THE REGIONAL BUILDING . 723 WOODLAKE DRIVE . CHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA 23320 . (757) 420-8300

June 26, 2020

Memorandum #2020-78 TO: Regional Environmental Committee Members BY: Whitney Katchmark, HRPDC Principal Water Resources Engineer RE: Regional Environmental Committee Meeting – July 2, 2020 The next meeting of the HRPDC Regional Environmental Committee will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 2, 2020. The agenda and related materials are attached. Pursuant to Governor Northam’s Executive Order 53 issued on March 23, 2020 and Executive Order 61 issued on May 8, 2020, the Regional Environmental Committee meeting will be held electronically via Webex. Participants can join using the following information:

Join by computer: https://pdc-tpo-staff.my.webex.com/pdc-tpo-staff.my/j.php?MTID=mc57274b73e6d847ccbd7f77e50e451de -or- Join by phone: +1-408-418-9388 United States Toll Meeting Number / Access Code: 126 935 5892 Password: eQNCnCBv735 (37626228 from phones)

If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. MS/cm Attachments

MICHAEL HIPPLE, CHAIR. ANDRIA MCCLELLAN, VICE-CHAIR. RANDY KEATON, TREASURER

ROBERT A. CRUM, JR., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

AGENDA MEETING OF THE

HAMPTON ROADS REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE JULY 2, 2020 10:00 A.M.

1. Summary of the June 4, 2020 Meeting of the Hampton Roads Regional Environmental Committee (REC). The summary and attendance sheets of the above meeting are attached. Attachments: 1A – June REC Meeting Summary

1B – June REC Meeting Attendance

ACTION: Accept the Meeting Summary

2. Public Comments ACTION: None required

3. Bow Creek Stormwater Park

The City of Virginia Beach is currently working on a project to convert the Bow Creek Golf Course to a park with stormwater storage and flood mitigation features. This project, when completed, will significantly improve stormwater management in several of the neighborhoods that experienced stormwater flooding during Hurricane Matthew, including Windsor Woods, Princess Anne Plaza, and The Lakes. The project is currently under design and is included in the city’s FY21 Capital Improvements Program. Mr. Mike Mundy, Virginia Beach Stormwater Engineering Program Manager, will brief the Committee on the project. ACTION: None required

4. Living River Trust The Living River Trust is a local land conservancy and environmental organization working in Coastal Virginia. The Trust works with the Elizabeth River Project, DEQ, and the Norfolk District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help offset impacts to the Elizabeth River watershed through in-lieu fee mitigation. The Trust also functions as a local land trust for communities in the Elizabeth River watershed. Mr. John Harbin, Living River Trust Executive Director, will brief the Committee on the organization and its activities. ACTION: None required

5. Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Comprehensive Planning Requirements The Virginia Administrative Code (9VAC25-830-170) requires local governments to periodically review and revise their comprehensive plans to comply with elements of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA). Matt Smith, HRPDC Senior Regional Planner, will discuss best practices for addressing the CBPA comprehensive planning regulations. ACTION: None required

6. Other Matters

Regional Environmental Committee – Voting: Chesapeake James City Smithfield Windsor Barbara Brumbaugh Toni Small Wayne Griffin Vacant Michael Woolson William Saunders Vacant Franklin/Southampton Newport News Suffolk York Donald E. Goodwin Angela Hopkins Erin Rountree Anna Drake Beth Lewis Allison Watts Gloucester Norfolk Surry Mike Hudgins Justin Shafer Vacant Kevin Landry June Whitehurst Vacant Hampton Poquoson Virginia Beach David Imburgia Dannan O’Connell Melanie Coffey Greta Hawkins Ellen Roberts Diana St. John Isle of Wight Portsmouth Williamsburg Kim Hummel Meg Pittenger Heather Markle Melissa Lindgren Thomas Quattlebaum Aaron Small

Regional Environmental Committee – Non-Voting: HRSD NAVY SWCD VDEQ Jamie Mitchell Tara Fisher Stacey Bradshaw Noah Hill Kevin M. Parker Brian Powell Tara Outland-Williams John Kennedy Jennifer Reitz Phillip S. Winslow, Jr. Jim Wallace VDOT VDOF USGS NOAA Jennifer Dail Bryant Bays Mark Bennett Andrew Larkin Andrew B. Scott Meghan Mulroy-Goldman

