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Drought Response Technical Advisory Committee

Purpose

In December 2002, Governor Warner signed Executive Order #39 establishing the Virginia Water Supply Initiative. A component of this initiative is the development of a drought response plan. Executive Order #39 requires the Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources to prepare a draft drought response plan by April 1, 2003. The Drought Response Technical Advisory Committee was established to assist the deputy secretary in the development of this plan.

Mission

With assistance from the Drought Monitoring Task Force, the Drought Response Technical Advisory Committee is to provide input regarding the development of a drought response plan for the Commonwealth. The plan must contain an objective system to monitor drought conditions across the Commonwealth, establish threshold drought levels that require response at the state/local level, and establish appropriate actions required at each defined drought threshold level.

The focus of the committee is to identify:

1) An appropriate drought monitoring system.
2) Appropriate drought trigger levels for governmental response.
3) Appropriate water conservation requirements.
4) Final recommendations for a draft drought response plan.

Meeting schedule

Meetings of the committee will be held at the Department of Environmental Quality's Piedmont Regional Office in the Training Room from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Directions to the regional office are available on the DEQ web site.

Meeting #1 - February 13, 2003, draft summary
Meeting #2 - February 27, 2003, draft summary
Meeting #3 - March 13, 2003, draft summary
Meeting #4 - March 27, 2003 (no meeting held)

Drought response

• Drought assessment and response plan, March 28, 2003
• Transmittal letter for draft drought assessment and response plan, March 28, 2003

Committee members