Water in the 2012 General Assembly

The 2012 Virginia General Assembly convened January 11 and adjourned March 10. A Special Session on the state budget convened March 10 and adjourned May 15 with passage of the budget. The reconvened session—for the General Assembly to consider vetoes or amendments by the governor—was held April 18. During the session, the Assembly considered 2876 measures, passing 1616 of them, defeating 934, and continuing 326 to next year’s session. The Assembly also considered amendments to the 2010-12 biennial state budget and the new 2012-14 budget. In this article, Virginia Water Central lists 171 measures in the 2012 Assembly (including six budget bills) dealing with water resources directly or indirectly. The list comes from the Legislative Information System (LIS) Web site, at http://leg1.state.va.us, in the categories indicated by sub-headings below. Bill summaries were also taken from LIS (edited in some cases for space or clarity). Bills are listed under only one category, even if LIS listed them more than once. The categories searched and the bills listed include all those with direct water relevance (such as bills in the “Water and Sewer Systems” category) as well as those with a potential or indirect relevance to water (such as bills dealing with land conservation and energy-efficiency, two activities that ultimately affect water resources). Water Central’s list below does not necessarily include all bills that potentially affect Virginia’s water resources. Within each category, bills are listed in order of their bill number, using the following abbreviations: HB = bill started in House of Delegates; HJ = joint resolution started in the House; SB = bill started in the Senate; and SJ = joint resolution started in the Senate. Numbers in the left-hand column have been added by Water Central for cross- referencing among the bills. A table at the end of the article lists several topics and bills from the 2012 Assembly that received attention in various news media. For a selection of online news articles about water-related legislation in the 2012 Assembly, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/category/2012-virginia-general-assembly/.