VCN
E-NEWS: August 20, 2004
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NEWS
ITEMS
VIRGINIA
MARINE RESOURCES COMMISSION APPROVES KING WILLIAM RESERVOIR
PERMIT
Announcement from Chesapeake Bay Foundation Vote 5-3 in
favor of permit On Thursday, August 12th, after two full
days of testimony, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission
(VMRC) voted 5-3 to grant the City of Newport News’ request
for a water intake permit on the Mattaponi River for the
King William Reservoir.
Obtaining this permit was extremely important to the City
of Newport News. Thus, it invested substantial dollars
and political muscle in its request. Without this permit,
the City claimed it would have been unable to move forward
with obtaining federal permits and, ultimately, construction
of the intake pipe and King William Reservoir. Therefore,
the City agreed to extensive conditions in order to obtain
the permit. The key conditions call for an ongoing study
of the shad fishery over a period of 8 years and a pumping
hiatus during certain months of the year. Unfortunately,
it does not require the City to wait until the study is
completed to begin construction of the Reservoir.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is extremely disappointed
that the VMRC chose to reject the advice of the Virginia
Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in favor of the City’s
consultants. In recommending that VMRC defer action on
the permit, Dr. Roger Mann, VIMS Director of Research
and Advisor Services, said, “It is our considered opinion
that the uncertainties cannot be properly evaluated before
more is known about conditions in the Mattaponi River.
In order to reduce the risk of undesirable impact to either
the fish resource or the City’s safe water yield objective,
we strongly recommend completion of a monitoring program
prior to any final permit decision.” However, the debate
is not over with the issuance of this permit. The City
still needs to obtain a federal permit allowing them to
destroy over 400 acres of wetlands. CBF, with your help,
has raised significant challenges to the federal permit
in the past, and will continue to work on that issue.
The Foundation would like to thank all of our members
for supporting our work on this issue for over 7 years.
Your dedication to answering our numerous calls to action
is inspiring. We would like to take this time to not only
thank you, but also to encourage you to continue to be
engaged in the next steps we will take to stop this environmentally
damaging project.
If you have questions or comments, please contact Nina
Luxmoore, nluxmoore@cbf.org
MEMBER
ORGANIZATION REQUESTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
PARTICIPATE
IN DEQ COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT MEETINGS IN YOUR AREA: From
VCN Staff
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
has established a Public Participation Task Force of environmental
group representatives and DEQ staff – including the DEQ
director, Bob Burnley. Earlier this spring, VCN wrote
to all member organizations prior to participating in
this Task Force, asking for input and guidance.
The Task Force has been working for four months to identify
policy changes that will improve public outreach and participation,
key matters identified by VCN member organizations. With
guidance from member organizations VCN Board members and
representatives from member organizations have been active
participants in this Task Force.
This fall, Director Burnley will be taking this reform
effort to each of the seven regional DEQ district offices.
He has set up meetings in each of the seven DEQ district
offices providing an opportunity for him and the regional
DEQ director to meet with local and regional environmental
groups. This is an important initiative and an important
set of meetings. The meeting schedule is below. Please
note that several of the meeting dates had to be changed
because of conflicts.
October 6 - Woodbridge (Northern Virginia region)
October 13 - Virginia Beach (Tidewater region)
October 19 - Glen Allen (Piedmont region)
October 20 - Lynchburg (South Central region)
October 27 - Harrisonburg (Valley region)
November 4 - Roanoke (West Central region)
November 9 - Abingdon (Southwest region)
Over the last decade, Virginia’s environmental community
has faced a DEQ that was perceived as distant at best
and sometimes hostile. This reform initiative is a welcome
first step toward fully engaging the energy and expertise
of Virginia’s concerned environmental community.
Some of the reforms being discussed are:
• meetings scheduled in the evening and weekends
when busy citizens can attend,
• earlier involvement in regulatory decisions,
• improved citizen guides and explanations of environmental
laws and regulations,
• greater access to DEQ reports, data, and information
in forms useful to the average citizen, and
• outreach and regular meetings at the regional
level between the regional directors and the environmental
community.
