                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

CLOSURE OF CERTAIN COAL COMBUSTION RESIDUALS UNITS (§ 10.1-1402.03)

A. For the purposes of this section only:
			&#8220;Carrying cost&#8221; means the cost associated with financing
expenditures incurred but not yet recovered from the electric utility&#8217;s
customers, and shall be calculated by applying the electric utility&#8217;s
weighted average cost of debt and equity capital, as determined by the State
Corporation Commission, with no additional margin or profit, to any unrecovered
balances.
			&#8220;CCR landfill&#8221; means an area of land or an excavation that
receives CCR and is not a surface impoundment, underground injection well, salt
dome formation, salt bed formation, underground or surface coal mine, or cave
and that is owned or operated by an electric utility.
			&#8220;CCR surface impoundment&#8221; means a natural topographic depression,
man-made excavation, or diked area that (i) is designed to hold an accumulation
of CCR and liquids; (ii) treats, stores, or disposes of CCR; and (iii) is owned
or operated by an electric utility.
			&#8220;CCR unit&#8221; means any CCR landfill, CCR surface impoundment,
lateral expansion of a CCR unit, or combination of two or more such units that
is owned by an electric utility. Notwithstanding the provisions of 40 C.F.R.
Part 257, &#8220;CCR unit&#8221; also includes any CCR below the unit boundary
of the CCR landfill or CCR surface impoundment.
			&#8220;Coal combustion residuals&#8221; or &#8220;CCR&#8221; means fly ash,
bottom ash, boiler slag, and flue gas desulfurization materials generated from
burning coal for the purpose of generating electricity by an electric utility.
			&#8220;Encapsulated beneficial use&#8221; means a beneficial use of CCR that
binds the CCR into a solid matrix and minimizes its mobilization into the
surrounding environment.
			The definitions in this subsection shall be interpreted in a manner
consistent with 40 C.F.R. Part 257, except as expressly provided in this
section.

B. The owner or operator of any CCR unit located within the Chesapeake Bay
watershed at the Bremo Power Station, Chesapeake Energy Center, Chesterfield
Power Station, and Possum Point Power Station that ceased accepting CCR prior to
July 1, 2019, shall complete closure of such unit by (i) removing all of the CCR
in accordance with applicable standards established by Virginia Solid Waste
Management Regulations (9VAC20-81) and (ii) either (a) beneficially reusing all
such CCR in a recycling process for encapsulated beneficial use or (b) disposing
of the CCR in a permitted landfill on the property upon which the CCR unit is
located, adjacent to the property upon which the CCR unit is located, or off of
the property on which the CCR unit is located, that includes, at a minimum, a
composite liner and leachate collection system that meets or exceeds the federal
Criteria for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills pursuant to 40 C.F.R. Part 258. The
owner or operator shall beneficially reuse a total of no less than 6.8 million
cubic yards in aggregate of such removed CCR from no fewer than two of the sites
listed in this subsection where CCR is located.

C. The owner or operator shall complete the closure of any such CCR unit
required by this section no later than 15 years after initiating the closure
process at that CCR unit. During the closure process, the owner or operator
shall, at its expense, offer to provide a connection to a municipal water
supply, or where such connection is not feasible provide water testing, for any
residence within one-half mile of the CCR unit.

D. Where closure pursuant to this section requires that CCR or CCR that has been
beneficially reused be removed off-site, the owner or operator shall develop a
transportation plan in consultation with any county, city, or town in which the
CCR units are located and any county, city, or town within two miles of the CCR
units that minimizes the impact of any transport of CCR on adjacent property
owners and surrounding communities. The transportation plan shall include (i)
alternative transportation options to be utilized, including rail and barge
transport, if feasible, in combination with other transportation methods
necessary to meet the closure timeframe established in subsection C, and (ii)
plans for any transportation by truck, including the frequency of truck travel,
the route of truck travel, and measures to control noise, traffic impact,
safety, and fugitive dust caused by such truck travel. Once such transportation
plan is completed, the owner or operator shall post it on a publicly accessible
website. The owner or operator shall provide notice of the availability of the
plan to the Department and the chief administrative officers of the consulting
localities and shall publish such notice once in a newspaper of general
circulation in such locality.

E. The owner or operator of any CCR unit subject to the provisions of subsection
B shall accept and review proposals to beneficially reuse any CCR that are not
subject to an existing contractual agreement to remove CCR pursuant to the
provisions of subsection B every four years beginning July 1, 2022. Any entity
submitting such a proposal shall provide information from which the owner or
operator can determine (i) the amount of CCR that will be utilized for
encapsulated beneficial use; (ii) the cost of such beneficial reuse of such CCR;
and (iii) the guaranteed timeframe in which the CCR will be utilized.

