SD42 - Report of the State Water Commission


Executive Summary:
The State Water Commission is a permanent agency of the Commonwealth directed by statute to (i) study all qualitative and quantitative water supply and allocation problems in the Commonwealth, (ii) coordinate the legislative recommendations of other state entities responsible for water supply and allocation issues, and (iii) report annually its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly. (Va. Code § 9-145.8)

During 1997, the State Water Commission examined two issues. The 1997 Session of the General Assembly passed House Joint Resolution 592 (Appendix A) requesting the State Water Commission, with the assistance of the Virginia Water Resources Center at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI-SU), to study the innovative technologies and other options for providing safe, reliable, and affordable domestic water supplies to individual households and small communities in southwestern Virginia. The second issue, on which the Commission received a briefing, was industrial hog farms and their potential impact on water quality. The briefing included presentations by (i) a Department of Environmental Quality official on how Virginia regulates confined animal feeding operations, specifically hog farming, and whether such regulations protect water quality, and (ii) a status report on Pfiesteria by the Chairman of the Virginia Pfiesteria Task Force.