2007 PRESS RELEASES

August 15, 2007
STATE PROVIDES LIMITED EXEMPTIONS FOR HAY AND FEED HAULERS DUE TO DROUGHT CONDITIONS
Contact: Elaine Lidholm, 804.786.7686

At the request of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) authorized motor carrier exemptions to hours worked, and the Virginia Departments of Transportation and Motor Vehicles granted temporary waivers of registration and license requirements along with normal weight and width restrictions for carriers transporting emergency supplies of hay or animal feed.  The relief is due to drought conditions and high temperatures that have blanketed a good part of Virginia.  The exemptions extend to transporters destined for the localities designated as primary and contiguous natural disaster areas by the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA).  The exemptions became effective at six a.m. August 11, 2007, and will remain in effect until six a.m. October, 1, 2007, or whenever the drought crisis has abated, whichever comes first.

Several state agencies – Agriculture and Consumer Services, Motor Vehicles, State Police, and Transportation – worked with VDEM to notify affected haulers of the exemptions.  This multi-agency cooperation helps ensure essential emergency relief supplies reach the disaster areas in a timely manner and precludes inadvertent ticketing or detention.  

To date, the following counties have been designated as disaster areas, and the regulation exemption applies to them: Culpeper, Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Washington and Wise.  It also applies to localities that have been designated as contiguous disaster areas, which means they border a locality with a primary designation: the Counties of Bland, Buchanan, Dickenson, Fauquier, Grayson, Madison, Orange, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Tazewell and Wythe, and the independent cities of Bristol and Norton.  As additional counties receive natural disaster designations from the USDA, the waivers will be revised to apply to them. 

Todd P. Haymore, VDACS Commissioner, said, “During this critical drought situation, farmers need these waivers to ensure that feed, hay and other emergency supplies are transported to them as quickly as possible.”