Virginia Legislation Attempts to Combat Growing Impacts of Climate Crisis

As the climate crisis accelerates, so do the number of bills in the Virginia General Assembly to address resilience, adaptation and education. Some, like an attempt to require flood risk disclosure to potential buyers, are back after being tabled last year. Others are new efforts to build a foundation addressing the effects of a warming climate and rising sea levels.

“This year, the record number of bills related to climate change is a clear reflection of the growing impacts experienced by our communities across the commonwealth,” said Mary-Carson Stiff, executive director of Wetlands Watch, a nonprofit based in Norfolk where the effects have been increasingly clear. “Let’s just hope legislation starts to keep pace with the impacts because so far we’re still behind the curve.”

Here are some of the efforts making their way through the General Assembly.

House Bill 1949 by Del. Phil Hernandez, D-Norfolk, and House Bill HJ 434 by Del. Michael Feggans, D-Virginia Beach, would create a methodology and criteria for state contributions to the local share of federal coastal storm risk management projects like the $2.66 billion plan Norfolk adopted in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2023. The city’s share under current cost estimates would be $931 million. Officials there have said the state needs to fund half that amount for the project to move forward. So far, the city has received a $25 million state grant. There is $25 million in the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget, but nothing in the 2026 budget.

The Norfolk plan is the first of four in the works with drafts coming for Virginia Beach, the Peninsula including Hampton and Newport News, and Washington. D.C. metro area.

“The state needs to decide how they’re going to deal with them, and what kind of process they’re going to follow to ensure that there’s equitable distribution of state resources, or plan for how they even want to fund these projects,” Stiff said.

Controversy over the Norfolk plan helped fuel a House Bill 2030 by Del. Bonita D. Anthony, D-Norfolk, that would establish an Environmental Justice Task Force including representatives from numerous state agencies ranging from housing to health to conservation. The task force would meet with residents and governments and other stakeholders and develop metrics to evaluate the social, environmental and health outcomes for historically disadvantaged communities.

Anthony said it would be a holistic look at the issue that complements the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice, a panel appointed by the governor. “It is getting teeth to what the state agencies do in every project that is deployed in the Commonwealth,” Anthony said, noting the task force will report to the General Assembly. “For so long, environmental justice has been a footnote. It hasn’t been at the forefront.”

Environmental justice became a flashpoint in the Norfolk storm risk plan when the feasibility study completed by the Army Corps concluded that floodwalls were not “justified” under the benefit-cost analysis for the city’s disadvantaged Southside neighborhoods because property values in the historically redlined area were not high enough.

Funding relief and resilience

A bill by Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, would create a task force to develop a statewide wetlands strategy to restore, create, and plan for their migration as sea level rises. The Coastal Resilience Master Plan estimates that up to 89% of Virginia’s tidal wetlands could be lost by 2080. Wetlands filter water, mitigate storm surge, sequester carbon, and provide key habitat for fin and shellfish.

“Sea level rise is the greatest threat to our wetlands health and survival in Virginia, yet we have no unified plan of attack,” said Stiff of Wetlands Watch. “There’s no state strategy. There’s no unified approach. There’s no expenditure of resources.”

Chris Moore, Virginia executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, noted that HB2034  creates a policy task force, not new regulations. Virginia, he added, is behind other states that have outlined wetlands protection policies. He noted the success of oyster restoration illustrates what happens with the right plan and the right resources. “Now is the time to put together a comprehensive strategy to protect our tidal and non-tidal wetlands,” he added.

For Stiff, the need is urgent. “From a wetlands loss standpoint,” she said, “the losses are happening much sooner than later.”

Two other pieces of legislation, House Bills 1950 and 2453,  introduced by Hernandez and Del. Keith Hodges, R-Middlesexs, would create a Living Shoreline Grant Fund for local governments or tribes for the construction, renovation, or improvement of living shorelines greater than 1.5 miles.

Living shorelines use vegetation to protect against storms, provide habitat, store carbon, clean water, and trap sediments. They’re viewed as a key solution to rising seas.

“Living shorelines are an area where we can build better resiliency for the Commonwealth,” Moore said. “With that legislation, what we’re hoping to do is increase the number of living shorelines, especially when it comes to those larger projects.”

A bill by Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax County, SB1123, would establish the Extreme Weather Relief Program administered by the Department of Conservation and Recreation which would hold fossil fuel companies liable to pay for relief projects stemming from extreme weather fueled by greenhouse gas emissions. Those costs are considerable — Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently requested $4.4 billion for Hurricane Helene relief efforts. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Virginia Conservation Network back the bill.

Another resilience effort backed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and others are two bills aimed at increasing tree canopy. One, HB2630, allows localities to collect fees from developers who cannot meet tree requirements where a project is sited and use the funds to plant trees. The other, HB 2638, allows localities to increase tree canopy in developments.

Trees, Moore noted, reduce urban heat island effects, improve water quality, provide habitat, and help reduce stormwater surge.

Two encores, one still alive

Two holdover efforts from last year were up for consideration again, but only one is still alive.

Del. Paul Milde, R-Stafford, introduced another bill, HB 2713, to fund a $3 million, three-year study of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay through the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. A similar study was shelved last year while conservationists and Omega Protein Corp., the Canadian company that is the lone harvester in the bay, spar over the issue.

“Current menhaden management relies on incomplete information,” Milde said in a press release. “This research will provide the scientific foundation needed to make sound decisions that balance the needs of the fishery with the ecological importance of this keystone species.”

Moore said he was hopeful the bill would pass but noted that the menhaden industry had backed away after agreeing to the study. “I think you see indicators that are raising questions throughout the Bay watershed,” he added noting concerns about the osprey population, which feeds on menhaden, and reports from tackle shops that are having difficulty supplying menhaden as bait.

“There’s a whole lot of unanswered questions out there and I think we all simply hope that we will move this study forward to answer those questions, and that it won’t be stopped by one company that happens to be the largest harvester of menhaden along the Atlantic coast.”

One bill that again did not make it through was a flood risk disclosure bill, which was backed by Hernandez, Del. W. Chad Green, R-York, and Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell. The bill was a watered-down version of last year’s effort. It would only have required a seller to disclose if they knew if the property was in a Federal Emergency Management Administration flood zone.

After realtors objected, the bill was shelved again in committee on Thursday, despite having patrons from both parties.

The Natural Resources Defense Council last year commissioned a study that found unsuspecting buyers of previously damaged homes are substantially more at risk of paying out of pocket for flood damages, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars over the term of their mortgage. Virginia is one of 14 states given an “F” grade for flood disclosure by the NRDC.

“Until people care less about what the realtors’ opinions are on the topic of flood risk disclosure,” said a frustrated Stiff, “Virginia will not have flood risk disclosure.”

by Jim Morrison, Virginia Mercury

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