VDOT pauses cancellation of idle E-ZPass accounts
RICHMOND — Officials in Virginia say they are temporarily pausing deactivations of idle E-ZPass accounts during the coronavirus pandemic.
Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Melodie N. Martin told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the agency will halt its routine practice of deactivating idle accounts.
She said the department generally asks drivers to return the state-owned transponders when they go unused. But there is now a six-month pause on requesting the transponders be returned.
E-ZPass allows drivers to pass through tollbooths without paying cash. Money is deducted from an account when a vehicle with a transponder passes through. Virginia’s transportation agency contacts drivers after a year without activity on their accounts. Those accounts are moved to “inactive status” if the user fails to respond after 30 days.
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Users who received deactivation notices before Jan. 28 must act to keep their accounts active.
“Those customers who have already received an inactive account notice will still have their accounts closed if they do not take action within 30 days of receiving the notification,” Martin said.
Ducks Unlimited buys wetlands, will restore
CHESAPEAKE — A conservation group is buying about 1,300 acres of land that’s next to the Great Dismal Swamp in hopes of restoring it to the environmentally unique wetlands it once was.
The Virginian-Pilot reported Monday that Ducks Unlimited is a national nonprofit that bought the land in the city of Chesapeake.
Emily Purcell, the organization’s director of conservation programs for the South Atlantic said the acquisition will ultimately cost about $8 million. The property is currently owned by a real estate investment fund and was once farmland.
The group’s goal is to one day create a “conservation corridor” that could connect the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge to state-run Cavalier Wildlife Management Area.
The swamp’s unique and carbon-heavy peat soil consists of partially decomposed twigs, leaves and roots of plants that have accumulated over centuries. The refuge has been in the process of rewetting much of the swamp in an effort to protect and restore the soil.