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12 wastewater industry has available technology to achieve significant and reliable results; and WHEREAS , numerous organizations, including the Chesapeake Bay Commission (made up of delegations from Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland) have long recognized that states should address ways to broadly distribute the funding burden of expensive improvements to wastewater treatment facilities, in part because every citizen contributes nutrients from one or more sources to the Bay; and WHEREAS , Virginia has a long-standing, successful program under which the state shares the cost of nutrient removal upgrades with local wastewater agencies through grants from the Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF); and WHEREAS , the General Assembly, Governor Kaine and former Governor Warner are to be commended for state appropriations since 2005 that have totaled approximately $300 million plus approval of state authorization to sell bonds up to $250 million, which combined provide for approximately $550 million in point source WQIF funding to further advance wastewater treatment; and WHEREAS , the executed WQIF grant agreement and pending WQIF grant applications to reduce nutrients at these facilities require a total of approximately $750 million in state funding under the cost-sharing program, or a remaining need of approximately $200 million, and there are expected to be further grant applications for additional eligible projects received later this year; and WHEREAS , by state regulation, these wastewater treatment improvements have an unprecedentedly aggressive deadline of December 31, 2010; and WHEREAS , the Commonwealth of Virginia faces a projected revenue shortfall (“gap”) in the next biennium, and according to reports of the Virginia Municipal League, legislative committee staff have identified stripping out general funding for water quality projects among options for closing the Commonwealth’s projected revenue “gap”; and WHEREAS , sustaining funding of the point source portion of the WQIF, or providing an alternative sustainable state funding source for wastewater plant upgrades, is important for avoiding inequities and disproportionality in the funding of Chesapeake Bay clean-up programs by urban citizens especially considering census statistics showing statewide that urban citizens have an average household income well below the citizens of rural areas; and WHEREAS , the County of Albemarle and the City of Charlottesville have taken significant responsible measures in an effort to make its urban areas small in footprint, dense, livable, sustainable, and affordable in an attempt to preserve the natural resources of the greater rural areas, and the elected officials of these local governments are greatly concerned that inequitable pressures on urban affordability will encourage more citizens to live in rural areas, adverse to the goals of sustainable living, natural resource protection, and efforts to limit the consumption of fuel and other resources that challenge environmental protection. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED , that the City Council of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia advocates the continued support and funding of the Water Quality Improvement Fund by the General Assembly and the Governor for improvements to wastewater treatment facilities for nutrient reduction to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, with the minimum support sufficient to sustain funding of all eligible facilities under the WQIF program; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in the event such support cannot be achieved from the Commonwealth’s projected revenues, the Virginia legislature commit to finding new sources of revenue to sustain the Commonwealth’s commitment; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that priority funding for point source WQIF agreements be included in any new major nutrient control funding measures under