Even if you or your organization has not been active with
DEQ’s regulatory processes, we encourage you to attend
the meeting in your region. It is through meetings like
this that the environmental community gains visibility
and respect. The dates will be posted soon (meetings will
be in the early evening, after work). They will be disseminated
in a future issue of VCN E-NEWS and will be posted on
the VCN Website. Please encourage others to attend.
Also, please let us know (email to vcngeneral@aol.com
or call 804-644-0283 if you would like to attend the meeting
in your region. If you are unsure which region you are
in, you can go to the DEQ regional map on the web at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/regions/homepage.html
or your can call us at the above number. David & Ellen
at VCN
COMMENT ON VIRGINIA’S 25-YEAR
TRANSPORTATION PLAN
Alert from Virginia League of Conservation Voters This
is your chance to tell VDOT that you want FUNDAMENTAL
CHANGE in how Virginia is planning its future. The Public
Comment period on Virginia's 25-Year Transportation Plan
is underway and official comments are due by Monday, August
31, 2004.
Comments should be e-mailed to: statewideplan@VirginiaDOT.org.
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND ONLINE:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action
on this alert by going to the following URL: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/vtrans2025
Please take a moment to send comments to VDOT regarding
the VTRANS 2025 plan. Thanks for taking the time to offer
your meaningful input into this process!
BACKGROUND and TALKING POINTS can be found below. Your
comments should be e-mailed to: statewideplan@VirginiaDOT.org
It appears that while VDOT sought to establish new goals
for the transportation system, their funding scenarios
and project focus are nearly business as usual and do
not address any of our public demands and goals, such
as including greater protection for the environment, better
access to jobs for urban and rural residents, better access
to transportation for the disabled, and more investment
in pedestrian and bicycle needs.
To ensure real change in our transportation system, VDOT
needs to hear from Virginia citizens about how to grow
smarter with transit and better land use, not just add
more lanes and larger highways. This is your chance to
tell VDOT that you want and expect FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE,
not business as usual.
TALKING POINTS _____________________________________
If you want to stop sprawl, revitalize our cities and
towns, and save our historic, rural and agricultural landscapes,
then ask for the following:
1) That the long-range 2025 plan NOT be developed until
the state does a full land use buildout analysis under
current plans and assesses its transportation impact and
cost.
2) That the long-range 2025 plan NOT be developed until
the state studies alternative land use scenarios that
can reduce land consumption, auto travel, and the need
for new highways.
3) That the long-range 2025 plan support a vision for
Virginia to
- revitalize towns and cities
- focus mixed-use, walkable development near transit,
near our cities and towns and on land poorly used by strip
shopping centers with huge parking lots
- protect agricultural, forest, historic and rural areas
- reduce the growth in driving by reducing sprawl and
creating more walkable communities
- reconnect Virginia with improved passenger and freight
rail networks
- place priority in spending on transit, pedestrian and
bicycle networks and local street connections.
BACKGROUND ________________________________________
It appears that while VDOT sought to establish new goals
for the transportation system (including greater protection
for the environment, better access to jobs for urban and
rural residents, better access to transportation for the
disabled, and more investment in pedestrian and bicycle
needs) VDOT's funding scenarios and project focus are
nearly business as usual and do not address any of these
public demands and goals.
Specifically,
1) To assess highway needs, VDOT simply measured congestion
on existing highways and then estimated how much widening
would be needed to reduce the congestion, and at what
cost. This approach cannot help the environment, or the
disabled, or ped/bike movement, or access to jobs for
city residents and those without a car. This approach
ignores demand reduction techniques including land use
changes to cut driving. It also ignores the benefits of
investing more in local street connections combined with
mixed-use development to reduce demand on the highways.
2) For Ports and Airports, it appears that VDOT just added
up the cost of existing wish lists. For Dulles Airport,
that means more runways.
3) For Transit, VDOT ran three scenarios but there is
no information on the projects in those scenarios.
