Summary
Meets at: Tuesday, 1/2 hour after adjournment, Senate Room A, Pocahontas Building
Members: Chap Petersen (Chair) – Barbara Favola – Emmett Hanger – Ghazala Hashmi – Lynwood Lewis – Dave Marsden – Monty Mason – Jennifer McClellan – Joe Morrissey – Mark Obenshain – Todd Pillion – Frank Ruff –Bill Stanley – Richard Stuart – Dave Suetterlein
(8 Democrats and 7 Republicans)
Subcommittees:
- Companion Animals
- Hemp
- Menhaden
News
Virginia Legislative Information System
Note: Details on bills passed below are in the Heading “Bills passed”
- SB 1135 Dangerous dogs; restructures procedure for adjudication, penalty.
- SB 1164 Advanced recycling; not considered solid waste management, definition.
- SB 1188 Virginia Agriculture Food Assistance Program and Fund; established and created.
- SB 1193 Dairy Producer Margin Coverage Premium Assistance Program; established.
- SB 1194 Produce safety; removes the sunset date.
- SB 1196 Teachers and other licensed school board employees; cultural competency.
- SB 1199 Conservation easements; construction.
- SB 1210 Permit fee schedules; DEQ to revise current schedule for nonhazardous solid waste mgmt. facilities.
- SB 1220 State facilities; admission of certain aliens.
- SB 1258 Solar projects; erosion and sediment control.
- SB 1265 Natural gas pipelines; stop work orders.
- SB 1274 Wildlife corridors; various agencies to consider and incorporate.
- SB 1280 Dams; negotiated settlement agreements.
- SB 1282 Greenhouse gas emissions inventory; regulations.
- SB 1290 ConserveVirginia program; established.
- SB 1291 Va. Water Protection Permit; withdrawal of surface water or ground water, plans for water auditing.
- SB 1311 Water quality standards; modification of permits and certifications.
- SB 1319 Waste Diversion & Recycling Task Force; Department of Environmental Quality to continue Task Force. SB 1354 Chesapeake Bay; wastewater treatment, Enhanced Nutrient Removal Certainty Program established.
- SB 1374 Carbon Sequestration Task Force; established.
- SB 1379 Humane Cosmetics Act; civil penalties.
- SB 1396 Onsite Sewage Indemnification Fund; use of Fund for grants to certain property owners. .
- SB 1402 Trout fishing in stocked waters; equalizes for residents and nonresidents requirements to fish.
- SB 1404 Stormwater Local Assistance Fund; grants awarded for projects related to Chesapeake Bay.
- SB 1411 Peanuts; extends sunset date of excise tax on all peanuts grown in Virginia.
- SB 1412 Pet shops, dealers, and dog breeders; employees convicted of animal abuse, penalty.
- SB 1417 Animal testing facilities; definitions, adoption of dogs and cats, civil penalty.
- SB 1453 Mines and Mining and Virginia Energy Plan; revision of Titles 45.1 and 67.
Virginia Senate Live Session Video Stream
Virginia Mercury, – March 31, 2021
The geography of Mathews County was carved by catastrophe.
Thirty-five million years ago, a meteorite or comet tore through the Earth’s atmosphere and slammed into its surface somewhere between the county and what is now called Cape Charles. In the ruin it left behind, the Chesapeake Bay would form. Mathews, at the very tip of Virginia’s Middle Peninsula, remains one of the state’s lowest-lying areas, surrounded on three sides by the Chesapeake Bay and the waters that flow into it.
“We’re flat as a pancake,” said Thomas Jenkins, the county’s planning, zoning and wetlands director. “Much of the county is close to sea level.”
Today a far slower but perhaps no less catastrophic force is reshaping Mathews. As climate change drives seas upward, the county is struggling to keep its waterfront properties above the tides.
About
From Senate Rules, “A Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, 15 Senators, to consider matters concerning agriculture; air and water pollution and solid waste disposal; conservation of land and water resources; crustaceans and bivalves; all matters of environment, forest, fresh and saltwater fishing, game, mining, parks and recreation, and petroleum products”.