James City Virginia Beach Trevor Long Shawn Fluharty

1

SUMMARY OF THE MEETING OF THE HRPDC REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE

June 4, 2020 Pursuant to Governor Northam’s Executive Order 53 issued on March 23, 2020 and Executive Order 61 issued on May 8, 2020, the Regional Environmental Committee meeting was held electronically via WebEx. The meeting was held on June 4, 2020 at 10:00 AM. 1. Attendance

The following members attended electronically: Regional Environmental Committee Voting Members:

Barbara Brumbaugh, CH Justin Shafer, NO Kevin Landry, GL Meg Pittenger, PO Kim Hummel, IW Erin Rountree, SU Toni Small, JC Diana St. John, VB Allison Watts, NN Heather Markle, WM Angela Hopkins, NN June Whitehurst, NO Regional Environmental Committee Non-Voting Members:

Bryant Bays, VDOF Meghan Mulroy-Goldman, VDOF

2. Summary of the March 5, 2020 Meeting of the Hampton Roads Regional Environmental Committee. There were no comments on the March meeting summary.

3. Public Comments There were no public comments.

4. Virginia Department of Forestry – Urban Forestry and Coastal Resilience Programs Mr. Bryant Bays and Mr. Robbie Lewis of the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) presented an overview of their projects and programs related to urban forestry and coastal resilience in Hampton Roads. Mr. Bays first introduced VDOF urban forestry services, including developing neighborhood-scale forest management plans, monitoring for insects and disease, developing outreach initiatives, and providing grant and cost-share funding. Mr. Bays

Attachment 1A

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highlighted the Virginia Trees for Clean Water Program, which encourages municipalities and the public to plant trees where they can have the most benefit for improving water quality. He also featured the Virginia Urban Wood Program, which provides options for landowners and municipalities to use dead or dying trees and aims to improve the management of small urban forests. Another program of interest to the municipalities is the Community Tree Planting Map. This map will be available online later this year and will allow citizens to report tree plantings. Mr. Lewis shared two projects happening in the region: 1) the Resilient Coastal Forests project for the York River watershed and 2) the Natural Mitigation efforts within the Virginia Beach Adaptation Strategy. VDOF partnered with the US Forest Service and the Green Infrastructure Center for the Resilient Coastal Forest project. The municipalities within the York River watershed, along with several NGOs and other stakeholders, have been involved from the beginning. The focus of the project is to identify the benefits provided by the forest and to develop an adaptive plan for forest resilience. Some of the management recommendations include increasing canopy cover, strengthening rural zoning, and identifying areas to plant stream buffers. VDOF is working with the City of Virginia Beach, the Nature Conservancy, and several more partners to integrate forest infrastructure into stormwater management in the City. Using trees as stormwater pumps can be a cost-effective complement to more structural practices, as found in a recent study published by Daniel McLaughlin et. al of Virginia Tech. HRPDC staff will distribute a link to the study, per the request of several Committee members. Dr. McLaughlin presented the study at the December meeting of the regional Water Quality Technical Workgroup. HRPDC staff will also distribute a copy of that presentation. Mr. Brian Swets of Portsmouth shared an interesting related article, which describes how researchers at Descartes Lab are using artificial intelligence to better map urban tree canopy.

5. Get Flood Fluent GetFloodFluent.org is a public outreach initiative by the HRPDC and its member localities to encourage residents to purchase flood insurance. The campaign began in 2019, with the launch of the website, paid media with an emphasis on radio spots, and public relations. Mr. McFarlane demonstrated the new flood insurance rate calculator on the website that provides homeowners estimates of their annual insurance rate costs based on the location, structure type, and property value. The campaign will be promoted this year with an emphasis on TV spots and continued public relations.

6. Chesapeake Bay Program Update The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) and the Virginia DEQ (DEQ) have been very active during the spring months holding regular meetings and hitting deadlines.

