Last week, we looked at the environmentally important funding numbers in the newly passed state budget. This week, we look at highlights and lowlights of the “special provisions” — policy changes inserted into what is supposed to be an annual state spending plan.
As usual, the General Assembly’s polluter-friendly leadership jammed some inexcusably anti-environment provisos into then the budget bill. Here are some of those lowlights:
- The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is prohibited from using permit revenues to fund enforcement, public outreach, or management positions
- Local governments must allow the relocation of billboards which don’t meet updated scenic protection standards, and the state Department of Transportation is prohibited from requiring new permits for those relocations
- DEQ is barred from water quality reviews of stream debris removal projects, despite the fact some such projects can damage clean water resources and habitat.
On the upside, a number of the most damaging proposed environmental special provisions were removed from the budget before final passage, including ones which would have cut stormwater runoff controls and slashed wetland and riparian buffer protections.
