2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

25102938D

HOUSE BILL NO. 1908

Offered January 13, 2025

Prefiled January 6, 2025

A BILL to direct the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to study the cumulative impacts of surface water intakes on aquatic fauna and water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and its major Virginia tributaries; report.

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Patrons—Kent, Carr, Clark and LeVere Bolling

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Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources

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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. That the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) shall study the cumulative impacts of surface water intakes on aquatic fauna and water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and its major Virginia tributaries. Such impacts to water quality from cumulative withdrawals shall be determined by quantifying any acceleration of upriver salinity migration beyond that which is naturally occurring due to sea level rise. VIMS shall submit a report of its findings and any recommendations to the Governor, the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality, and the Chairs of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, and the House Committee on Appropriations no later than October 1, 2028.