Attachment 1A

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Dr. Filippino first briefed the Committee on Virginia’s recent efforts towards meeting state commitments of the Bay TMDL. The state has received comments from the EPA on the draft two-year milestones and is working to incorporate those edits. The final version is expected to be posted on DEQ’s website in July. DEQ is also working to finalize the draft Bay TMDL Action Plan guidance, which the MS4 permittees use to develop their strategies for the Special Conditions of their permits. Once the draft is final, DEQ will publish notice of the guidance and initiate a formal public comment period. Lastly, DEQ held the first Regulatory Advisory Panel (RAP) for the Water Quality Management Planning Regulation, which is focused on discharges from wastewater treatment plants. They are discussing the new chlorophyll-a criteria and the floating WLAs that were proposed in the Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan. The next meeting of the RAP will be held virtually on June 10. The next updates were centered on the activities of the CBP Workgroups. Dr. Filippino noted that the Urban Stormwater Workgroup is primarily focused on the stream restoration protocols and is developing a memo to better apply protocols 2 and 3 to integrated stream and floodplain restoration projects. They have created a small group to more closely evaluate the Impervious Cover Removal and Disconnect BMPs, which Dr. Filippino is part of. The next status report on the IDF curve development will be presented at a joint meeting of the Climate Resilience and Modeling workgroups on June 16. The Land Use Workgroup is reviewing new land cover data, however, the data specific for Hampton Roads will not be available until next year. The Water Quality Goal Implementation team (GIT) has been discussing the impacts of COVID-19 to Bay TMDL deadlines and funding, the effects of climate change on Bay modeling, and the potential challenges of incorporating new data into CAST when the Phase III Watershed Implementation Plans were based on the 2017 version. Dr. Filippino explained that the CAST updates include BMP implementation but do not change the overall reduction goals.

The next meeting of the Regional Environmental Committee will be held on Thursday, July 2, 2020. The July meeting will be held virtually via WebEx.

Attachment 1A

Attachment 1B

Committee Meeting Sign-In Sheet

Locality/Agency Representative Representative Representative Representative Representative Representative Representative Representative Representative Representative

Chesapeake Barbara Brumbaugh

Franklin/Southampton Regan Prince

Gloucester Kevin Landry Ron Owens

Hampton

Isle of Wight Kim Hummel

James City Toni Small Brett Meadows Ellen Cook Tori Haynes

Newport News Allison Watts Angela Hopkins

Norfolk Justin Shafer June Whitehurst Gina Shaw Seamus McCarthy Esi Langston

Poquoson

Portsmouth Brian Swets Meg Pittenger

Smithfield

Suffolk Erin Rountree Matt Fanghella

Surry

Virginia Beach Diana St. John Amanda Medley

Williamsburg Heather Markle

Windsor

York

HRPDC Katherine Rainone Sara Kidd Ben McFarlane Whitney Katchmark Jill Sunderland Matt Smith KC Filippino Greg Grootendorst Ashley Gordon

HRSD

HRTPO

DCR

DEQ

DGIF

DHCD

SWCD

VDEM

VDOF Robbie Lewis Bryant Bays Meghan Mulroy

VDH

VDOT

VMRC

Port of Virginia

Jefferson Lab

NASA

Navy

NRCS

USACE

USGS

USFWS

ODU

VIMS

W&M

Virginia Sea Grant

CBF

Elizabeth River Project

James River Association

Living River Trust John Harbin

Lynnhaven River Now

Wetlands Watch

AECOM

AMT Engineering

Arcadis Tim Hare

Bay Environmental

Brown & Caldwell Don Cole

Cardno

CH2M

Clark Nexsen

Contech ES

Dewberry

F&R

Geosyntec Amelia DeCruz

GKY

Hazen & Sawyer

Jacobs

Kerr Environmental

Kimley-Horn

Louis Berger

Michael Baker

Opti RTC

Parsons Brinckerhoff

RK&K

Timmons Group Liz Scheessele

Stantech

Whitman Requardt Mike Barbachem

Woolpert

Guests

Public

Attachment_1B_signin_4Jun20

Attachm

ent 1B