F. In conducting closure activities described in subsection B, the owner or
operator shall (i) identify options for utilizing local workers, (ii) consult
with the Commonwealth&#8217;s Chief Workforce Development Officer on
opportunities to advance the Commonwealth&#8217;s workforce goals, including
furtherance of apprenticeship and other workforce training programs to develop
the local workforce, and (iii) give priority to the hiring of local workers.

G. No later than October 1, 2022, and no less frequently than every two years
thereafter until closure of all of its CCR units is complete, the owner or
operator of any CCR unit subject to the provisions of subsection B shall compile
the following two reports:

   1. A report describing the owner&#8217;s or operator&#8217;s closure plan for
   all such CCR units; the closure progress to date, both per unit and in total;
   a detailed accounting of the amounts of CCR that have been and are expected to
   be beneficially reused from such units, both per unit and in total; a detailed
   accounting of the amounts of CCR that have been and are expected to be
   landfilled from such units, both per unit and in total; a detailed accounting
   of the utilization of transportation options and a transportation plan as
   required by subsection D; and a discussion of groundwater and surface water
   monitoring results and any measures taken to address such results as closure
   is being completed.

   2. A report that contains the proposals and analysis for proposals required by
   subsection E.
   				The owner or operator shall post each such report on a publicly accessible
   website and shall submit each such report to the Governor, the Secretary of
   Natural and Historic Resources, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on
   Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, the Chairman of the House
   Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, the Chairman of
   the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor, the Chairman of the House
   Committee on Labor and Commerce, and the Director.

H. All costs associated with closure of a CCR unit in accordance with this
section shall be recoverable through a rate adjustment clause authorized by the
State Corporation Commission (the Commission) under the provisions of
subdivision A 5 e of &#xA7; 56-585.1, provided that (i) when determining the
reasonableness of such costs the Commission shall not consider closure in place
of the CCR unit as an option; (ii) the annual revenue requirement recoverable
through a rate adjustment clause authorized under this section, exclusive of any
other rate adjustment clauses approved by the Commission under the provisions of
subdivision A 5 e of &#xA7; 56-585.1, shall not exceed $225 million on a
Virginia jurisdictional basis for the Commonwealth in any 12-month period,
provided that any under-recovery amount of revenue requirements incurred in
excess of $225 million in a given 12-month period, limited to the under-recovery
amount and the carrying cost, shall be deferred and recovered through the rate
adjustment clause over up to three succeeding 12-month periods without regard to
this limitation, and with the length of the amortization period being determined
by the Commission; (iii) costs may begin accruing on July 1, 2019, but no
approved rate adjustment clause charges shall be included in customer bills
until July 1, 2021; (iv) any such costs shall be allocated to all customers of
the utility in the Commonwealth as a non-bypassable charge, irrespective of the
generation supplier of any such customer; and (v) any such costs that are
allocated to the utility&#8217;s system customers outside of the Commonwealth
that are not actually recovered from such customers shall be included for cost
recovery from jurisdictional customers in the Commonwealth through the rate
adjustment clause.

I. Any electric public utility subject to the requirements of this section may,
without regard for whether it has petitioned for any rate adjustment clause
pursuant to subdivision A 5 e of &#xA7; 56-585.1, petition the Commission for
approval of a plan for CCR unit closure at any or all of its CCR unit sites
listed in subsection B. Any such plan shall take into account site-specific
conditions and shall include proposals to beneficially reuse no less than 6.8
million cubic yards of CCR in aggregate from no fewer than two of the sites
listed in subsection B. The Commission shall issue its final order with regard
to any such petition within six months of its filing, and in doing so shall
determine whether the utility&#8217;s plan for CCR unit closure, and the
projected costs associated therewith, are reasonable and prudent, taking into
account that closure in place of any CCR unit is not to be considered as an
option. The Commission shall not consider plans that do not comply with
subsection B.

J. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require additional beneficial
reuse of CCR at any active coal-fired electric generation facility if such
additional beneficial reuse results in a net increase in truck traffic on the
public roads of the locality in which the facility is located as compared to
such traffic during calendar year 2018.

K. The Commonwealth shall not authorize any cost recovery by an owner or
operator subject to the provisions of this section for any fines or civil
penalties resulting from violations of federal and state law or regulation.

HISTORY: 2019, cc. 650, 651; 2021, Sp. Sess. I, c. 401.