THEN, VDOT appears to have made multimodalism their number
one priority. It's important yes, but their approach then
puts corridor expansion above all else. Interstates I-81,
I-95, I-66, I-64 would all be massively expanded. In every
case, it appears that expanding the CAPACITY of the highway
is given first priority (featured in bold text) over the
other modes such as transit.
THE VTRANS 2025 REPORT ___________________________________
A copy of the report can be found online at:
http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/resources/revisedPhase3Report.pdf
VDOT'S SPECIAL VTRANS 2025 WEB SITE
http://www.sotrans.state.va.us/VTrans/home.htm
INITIAL REVIEW OF THE VTRANS2025 PLAN (PHASE III REPORT)
VDOT has done a mix of surveys and focus groups leading
up to this draft plan. In fact, the random phone survey
is the most telling. It found that the ENVIRONMENT and
SAFETY and Quality of Life were the top concerns and ranked
higher than transportation investments (p. 26). Safety
and job access were a stronger focus than more funding.
Transit is strongly supported, especially in the metropolitan
areas of the state.
HOWEVER, the "plan" appears to be business as
usual. When you finally get to the end, the focus of their
plan is on "Multimodal Investment Networks"
where they are (despite apparent inclusion of more rail
and transit) giving priority to major interstate and bypass
highway projects over land use, demand reduction tools,
and better local street connections.
The VDOT analysis completely fails to address the problem
of sprawl in Virginia and ASSUMES it will continue and
ASSUMES a set of transportation NEEDS, mainly highways.
They project growth in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and
compare it to slow growth in lane miles, but don't note
that VMT is rising at nearly 3 times the rate of our population
growth (sprawl forces everyone to drive more). They propose
little to reduce the growth in driving demand through
better land use and development linked to transit.
To ensure real change in our transportation system, VDOT
needs to hear from Virginia citizens about how to grow
smarter with transit and better land use, not just add
more lanes and larger highways. This is your chance to
tell VDOT that you want and expect FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE,
not business as usual.
Please take a moment to send comments to VDOT regarding
VTRANS 2025. Your comments should be e-mailed to: statewideplan@VirginiaDOT.org
Thanks for taking the time to offer your meaningful input
into this process!
We encourage you to take action by Monday, August 31,
2004.
CALENDAR/EVENTS
VIRGINIA
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSEMBLY/PIEDMONT ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL
ANNUAL MEETING
Saturday, September 18, 2004
Historic Barboursville Ruins
Barboursville, Virginia
This year’s Virginia Environmental Assembly will be unique
from any other. We are excited to offer for the first
time, a joint venture between the Virginia Conservation
Network and the Piedmont Environmental Council for a special
gathering of Virginia’s environmental community.
The theme of the day’s activities will be “Reconnecting
Virginia” and will provide a comprehensive look at the
connection between land use, the Commonwealth’s major
rail and road transportation corridors and our environment.
Hank Dittmar, President & CEO, Reconnecting America
will give the keynote address. Lieutenant Governor Tim
Kaine will give his perspectives on the Reconnecting Virginia
theme.
Workshop sessions include:
--Headwaters and the Bay
--Land Conservation Planning through Mapping and Spatial
Analysis
--Transportation 101: Prelude to Reconnecting Virginia
--Green Building and Sustainable Design
--Historic Preservation Innovations
--A Citizen’s Guide to Legislative Process
--Working Landscapes and Ag Solutions
--The State of the Roads We Travel: The Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly
--Model Land Stewardship and Conservation Funding
--The State of the Air We Breath: An Update on Air Quality
in Virginia
--Affordable Housing and “Smart Growth”
--Successes in Communication
For additional information about the program, exhibiting,
directions and to register online go to www.vcnva.org.
LEARN
ABOUT NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO GET OUT THE VOTE
National Voice is hosting a call to inform non-partisan
groups of new technologies available to help you do the
best job possible getting out the vote this fall.
