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Shad Plank: Environmental justice needs to include rural coastal Virginia, but green groups don't seem to see that, Del. Hodges says
Daily Press |
Keith Hodges, Republican Delegate for the 98th District on the first day of Virginia's General Assembly at the State Capitol in Richmond on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. (Aileen Devlin/Daily Press / Daily Press)
Del. Keith Hodges is considered one of the House of Delegates' more mild-mannered members, famed as much as anything for the long list of highly technical drainage, land use and water quality bills he brings — the Hodge-a-palooza, as the current chair of the House Chesapeake subcommittee calls them.
But Hodges had a bone to pick Tuesday about environmental justice. As in the kind of justice he's been arguing his Middle Peninsula constituents, like their neighbors on the Northern Neck and across the Bay on the Eastern Shore, aren't seeing.
He's argued for some time that many of the regulations and law meant to keep polluted runoff from Virginia's densely settled cities and suburbs out of the Bay don't always make sense on the coast, where residents are struggling to find jobs as well as ways to deal with rising sea levels.
"Our water is clean because we're green," he said in an unusually emotional speech on the House floor.
But when he tried to ease pressure on the shrinking Potomac aquifer — that huge wedge of water-holding sand that supplies drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people in Tidewater Virginia — three highly regarded environmental groups came out of the blue to oppose the measure before a Senate committee, after the measure sailed through the House.
The Senate committee decided to carry the bill over until next year, often a polite way of letting an idea wither away.
That stunned Hodges, who said he tries hard to write and revise bills to take concerns into account.
"That's the Virginia way," he said.
"Water quality comes first for me ... and my door is always open," he added.
But he said the groups never came to tell him of any concerns or spoke up as the bill wound its way through the House.
Even worse, he said some of the groups broke trust with him over another measure to try to deal with a public health issue that's reached an acute point in Gloucester County — flooding, even on sunny days, that compromises septic tanks.
Hodges had a bill directing the state health department and the Department of Environmental Quality to see if there was a way to authorize people to add some dirt to better cover the tanks and boost their septic systems' drainfields' capacity.
He talked the issue over with environmental groups, and thought they'd reached an agreement on changes to the bill.
Then, when he came to present it to the House Chesapeake subcommittee, the same groups spoke out against it. That bill, too was carried over.
"When you shake hands, you strike a deal. Not one of us in this chamber would do that," Hodges said. "That breaks trust."
In a joint statement in response, the Chespaeake Bay Foundation, Friends of the Rappahanock, James River Association, and Virginia Conservation Network said that "For years we've worked closely in a bipartisan and professional manner with many Virginia legislators, including Del. Hodges.
"While we don't always agree on the best way to address the challenges we face, we look forward to continuing to work together towards a cleaner environment for Virginians."
Shad Plank is the Daily Press blog that tracks Virginia politics. It takes its name from the traditional Shad Planking political get-together, though hopefully it is tastier than the roasted fish featured at that Sussex County event. To contact Dave Ress with tips or questions, call 757-247-4535 or email dress@dailypress.com.
Dave Ress
Dave Ress covers the military. He's been a reporter in Virginia since 1990 and before that for Reuters in Canada, Britain and Africa. Dave has a PhD in history from the University of New England (Australia) and is the author of 4 books on U.S. and Australian history.
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