Clean Water act passes General Assembly

With unanimous, bipartisan support, a bill to invest millions of dollars to clean up and improve Delaware's drinking water and waterways has passed through the General Assembly and now only needs Gov. John Carney's signature to become law.

Passed June 22 by the Senate, and April 1 by the House, House Bill 200 establishes a Clean Water Trust account and increases funding for low-income and underserved communities. The bill also requires a comprehensive clean water report and strategic plan to ensure that priority projects are addressed in a timely fashion. Population growth and aging water infrastructure have put a strain on many municipalities, and flooding is a regular concern in many low-lying neighborhoods.

A similar bill was introduced in 2019, and Carney had budgeted $50 million for clean water funding in his 2021 budget, but the money was cut at the end of last year's legislative session held during the pandemic.

The $50 million in funding, however, is back in Carney's 2022 budget, which includes $22.5 million for safe drinking water, $22.5 million for water pollution control and $5 million for resource conservation and development.

“The time to protect our waterways, support our stormwater systems and ensure clean, healthy drinking water to our residents is now,” said House Majority Leader Rep. Valerie Longhurst, D-Bear, the prime sponsor of HB 200. “This is an environmental justice issue; access to clean water is a basic human right and a necessity for a healthy community, economy, and state. HB 200 will help secure our future and ensure that our children and grandchildren have the needed, life-sustaining force of water for years to come.”

Under the bill, priority will be given to green infrastructure that improves water quality, and to projects that reduce nutrients and pollution in waterways. More than 375 bodies of water in Delaware suffer from excess nutrients, toxins, and bacteria, and low dissolved oxygen, officials said, and about 100 miles of Delaware waterways now have fish consumption advisories as a result of high concentrations of PCBs, metals and pesticides.

The bill creates a Clean Water Trust Fund Oversight Committee made up of representatives from each state agency that makes water investment and management decisions. The committee would be charged with producing an annual report on how funds are used for wastewater, stormwater and drinking water infrastructure, beach preservation, and waterway management. The bill also adds new members to the Water Infrastructure Advisory Council, providing assistance to the oversight committee.

The Clean Water Trust would include appropriations in the Bond Bill for safe drinking water, water pollution control, and resource conservation and development projects plus loan repayments, interest on invested funds, and other funding made available for those purposes.

According to officials, federal funding for water infrastructure projects has declined by 75 percent since the late 1970s, creating a backlog of more than $700 million in projects from Claymont to Delmar.

In other legislative business:

Special education funding clears General Assembly

A bill that expands funding for special eduction in elementary schools unanimously passed the Senate on June 22 after earlier passage in the House.

House Bill 86 would fund special education services for students in kindergarten to third grade. The bill now awaits Gov. John Carney's signature to become law.

Carney signs telemedicine bill

A bill modernizing access to telehealth and telemedicine was signed into law June 23 by Gov. John Carney.

House Bill 160, known as the Telehealth Access Preservation and Modernization Act of 2021, adopts an Interstate Medical Licensure Compact to ensure telehealth services are provided through qualified medical practitioners in a streamlined and efficient pathway to licensure that meets the healthcare delivery system needs of the 21st century.

Effective immediately, the act allows patients to receive telemedicine treatment without first having an in-person office visit.

Three criminal justice bills pass the House

The House unanimously passed three criminal justice bills June 22 that would require police interrogations to be recorded, publicize law enforcement complaints, and ban certain uses of juvenile mugshots.

House Bill 215 would mandate an audio or video recording of an adult or juvenile who is interrogated by law enforcement.

House Bill 243 prohibits law enforcement agencies from releasing or publishing the name or image of a juvenile unless they are charged with a violent felony, and the release of a photo is needed to protect public safety.

House Joint Resolution 4, sponsored by Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, would allow members of the public to view complaints against law enforcement officers. The bill would require the Criminal Justice Council to publicly publish an integrity report detailing the information furnished by each police agency concerning complaints made against any of its police officers for the previous three years, as well as complaints made each year against any of its police officers and the disposition of each complaint.

The resolution also would require the CJC to publish and update a searchable list of all police officers who have been decertified in Delaware in the previous 10 years.

“Publishing reports of complaints by agency and a list of decertified officers will make this information more easily accessible to the public and provide more data for residents to know more about the police agencies that serve their communities,” said Schwartzkopf, a retired Delaware State Police captain. “There is no single silver bullet to addressing police reform; we must take a series of steps forward toward improving transparency and accountability. This measure is another piece of a larger puzzle of reforming our criminal justice system to improve policing and ensure the system works the way it is intended.”

All three bills await action in the Senate.

Absentee voting bill restored

After its defeat in the House June 10, an absentee voting bill has been restored and could again be acted on in the House.

On June 17, House Bill 75 was restored and the previous roll call vote was rescinded. The bill’s status is now laid on table in the House, awaiting action.

As a constitutional amendment, the bill must pass with two-thirds of the votes, and it was shy of two votes for passage in the House. Republicans opposed the authority the bill gives to the General Assembly to enact general laws providing the circumstances, rules, and procedures by which registered voters may vote using absentee ballots.