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“The agriculture committee felt like it would be the wrong message to send at this time to the agricultural community,” said Sen. Daniel W. Bird Jr. (D-Wythe).
“It’s another socialist scheme,” said Robert Merrill, an Albemarle County farmer and representative of the Virginia Taxpayers Association, during a committee hearing.
“Fellows, you’re just regimenting the people right down the line,” said Augusta farmer Troy Horne.
Sen. William F. Fears (D-Accomac), who proposed the amendment, admits that eventually farmers will have to submit to some state water regulation, but he fears the political consequences of doing it now.
“They’re not going to let rne come back there if we don’t exempt agriculture,” Sen. Fears told a subcommittee.
“It’s a problem, no question about it,” Sen. Fears said, “but I don't want to do it right now."
“In the long run, it would be to their better benefit,” said Keith Cheatham of the Virginia Farm Bureau. “But at this point in time, they haven’t been convinced of it. They’re scared to death of it. ”
“They’ll have to come to grips with it,” Sen. Mitchell said, “when the Eastern Shore begins to run out of groundwater.”
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