Goodlatte concurs with Augusta County concerns about meeting Bay mandates

Sixth District Rep. Bob Goodlatte said Tuesday he supports a letter from Augusta County officials asking the state and federal governments for practical strategies in reducing nutrient pollution going to the Chesapeake Bay.

Augusta County Administrator Patrick Coffield signed the letter sent last week to David Johnson, director of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

The letter came in response to an urgent request from the federal Environmental Protection Agency for Virginia localities to come up with a plan to reduce pollution going to the Bay watershed.

The letter from Coffield encourages the state agency and the EPA to “develop cost-effective, practical and scientifically proven strategies’’ for meeting the pollution reduction goals.

Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, concurs. He said what is needed is for the EPA to allow the states to administer a program for reducing Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily load.

The congressman said the EPA can set pollution goals, but said states should develop plans and administer plans.

Over the past quarter century, Goodlatte said “we have reduced by 50 percent sedimentation and phosphorous and nitrogen” in Virginia.

“We have made a lot of progress with state not federal control and with a voluntary, incentivized program,’’ Goodlatte said.

The congressman plans to soon introduce legislation that would permanently give the authority to the states.

Goodlatte said the EPA mandates are costly to both urban and rural communities.

A city, such as Lynchburg, would have to spend hundreds of millions to meet the reductions, Goodlatte said.

Bo Beasley, the assistant executive director of the Augusta County Service Authority, said grants are needed to offset the costs to localities.

“If there is no grant program to offset these costs … the localities can’t do it,’’ he said.

And Beasley said private landowners such as Augusta County farmers lack the resources to put in the amount of pollution controls the EPA wants.

As is stated in the Augusta County letter, Goodlatte believes the models used to determine the pollution data are flawed.

“The models have been roundly criticized in a lot of quarters,’’ he said.

Augusta County supervisors will discuss their concerns about the Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily load at tonight’s meeting.