THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By MARILYN W. LAGER
LENGTH: 83 lines
The Virginia General Assembly is in session right now, and a lot of people are seeing green. Not green like the color of money, but rather the color of our natural resources. There has been self-congratulatory talk about how well Virginia is doing with protecting her natural resources, but those who work with our natural resources at the grassroots level have seen little meaningful action and very little funding.
As far back as the Wilder administration, conservation funding has been cut and there was not a lot to begin with. Currently, Virginia spends less than one penny out of every tax dollar on conservation and natural resources. That is unfortunate when you take into account the economic importance of our many natural resource-based industries such as agriculture, forestry, seafood, and tourism, as well as the everyday quality of life.
Virginia has 46 Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) which are subdivisions of state government but run by locally elected Directors who volunteer their time. Some employ small technical and secretarial staffs to run the day to day operations of the District. Many SWCDs have no full time technician nor secretarial support. Those with staff offer a minimum salary and few or no benefits. Directors have established local, state, federal and private partnerships to help us get the most conservation value for the least amount of cost to the taxpayer. Preferring voluntary, not regulatory action, we use ``carrots'' not ``sticks'' and it works!
SWCDs have the job of reducing non-point source water pollution. Our works includes a variety of programs that each SWCD tailors to meet the needs of its community. We provide cost-share money and technical assistance to farmers to help them install the most effective Best Management Practice (BMPs).
These BMPs help reduce sediment, nutrient, and chemical runoff from their fields. In more suburban/urban areas, we work with homeowners to reduce the amounts of fertilizers and pesticides they apply to their own lawns. In the Chesapeake Bay Basin, SWCDs write Agricultural Water Quality Plans as required by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. These Bay Basin Districts are now becoming involved in Virginia's Nutrient Reduction Strategies and will play an active role in the formulation of these plans.
Districts have responsibility for 103 dams used for flood control across the state. Many of these dams are 40 years or older with a life expectancy of 50 years. The state has not provided any maintenance or repair funds to Districts for these dams, which are a vital part of Virginia's infrastructure. Nine dams owned by SWCDs were damaged during Hurricane Fran, but, fortunately, did not fail.
Districts have been asked to shoulder responsibility for Virginia's new Agricultural Stewardship Act. SWCDs will be called upon to investigate local complaints of water pollution within a strict time frame and work with the farmer on fixing the problems that caused the pollution.
Unfortunately, state funding for the SWCD programs needs to be a lot stronger. Virginia is divided into Bay and non-Bay Basins. Currently, the only funding for the state cost-share program for Bay Districts is federal; no state money is spent on land on water-based projects. In the non-Bay Basin, covering about 48 percent of the state, Virginia currently allocates a paltry $21,000. In 1992, $350,000 was allocated for this same Basin.
Virginia has lost natural resource agency employees with thousands of years of technical expertise because of the ``right sizing''' of state government. Management is a strict ``command and control'' type with decisions made only at the top, so the decisions are made by those farthest away from their ultimate impact.
In 1996, the administration attempted to split up the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the primary state agency with which we deal, and parcel out its programs to other agencies. The Districts would have had to deal with more than four state agencies for funding and program oversight. After an outcry from District Directors and grassroots organizations, the legislature stopped this attempt.
Districts and the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (VASWCD) have gone to the General Assembly to ask for additional funding for a detailed examination of District dams to determine what needs to be repaired as well as to capitalize a SWCD Dam Maintenance and Repair Fund.
We are requesting additional money to fund Agricultural BMPs in the Non-Bay portion of the state and for supportive technical assistance. This would help fund the first full time technical position that some SWCDs have ever had.
Taxpayers need to understand that SWCDs are the cost-effective means of implementing conservation practices on the ground. Every dollar that a SWCD receives is leveraged locally, federally, and privately. Districts are grassroots government at its best with locally elected citizens volunteering their time to make local decisions about local issues. They deserve to be funded at a level that allows them to operate with a minimum of bureaucratic interference. Let's make the rhetoric a reality.