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Self
Inflicted Bio-Terror
Former
Gov. Jerry Baliles has a $12 billion plan to clean
up the Chesapeake Bay. That's a lot of money, but
we'd spend it if al Qaeda had done the damage
instead.
Former
Virginia Gov. Gerald Baliles still likes to solve
problems. From 1986 to 1990, he persuaded the
General Assembly to increase revenues dedicated to
transportation. In 1993 he headed the U.S.
National Airlines Commission, which wrestled with
industry deregulation and competitiveness. Now
Baliles, born and raised in Patrick
County,
has a plan to clean up Virginia
rivers, streams and the Chesapeake
Bay.
Baliles
heads the
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Blue Ribbon Finance
Panel, a 14-member body that also includes Fairfax
County Supervisor Penelope Gross, poultry
executive Jim Purdue and former U.S. Secretary of
the Interior Bruce Babbitt. The summary of
recommendations announced October 27 for the
bay’s 64,000-square-mile watershed is fairly
simple: Bay states should form an authority to
administer $12 billion more in federal funds and
$3 billion more in state funds to reduce
biological pollutants coming out of wastewater
treatment plants and to control agricultural and
urban runoff.
To
work up the appropriate fury over what's
happening, think of it this way: What if al Qaeda
inflicted upon us the damage that we do to
ourselves through inadequate municipal
and industrial treatment plants.
Imagine
terrorists crippling Virginia’s
sewage treatment plants and polluting 7,000 miles
of state rivers and streams as a result. Imagine
Osama Bin Laden chortling over the closing of
beaches, the decimation of the fishing industry
and the degradation of 40 percent of the Chesapeake
Bay
into an oxygen-starved dead zone. Imagine al
Jazeera gloatingly broadcasting the Virginia
Department of Health's latest fish-consumption,
such as the Sept. 30 advisories warning Virginians
of excess mercury levels in largemouth bass in
Lake Gordonsville, blue catfish in the Pamunkey
River, and carp in Lake Whitehurst.
We
inflict this bioterrorism upon ourselves through
due to inadequate municipal and industrial
treatment plants in the Commonwealth. Okay, now
drop the terrorist connection, keep the outrage,
consider the plan and help Virginia
commit to dramatic action in response.
The
first big test for Baliles may come next week when
the former governor presents his recommendations
to The Virginia Association of Counties (VACo)
annual conference November 7 and 8.
Representatives of Virginia’s
95 counties are a tough crowd. As leaders in a
Dillon Rule state where they must ask “pretty
please” for state permission before undertaking
innovative initiatives, none are under any
illusions, particularly about infrastructure
finance.
That
may explain why VACo’s evolving legislative
agenda for 2005 now includes support for increased
state funding for the Water Quality Improvement
Fund, but expresses opposition to any state fee,
tax or surcharge on water, sewer, solid waste or
other service provided by a local government or
authority. Property tax-shy localities do not want
to get stuck with an imprecise, potentially
open-ended financial commitment without adequate
state support at the same time the state dips into
one of its few revenue streams.
Like
his proposals for transportation in the
late-1980s, however, Baliles should be able to
build on a generally favorable environment for
new, ambitious plans. An overwhelming majority of
Virginians self-identify as environmentalists. A
recent poll by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF)
indicates that a majority of Virginians recognizes
the problem and agrees there is a need for action.
Almost two-third of Virginia voters are willing to
support an additional dedicated user fee on water
bills that would average one dollar per week to
clean up local rivers and the Bay.
Moreover,
the political stars may be aligning. Maryland’s
action on a “flush tax” in 2004 ($2.50 a month
fee on sewer bills and an equivalent $30 annual
fee on septic system owners) illustrates that a
state with a governor of one party and a
legislative majority of another can work
successfully through the political minefield. The
Virginia Municipal League has strengthened its
legislative positions on the Bay and on water
resource protection (“… provided that
localities are given opportunities to participate
in policy development and implementation, and
provided that nutrient reduction is approached
equitably between point and non-point sources.”)
Virginia
Gov. Mark R. Warner has renewed his commitment to
Bay clean-up both in discussions with the Maryland
governor and the head of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, and in August budget decisions
to devote one-tenth of the Virginia FY2004 budget
“surplus” – a total of $32 million more –
to the Water Quality Improvement Fund. Local
instances of impaired and endangered waters abound
in the districts of every delegate and state
senator. (Check for yourself on the Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality’s 2004 Water
Quality Assessment Integrated Report that
has been
available on its Website since August.)
A
second big test comes in December when Bay state
governors meeting as the Chesapeake Bay Executive
Council get a look at the Baliles panel
recommendations. Since adopting pollution
reduction goals for nutrients and sediment in the
2000 Chesapeake Bay Agreements, the governors have
faced lean budget years. But the CBF estimates,
for example, that
Virginia
could achieve 70 percent of its 2010 goal to
reduce nitrogen entering rivers and creeks leading
to the Bay by upgrading and modernizing sewage
treatment plants.
And
a third big test will come in January 2005 when
the Virginia General Assembly considers the
recommendations through budget amendments proposed
either by Gov. Warner or members of the
Appropriations and Finance Committees. “Sewer
user fee” may sound better than “flush tax.”
The counties might demand to collect the fee, then
share it with the state (as is the case in Maryland)
to get around the danger of “crossing the
revenue streams.” Every legislator will want to
know exactly what waters are getting cleaned up in
his or her district, even as they join hands to
improve the environment for everyone.
The
bottom line remains the strongest argument for
action now. Former Gov. Baliles points out that
cleaning up rivers, streams and the Bay will never
get cheaper or easier, whether the task involves
riparian buffers in Patrick
County
or water treatment capacity in the Town of Orange.
And it would be hard to dedicate so-called
surpluses built by ignoring basic challenges, such
as clean water, to a more important improvement in
the quality of life that Virginians strongly
support.
--
November 1, 2004
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