was reinforced with the signing of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement. This renewed compact for restoring the Bay was a pledge by Virginia and the other signatories to achieve more than 100 specific actions. The agreement called on all jurisdictions to improve the Bay’s water quality, restore vital habitats such as underwater grasses, implement harvest levels to keep the Bay’s ecosystem balanced, and implement sound land use planning.

 

In July 2000, the General Assembly authorized DEQ to regulate activities in non-tidal wetlands, helping to ensure no net loss of wetlands and promoting development that minimizes wetland impacts.

 

“I think the wetlands law really changed where Virginia was in terms of wetland protection,” Frank Daniel said, “which up to that point was more in the hands of the Army Corps of Engineers, with [DEQ] just signing waivers. I think the 2000 law was a key piece of legislation. It really set the stage for Virginia having a much larger role in wetland protection today. We had a lot of growing pains associated with that as well, and probably will continue to have some as we work out a different partnership with the Corps.”

 

An unfriendly challenge that culminated in 2002 was one of the worst droughts on record in Virginia. The entire Commonwealth experienced severe to exceptional drought conditions. Several localities came dangerously close to running out of water before the skies opened up and rain fell for an extended period beginning in late 2002.

 

Legislators amended the Code of Virginia in July 2003, enabling local and regional water supply planning. DEQ soon prepared regulations requiring the development of water supply plans for each locality and the development of a state water resources plan. The intent is to place localities, regions and the entire state on a sounder footing for the next drought, to ensure that water needs have been evaluated and can be met.

 

Over time, DEQ has focused increasingly on collaborative efforts, not only in inter-agency activities, but also with communities and organizations around the state. In December 2004, DEQ adopted a formal Community Involvement Policy. The policy committed the agency to working more closely with the public and environmental stakeholders, and helped ensure broader participation in environmental decision-making. The policy supplemented existing Virginia regulations on the public participation requirements of DEQ activities, and it also specified a minimum level of participation in regulatory decisions.

 

W. Shelton Miles, who became chairman of the State Water Control Board in 2006, has noted “concerted efforts to help the public be more constructively involved. It can be like alphabet soup when you look at all the acronyms, and the public didn’t know who to go to or who would help.

 

“There is a desire now to help the public, which is tremendous, really important,” Miles said. “The public is an important part of this process. DEQ has developed a real ethos that they are serving clients and they are serving the public, and ultimately, serving the environment.”

 

DEQ also has continued to encourage businesses and industry to develop improved environmental practices. The Virginia Environmental Excellence Program was established by law July 1, 2005, to recognize companies and government agencies for developing environmental management systems and voluntarily taking actions that go beyond regulatory requirements to reduce pollution. Various levels of excellence enable participants to be classified an environmental enterprise, an exemplary environmental enterprise or an extraordinary environmental enterprise.

 

Since the time of the first Bay agreement in 1983, nutrient pollution had been recognized as one of the most serious problems affecting the Bay’s health. Governor Gerald L. Baliles, widely recognized as a leading force in bringing the need for action on the Bay to the forefront, helped lay the groundwork for Virginia’s efforts after the 1987 Bay agreement. DEQ and other agencies—as well as the other Bay states—spent much of the 1990s developing tributary-specific strategies to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients entering the Bay and its rivers.

 

But serious challenges remained, from funding to science to government policies. A consensus emerged that nutrient reduction efforts were moving too slowly. This led DEQ to a two-pronged approach: one set of regulations to set specific nutrient limits in the discharge permit of each wastewater treatment plant that had a significant effect on Bay watershed water quality, and another set of regulations to cap the total amount of nutrients allowed to enter each watershed from point sources.

 

In December 2005, regulations took effect limiting the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that large wastewater treatment plants could discharge to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. This marked the first time that nitrogen discharges were regulated in Virginia. It was one of the final regulatory actions advanced by Governor Mark R. Warner before he left office.

 

Carol Wampler, former chair of the water board, helped guide these regulations through the sometimes arduous development process. “During my time on the board,” she recalled, “lo and behold, we had a meeting where nobody agreed on anything. As chairman, I felt totally frustrated and disappointed [that we were not taking advantage of] the way DEQ had tried to be a problem solver, and the way Secretary Tayloe Murphy had made it a high priority to get things worked out from every aspect.

 

“I was horrified at the thought we might not succeed. Much to the credit of all those within my committee, they were willing to do what it took. Well, as it turned out, we were able to approve a portion, and by the time we got to the third meeting it was like a love fest and we were all ready to celebrate. Even EPA had done its part on time and accurately. It was pretty wonderful.”

 

On January 1, 2007, the nutrient reduction plan went a step farther with DEQ’s implementation of one of the country’s first nutrient credit exchange programs. The trade program allows for the transfer of “credits” among existing wastewater treatment facilities to meet their required nutrient limits and the nutrient cap established for each watershed. Facilities that reduce nitrogen and phosphorus below their limits may sell these credits to other facilities.

 

The work of protecting Virginia’s environment goes on. The Commonwealth clearly has met many of the environmental challenges of the past several decades, and just as clearly, other challenges remain. As knowledge increases about how people can live as a part of the environment without harming it, some of those remaining challenges may diminish. But the vigilance of all Virginians will be essential. Virginia’s dedication to environmental protection rests on a solid foundation, and the future will continue to bring success.