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• A RESOLUTION OF THE CHARLOTTESVILLE CITY COUNCIL URGING THE VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND THE GOVERNOR TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE SUPPORT FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT NUTRIENT REMOVAL THROUGH THE POINT SOURCE WATER QUALITY IMPROVEMENT FUND WHEREAS, federal and state agencies have been aware of the declining health of the Chesapeake Bay since the 1970s; and WHEREAS, numerous studies by federal and state agencies regarding excessive nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients as a cause of Bay degradation have revealed that the sources of these nutrients are very diverse and include responsibilities among all citizens, for numerous non -point sources, atmospheric deposition, ands discharges from industrial and municipal wastewater treatment facilities; and WHEREAS, current state policy prioritizes the reduction of nutrients from wastewater treatment facilities, which are required to meet the point source nutrient load cap by a deadline currently set at December 31, 2010, in part because wastewater treatment facility performance is easier to control and measure and because today's 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