Monday August 23rd at noon midwest time, 1:00 east coast
time,
This call will include a presentation Tanya Renne from
Orchid for Action -- a nationwide communications network
built for progressive non-profit organizations. They provide
very inexpensive software and other services that can
help you
1) develop and maintain a strong online presence,
2) allow any number of users to help maintain your content
easily from anywhere,
3) collect contributions,
4) build membership,
5) recruit, manage, and deploy volunteers,
6) email blast and relationship management
7) share content, news, resources with other organizations
on the network.
On the call Tanya will review their services briefly and
then will answer questions.
For background see http://www.orchidforchange.com.
Monday, August 23, 2004
12:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time, 1:00 Eastern
Dial-in Number: 1-661-705-2000 (Santa Clarita, CA)
Participant Access Code: 56262
***
Frank Worshek
Education Programs Manager
LCV Education Fund
1920 L St., NW, Ste. 800
Washington, DC 20036
202-454-4612 Direct
202-835-0491 Fax
frank_worshek@lcv.org
www.lcveducation.org
CLEAN VIRGINIA WATERWAYS’ PROGRAMS
Dear Friend of Clean Virginia Waterways, Here is quick
update on Clean Virginia Waterways’ programs, and how
you can participate to improve the health and safety of
Virginia’s rivers, streams and shorelines. The International
Coastal Cleanup in Virginia--2004 Will Be Bigger Than
Ever… With more than 100 cleanup events already scheduled
this September and October, the International Coastal
Cleanup in Virginia this year should be the biggest and
best ever! Sites open to the public are listed on the
Clean Virginia Waterways web page: http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/iccsitesva04.htm
Please plan to participate at the ICC event near you!
Registrations for new cleanup events are still being accepted
for September and October. A registration form is on the
CVW web site: http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/images/icc_virginia_signup_form.htm
…or call CVW at 434-395-2602. Last year, Hurricane Isabel
passed through Virginia just two days before the main
ICC date (the third Saturday in September)--let’s hope
we will be luckier in 2004!
Partners and Sponsors making the ICC happen Clean Virginia
Waterways, which has organized the ICC throughout Virginia
for ten years, couldn’t do it without partners and sponsors.
CVW is excited to have increased our collaboration with
two state agencies - the VA Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) and the VA Department of Conservation and
Recreation (DCR). DEQ’s Coastal Program is working with
CVW to increase the number of cleanup events on Virginia’s
Eastern Shore. DCR’s Adopt-A-Stream program is also partnering
with CVW to collect more data from their fall cleanup
volunteers. Together, we are exploring how the ICC data
can be used to create positive changes in the amount of
litter and debris in Virginia’s waterways. CVW is also
happy to be working with the Blackwater/Nottoway Riverkeeper,
the Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper, and the Upper Tennessee
River Roundtable to increase the number of ICC events
in their watersheds. CVW is grateful to all its partners
(new and old). CVW also thanks its sponsors for their
in-kind and financial support: Longwood University, Philip
Morris USA, The Ocean Conservancy, Oracle, and Bank of
America. For a complete list of CVW’s sponsors and partners,
see: http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/iccsponsors.htm
Storm Drain Cleanups Studies show that 60 to 80% of the
litter and debris in our waterways comes from inland sources,
which is why the International Coastal Cleanup is held
on rivers and streams far “inland.” Now, The Ocean Conservancy
(which coordinates the ICC worldwide) is adding STORMDRAIN
CLEANUPS to the ICC! Volunteers who are not located near
a shoreline of a major waterbody may now include debris
and litter found on and around municipal storm drains.
Starting this year, ICC volunteers may collect data found
in relation to storm drains in their area, and then stencil
the storm drains as part of an ICC pollution prevention
activity. Any storm drain cleanup conducted in September
and October will count towards the ICC. The Ocean Conservancy
will provide all materials; a Storm Drain Sentries booklet,
a brochure on how to coordinate a storm drain cleanup,
data cards, and stencils. To get your FREE KIT, send an
email to Sonya Besteiro at The Ocean Conservancy: sbesteiro@oceanconservancyva.org
In the email to Sonya, request the Storm Drain Sentries
kit, and give her your name, organization, full address,
phone, e-mail address, date and place of stenciling. Data
from 2003 ICC in Virginia! What’s on the “TOP TEN” list?
