Hi everyone,

Unfortunately, HB507, Delegate Nancy Guy's bill that would have banned all intentional balloon releases, after passing the House Natural Resources sub-committee, failed to report out of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee on a 10-10 vote. The main concern seemed to be that the fines were too high (the bill increased the fines to match the fines of the current Virginia litter law). 

There was another bill by Senator Jen Kiggans, SB318, that proposed to reduce the number of balloons that could legally be released from 49 to one. Of course, our concern with this bill was that one released balloon is still litter and can still cause harm to wildlife or livestock. This bill passed through the Senate but was continued to 2021 in the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee by voice vote. 

While this was not the outcome we had hoped for, we did receive encouragement from several Delegates to try again next year. So that is exactly what we plan to do! We will keep this petition going so please ask your Virginia friends to sign. 

Thank you to Delegate Nancy Guy and Senator Jen Kiggans for bringing this issue to the Virginia General Assembly and to all of the Delegates and Senators who supported this effort! We'll see you again in 2021!

Christina