RICHMOND—Two Caroline County supervisors and a member of the school board took a trip to the General Assembly in Richmond Tuesday morning to confront Sen. Richard Stuart (R-Westmoreland County) and to lobby against his Senate Bill 923.
Stuart appeared startled when approached by supervisors Jeff Sili of the Bowling Green District and Reginald Underwood of the Reedy Church District as well as school board member Michael Hubbard, who represents Bowling Green.
“You should’ve just called me,” said Stuart, before starting a Finance and Appropriations Committee meeting. “Jeff’s got my number.”
The Caroline officials, however, preferred a face-to-face gathering. They’d made the trip to seek answers about why Stuart initially signaled support for their effort to withdraw up to 9 million gallons of water per day out of the Rappahannock River once the words “industrial cooling” were removed from a permit application with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
Stuart, however, later introduced a bill that would seemingly thwart those efforts.
Stuart’s bill would forbid inter-basin transfers from major bodies of water; Caroline’s application states that it would withdraw from the Rappahannock and discharge into the Mattaponi River, which is part of the York River Basin.
But when Stuart was confronted, he immediately told the Caroline representatives, “This won’t stop you,” referring to his bill.
“Don’t panic,” he added, as Underwood shared how the body was unnerved by the prospect of a project the county has worked on for more than a decade crumbling.
“I’m confused because he kept saying, ‘This isn’t going to stop you. This isn’t going to stop you.’ How is that?” Sili said. “And we don’t know what the substitute language is going to be, which would come at the last minute.”
The board of supervisors postponed the remainder of its first meeting of the year and caravanned to Richmond thinking Stuart’s bill would be heard. They learned on Tuesday that the bill had still not made it onto the agenda of the Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee.
Stuart offered an explanation.
“I appreciate you all amending [the DEQ application], which is what I asked for and I appreciate you doing that,” he said. “Don’t worry about that [bill]. That bill won’t stop you, trust me. Sometimes when you start to put in a bill and you don’t know the language, you put in what I call a placeholder.
“So, that was my placeholder. That’s the reason it hasn’t come up on the docket because I’m working with DEQ and others to figure out the proper approach.”
Caroline supervisors Reginald Underwood (left), Jeff Sili (right) and school board representative Michael Hubbard (back) lobbied with Sen. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) in an effort to gain support for the opposition of a bill introduced by Sen. Richard Stuart (R-Westmoreland). (Photo courtesy of Jeff Sili)
Stuart said he is inserting a budget amendment to assist the town of Bowling Green with improvements to its water system. He acknowledged that he and others who live in the Northern Neck area remain concerned about Caroline’s plans with the Rappahannock.
He said that once the bill is heard (the deadline for this session is next week), there will likely be substitute language included. He said that could include regulations on the percentage by which hydrology (distribution of water) could change on inter-basin transfers or a directive to the DEQ to conduct a study and draft regulations.
“I don’t know which is better. Is it better to let DEQ do it or should the General Assembly say, ‘You can’t change the hydrology more than 10%’ like stormwater [restrictions],” Stuart said. “Right now, there is no restriction.”
Stuart claimed in his comments to the Caroline contingent that Democrats on the committee would pass his bill “as is.”
But Sili’s informal polling of legislators Tuesday showed that Stuart may struggle to gain traction.
While Sen. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth), a longtime influential Democrat, does not serve on the Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, she assured Sili that she would request those in her party who hold the majority on the committee, oppose Stuart’s bill.
Sen. William Stanley (R-Franklin County) told Sili, Underwood and Hubbard that he will not support the bill.
“We try to follow each other in the [Republican] Caucus. It’s important,” Stanley said of potentially voting against a member of his party. “But this goes beyond that.”
Despite the optics of support from the General Assembly, the Caroline officials are not 100% convinced. They scheduled a meeting with DEQ Director Mike Rolband with hopes of getting the permit process restarted; a public hearing was suspended pending the collection of more information.
And they said the conversation with Stuart was not completely reassuring.
“All I can say is some things were enlightening, and you have a glimmer of hope that the process is still moving forward,” Underwood said. “Once we get clarification on what needs to be done, we’ll continue to speed up the process, and hopefully get this thing put to bed.”
