Water in the 2010 Virginia General Assembly

The 2010 Virginia General Assembly convened January 13 and adjourned March 13. The reconvened (“veto”) session was held April 21. During the session, the Assembly considered 2964 measures, passing 1598 of them, defeating 1093, and continuing 273 until 2011. The Assembly also crafted the 2010-12 biennial state budget. In this article, Virginia Water Central lists 201 measures in the 2010 Assembly that dealt with water resources directly or with activities that are likely to affect water. 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 (sometimes we miss some!). 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. A table at the end of the article lists several topics and bills from the 2010 Assembly that received attention in various news media. For a selection of online news articles about water-related legislation in the 2010 Assembly, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper at http://delicious.com/araflo/10VaGenAssembly. Water Central’s inventories of water-related bills in previous General Assembly sessions (1998-2009) are available online at www.vwrrc.vt.edu/legislation.html.