                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

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)

A. The Board shall prepare plans and programs for the management of the water
resources of the Commonwealth in such a manner as to encourage, promote, and
secure the maximum beneficial use and control thereof. These plans and programs
shall be prepared for each major river basin of the Commonwealth, and
appropriate subbasins therein, including specifically the Potomac-Shenandoah
River Basin, the Rappahannock River Basin, the York River Basin, the James River
Basin, the Chowan River Basin, the Roanoke River Basin, the New River Basin, and
the Tennessee-Big Sandy River Basin, and for those areas in the Tidewater and
elsewhere in the Commonwealth not within these major river basins. Reports for
each basin shall be published by the Board.

B. 1. In preparing river basin plan and program reports enumerated in subsection
A, the Board shall (i) estimate current water withdrawals and use for
agriculture, industry, domestic use, and other significant categories of water
users; (ii) project water withdrawals and use by agriculture, industry, domestic
use, and other significant categories of water users; (iii) estimate, for each
major river and stream, the minimum instream flows necessary during drought
conditions to maintain water quality and avoid permanent damage to aquatic life
in streams, bays, and estuaries; (iv) evaluate, to the extent practicable, the
ability of existing subsurface and surface waters to meet current and future
water uses, including minimum instream flows, during drought conditions; (v)
evaluate, in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Health and local water
supply managers, the current and future capability of public water systems to
provide adequate quantity and quality of water; (vi) estimate, using a
data-driven method that includes multiple reasonable assumptions about supply
and demand over varying time frames, the risk that each locality and region will
experience water supply shortfalls; and (vii) evaluate hydrologic,
environmental, economic, social, legal, jurisdictional, and other aspects of
each alternative management strategy identified.

   2. The Board shall direct the Department of Environmental Quality (the
   Department) in its facilitation of regional water planning efforts. The
   Department shall (i) ensure that localities coordinate sufficiently in the
   development of regional water plans; (ii) provide planning, policy, and
   technical assistance to each regional planning area, differentiated according
   to each area&#8217;s water supply challenges, existing resources, and other
   factors; and (iii) ensure that each regional plan clearly identifies the
   region&#8217;s water supply risks and proposes strategies to address those
   risks.

   3. When preparing drought evaluation and response plans pursuant to
   subdivision 1, the Board shall recognize the localities that include any
   portion of the service area of a water supply utility in the Commonwealth that
   uses the Potomac River as a water supply source as a distinct drought
   evaluation region. Such plans shall incorporate the provisions of the
   Metropolitan Washington Water Supply and Drought Awareness Response Plan:
   Potomac River System (2000), including provisions related to triggers,
   actions, and messages for the Potomac River drought evaluation region. Nothing
   in this subdivision regarding the incorporation of such provisions shall be
   construed to limit the authority of the Governor during a declared drought
   emergency.

C. The Board may, by regulation, require each water user withdrawing surface or
subsurface water or both during each year to register, by a date to be
established by the Board, water withdrawal and use data for the previous year
including the estimated average daily withdrawal, maximum daily withdrawal,
sources of water withdrawn, and volume of wastewater discharge, provided that
the withdrawal exceeds one million gallons in any single month for use for crop
irrigation, or that the daily average during any single month exceeds 10,000
gallons per day for any other user. Location data shall be provided by each user
in a coordinate system specified by the Board.

D. The Board shall establish advisory committees to assist it in the formulation
of such plans or programs and in formulating recommendations called for in
subsection E. In this connection, the Board may include committee membership for
branches or agencies of the federal government, branches or agencies of the
Commonwealth, branches or agencies of the government of any state in a river
basin located within that state and Virginia, the political subdivisions of the
Commonwealth, and all persons and corporations interested in or directly
affected by any proposed or existing plan or program.

E. The Board shall prepare plans or programs and shall include in reports
prepared under subsection A recommended actions to be considered by the General
Assembly, the agencies of the Commonwealth and local political subdivisions, the
agencies of the federal government, or any other persons that the Board may deem
necessary or desirable for the accomplishment of plans or programs prepared
under subsection B.

F. In addition to the preparation of plans called for in subsection A, the
Board, upon written request of a political subdivision of the Commonwealth,
shall provide water supply planning assistance to such political subdivision,
including assistance in preparing drought management strategies, water
conservation programs, evaluation of alternative water sources, state enabling
legislation to facilitate a specific situation, applications for federal grants
or permits, or other such planning activities to facilitate intergovernmental
cooperation and coordination.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 10-17.4; 1966, c. 561; 1972, c. 728; 1981, c. 633; 1989,
c. 219; 2020, c. 1105; 2023, cc. 36, 37.