62.1-44.38 - Plans and programs; registration of certain data by water users; advisory committees; committee membership for federal, state, and local agencies; water supply planning assistance.
§ 62.1-44.38. Plans and programs; registration of certain data by waterusers; advisory committees; committee membership for federal, state, andlocal agencies; water supply planning assistance.
A. The Board shall prepare plans and programs for the management of the waterresources of this Commonwealth in such a manner as to encourage, promote andsecure the maximum beneficial use and control thereof. These plans andprograms shall be prepared for each major river basin of this Commonwealth,and appropriate subbasins therein, including specifically thePotomac-Shenandoah River Basin, the Rappahannock River Basin, the York RiverBasin, the James River Basin, the Chowan River Basin, the Roanoke RiverBasin, the New River Basin, the Tennessee-Big Sandy River Basin, and forthose areas in the Tidewater and elsewhere in the Commonwealth not withinthese major river basins. Reports for each basin shall be published by theBoard.
B. In preparing river basin plan and program reports enumerated in subsectionA of this section, the Board shall (i) estimate current water withdrawals anduse for agriculture, industry, domestic use, and other significant categoriesof water users; (ii) project water withdrawals and use by agriculture,industry, domestic water use, and other significant categories of waterusers; (iii) estimate, for each major river and stream, the minimum instreamflows necessary during drought conditions to maintain water quality and avoidpermanent damage to aquatic life in streams, bays, and estuaries; (iv)evaluate, to the extent practicable, the ability of existing subsurface andsurface waters to meet current and future water uses, including minimuminstream flows, during drought conditions; (v) evaluate, in cooperation withthe Virginia Department of Health and local water supply managers, thecurrent and future capability of public water systems to provide adequatequantity and quality of water; (vi) identify water management problems andalternative water management plans to address such problems; and (vii)evaluate hydrologic, environmental, economic, social, legal, jurisdictional,and other aspects of each alternative management strategy identified.
C. The Board may, by regulation, require each water user withdrawing surfaceor subsurface water or both during each year to register, by a date to beestablished by the Board, water withdrawal and use data for the previous yearincluding the estimated average daily withdrawal, maximum daily withdrawal,sources of water withdrawn, and volume of wastewater discharge, provided thatthe withdrawal exceeds one million gallons in any single month for use forcrop irrigation, or that the daily average during any single month exceeds10,000 gallons per day for all other users.
D. The Board shall establish advisory committees to assist it in theformulation of such plans or programs and in formulating recommendationscalled for in subsection E of this section. In this connection, the Board mayinclude committee membership for branches or agencies of the federalgovernment, branches or agencies of the Commonwealth, branches or agencies ofthe government of any state in a river basin located within that state andVirginia, the political subdivisions of the Commonwealth, and all persons andcorporations interested in or directly affected by any proposed or existingplan or program.
E. The Board shall prepare plans or programs and shall include in reportsprepared under subsection A of this section recommended actions to beconsidered by the General Assembly, the agencies of the Commonwealth andlocal political subdivisions, the agencies of the federal government, or anyother persons that the Board may deem necessary or desirable for theaccomplishment of plans or programs prepared under subsection B of thissection.
F. In addition to the preparation of plans called for in subsection A of thissection, the Board, upon written request of a political subdivision of theCommonwealth, shall provide water supply planning assistance to suchpolitical subdivision, to include assistance in preparing drought managementstrategies, water conservation programs, evaluation of alternative watersources, state enabling legislation to facilitate a specific situation,applications for federal grants or permits, or other such planning activitiesto facilitate intergovernmental cooperation and coordination.
(Code 1950, § 10-17.4; 1966, c. 561; 1972, c. 728; 1981, c. 633; 1989, c.219.)