Here are the Top Ten debris items found during the 2003
ICC in Virginia. This Top Ten list represents 45,674 items,
and 89.8% of all the items found:
VIRGINIA TOP TEN
1. Beverage Bottles (Plastic) 2 liters or less (more than
12,500 were found)
2. Food Wrappers/Containers
3. Beverage Cans
4. Cigarettes/Cigarette Filters
5. Beverage Bottles (Glass)
6. Bags
7. Cups, Plates, Forks, Knives, Spoons
8. Caps, Lids
9. Bait Containers/Packaging
10. Cigarette Lighters
Compare the “Virginia Top Ten” with the “U.S. Top Ten”
and “Worldwide Top Ten” U.S. TOP TEN (ICC data, 2003)
1. Cigarettes/Cigarette Filters (34.5% of all items)
2. Food Wrappers/Containers
3. Caps, Lids
4. Beverage Bottles (Plastic) 2 liters or less
5. Beverage Bottles (Glass)
6. Beverage Cans
7. Cups, Plates, Forks, Knives, Spoons
8. Straws/Stirrers
9. Bags
10. Cigar Tips
WORLDWIDE TOP TEN (ICC data, 2003)
1. Cigarettes/Cigarette Filters (29.5% of all items)
2. Food Wrappers/Containers
3. Caps, Lids
4. Beverage Bottles (Plastic) 2 liters or less
5. Bags
6. Beverage Bottles (Glass)
7. Cups, Plates, Forks, Knives, Spoons
8. Beverage Cans Straws/Stirrers
9. Straws/Stirrers
10. Tobacco Packaging/Wrappers
For more information about the data our ICC volunteers
collect, how it is used, and litter’s impact on our environment,
go to:
http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/whatvolsfound.htm
or
http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/litter.htm
CVW’s Resources for Teachers
Clean Virginia
Waterways and Longwood University have co-authored a book,
“Virginia’s Water Resources: A Tool for Teachers” that
includes articles and lesson plans that cover water quality,
litter in our waterways, groundwater, aquatic species
and much more! The book is on-line at: http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/teachers.htm
Thank you for
your interest in protecting and improving Virginia's waterways.
To be removed from CVW's email list, please send us an
email at: cleanva@longwood.edu. Thank you.
Kathleen M. Register, Executive Director
Clean Virginia Waterways
Dept of Natural Sciences
Longwood University
201 High Street
Farmville, VA 23909
Phone: 434-395-2602 FAX: 434-395-2652
Email: cleanva@longwood.edu
VIRGINIA
RECYCLING ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Join the Virginia Recycling Association in Richmond this
October for the Annual Conference, Trade Show and Awards
Presentation where ... Recycling is Always in Fashion!
An exciting agenda is being planned for the 2004 VRA Conference,
which will be October 27 and 28 at the Radisson Hotel
Historic Richmond. Sessions addressing recycling program
operation and outreach will be the main focus of the event.
Several sessions will be devoted to litter prevention
as well.
A reception on Wednesday evening will feature a special
presentation of clothing and costumes created from recycled
materials. Tours of interesting and unique recycling and
waste diversion programs are being planned for Thursday
afternoon. During the conference, the Association will
also recognize the best recycling programs and individuals
in the state. Nomination deadline is October 1.
For more information, please visit our website at www.vrarecycles.org.
You may also contact us at vra@vrarecycles.org or toll
free at 1-888-867-1923.
***************************
VCN's mission is to protect the Commonwealth's air, lands,
and waters for the benefit of the people, as guaranteed
by the Virginia Constitution.
If
you have an item that should be included on this list,
please send it to Jim Wamsley at jwamsley5@comcast.net
. VCN E-NEWS is emailed the second and fourth Friday
of every month, except during the session when it is weekly.
Deadline for submissions is Thursday.
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