§ 62.1-194.1 Obstructing or contaminating state waters
A. Except as otherwise permitted by law, it shall be unlawful for any person to dump, place or put, or cause to be dumped, placed or put into, upon the banks of or into the channels of any state waters any object or substance, noxious or otherwise, which may reasonably be expected to endanger, obstruct, impede, contaminate or substantially impair the lawful use or enjoyment of such waters and their environs by others. Any person who violates any provision of this law shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Each day that any of said materials or substances so dumped, placed or put, or caused to be dumped, placed or put into, upon the banks of or into the channels of, said streams shall constitute a separate offense and be punished as such.
B. In addition to the foregoing penalties for violation of this law, the judge of the circuit court of the locality wherein any such violation occurs, whether there be a criminal conviction therefor or not shall, upon a complaint filed by the attorney of such locality or by any person whose property is damaged or whose property is threatened with damage from any such violation, award an injunction enjoining any violation of this law by any person found by the court in such suit to have violated this law or causing the same to be violated, when made a party defendant to such suit.
History
This law was first created in 1968. The record of its establishment is cataloged in chapter 659 of that year’s edition of “Acts of Assembly,” the annual state publication listing all changes made to the Code of Virginia in that year. Unfortunately, the 1968 “Acts” aren’t available online. It has been modified 1 time. Those modifications are cataloged by “The Acts of Assembly,” a state publication, by year and chapter. Those modifications that can be read on the General Assembly’s website will be linked accordingly. That modification is as follows: in 2007, chapter 26.
1968, c. 659; 2007, c. 26.