Title 62.1, Waters of the State, Ports and Harbors

The Authority shall initiate and further plans for the development of the ports of the Commonwealth, and, to this end, shall keep informed as to the present requirements and likely future needs of those ports.

A. The Authority shall have the power to perform any act or carry out any function not inconsistent with state law, whether included in the provisions of this chapter, which may be, or tend to be, useful in carrying out the provisions of this chapter. The provisions of the Virgin…

A. The Authority may appoint, employ, dismiss, and fix and pay compensation to employees, officers, agents, advisers, and consultants, including financial and technical advisers, engineers, and public accountants within and without the Commonwealth and the United States without r…

The Authority shall effect consolidation of the water terminals of the several cities within the ports of the Commonwealth. It, specifically, shall bring about the centrally directed operation of all state-owned port facilities at Hampton Roads by such means as may prove necessar…

The Authority is empowered to develop, maintain, and operate foreign trade zones under such terms and conditions as are or may be prescribed by law.

A. The Authority shall analyze the shipment of coal through the ports of the Commonwealth for the purpose of expediting such shipments. For this purpose, the Authority shall be authorized to collect, analyze, and require the furnishing of information, which is maintained in the o…

The Authority is hereby vested with the power of eminent domain to acquire property or any interest therein, however held, but not property of the Commonwealth or its agencies, and may exercise the same for the purposes set forth in §§ 62.1-132.18 and 62.1-132.19 in the manner an…

Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed as affecting the powers and duties now conferred by law upon the State Corporation Commission.

A. The accounts and records of the Authority showing the receipt and disbursement of funds from whatever source derived shall be in a form prescribed by governmental generally accepted accounting principles. Such accounts shall correspond as nearly as possible to the accounts and…

A. As used in this section and in §§ 62.1-141 through 62.1-146, the term "port facility" means harbors, seaports and all facilities used in connection therewith and shall include all those facilities named in §§ 62.1-132.18 and 62.1-132.19. The term "cost" as used in this chapter…

In the discretion of the Authority any bonds issued under the provisions of this chapter may be secured by a trust agreement by and between the Authority and a corporate trustee, which may be any trust company or bank having the powers of a trust company within or without the Com…

The Authority is hereby authorized to fix and revise charges for the use of the port facilities under its control and the different parts or sections thereof, and to contract with any person, partnership, association or corporation desiring the use of any part thereof, and to fix…

All moneys received pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, whether as proceeds from the sale of revenue bonds or refunding bonds or as revenues, shall be deemed to be trust funds to be held and applied solely as provided in this chapter. The Authority shall, in the resolutio…

Any holder of bonds, notes, certificates or other evidences of borrowing issued under the provisions of this chapter or of any of the coupons appertaining thereto, and the trustee under any trust agreement, except to the extent the rights herein given may be restricted by such tr…

The exercise of the powers granted by this chapter shall be in all respects for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, for the increase of their commerce, and for the promotion of their safety, health, welfare, convenience, and prosperity, and as the operation and ma…

Bonds issued by the Authority under the provisions of this chapter are hereby made securities in which all public officers and public bodies of the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions, all insurance companies, trust companies, banking associations, investment companies, e…

Bonds and refunding bonds issued under the provisions of this chapter shall not be deemed to constitute a debt of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision thereof or a pledge of the faith and credit of the Commonwealth or of any such political subdivision, but shall be pa…

Any bonds issued to refund bonds or other obligations of the Authority prior to the adoption of the amendments in this chapter relating to refunding bonds which could now be taken under this chapter are hereby approved, validated and ratified by the legislature of the Commonwealt…

The provisions regulating the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (§ 2.2-2005 et seq.) shall not apply to the Authority in the exercise of any power conferred under this chapter.

This chapter shall constitute full and complete authority for the doing of the acts and things herein authorized and shall be liberally construed to effect the purposes hereof.

The governing body of any county, city or town is authorized to adopt such resolutions and/or ordinances as may be required giving it assurances to the Secretary of the Army or the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army for the fulfillment of the required items of local coo…

The cities and towns authorized to adopt resolutions and ordinances pursuant to § 62.1-148 shall have the power to irrevocably bind themselves to do any and all things necessary to perform or execute the assurances authorized to be given pursuant to § 62.1-148 regarding construct…

Such resolutions and ordinances may irrevocably bind such county, city or town: (1) To provide, free of cost to the United States the fee simple title to lands, perpetual and/or temporary easements, rights-of-way and any other interest in lands for cut-off bends, the laying of pi…

For the purpose of complying with the terms of local cooperation as specified in this chapter and as stipulated in the congressional document covering the particular project involved, any city or town may acquire the necessary lands, or interest in lands, by lease, purchase, gift…

All resolutions and ordinances adopted prior to March 16, 1948, by cities, counties and towns in furtherance of local cooperation projects of the United States for river and harbor improvement and for flood control and their acts in pursuance thereof are hereby ratified and affir…

This chapter shall be liberally construed as in aid of projects of the United States for the improvements of rivers and harbors and for flood control and in furtherance of and not in limitation of powers now conferred by law on counties, cities and towns.

The cities in the Commonwealth situated on navigable streams shall have the power to cooperate with the United States of America in the improvement of the navigability of such streams involving the deepening, widening and straightening the channel thereof and making provision for…

In order to execute the purposes and objectives declared in § 62.1-155, the cities therein defined shall have the power to give assurances to the United States of America that they will: 1. Furnish or cause to be furnished free of cost to the United States, when and as required b…

The cities defined in § 62.1-155 shall have the power to irrevocably bind themselves to do any and all things necessary to perform or execute the assurances authorized to be given pursuant to § 62.1-156 anything in the charters of such cities to the contrary notwithstanding.

Claims for damages to oyster and clamming grounds may be asserted in the courts having jurisdiction in the county or city in which such damages occur.

The term "public corporation," for the purposes of this chapter, means the Commonwealth of Virginia or any political subdivision thereof or any incorporated municipality therein or any public agency of this Commonwealth or of any political subdivision thereof or of any municipali…

Any public corporation of the Commonwealth, as that term is defined in § 62.1-159, is authorized to make application, individually or jointly with any other public corporation, for the privilege of establishing, operating and maintaining a foreign-trade zone in accordance with an…

Any private corporation hereafter organized under the laws of this Commonwealth for the purpose of establishing, operating and maintaining a foreign-trade zone in accordance with the act of Congress referred to in § 62.1-160 is likewise authorized to make application for the priv…

Any public or private corporation authorized by this chapter to make application for the privilege of establishing, operating and maintaining such foreign-trade zone, whose application is granted pursuant to the terms of such act of Congress is authorized to establish a foreign-t…

The governing body of any county, city or town having a port may, at its pleasure, create such agencies, appoint such agents and employ such persons as may be required for the orderly and effective management of such port and its harbor; but nothing herein shall be construed to r…

Any person owning land upon a watercourse may erect a private wharf on the same, or private pier or landing, in such watercourse opposite his land; provided, such wharf, pier or land is for noncommercial purposes and navigation be not obstructed, nor the private rights of any per…

Any person desiring the privilege of erecting a wharf at or on any county landing may, after giving notice of his intention by advertising such notice at some public place near the landing, and also at the front door of the courthouse of such county, on the first day of a term of…

Any person or persons who shall moor any vessel or vessels of any kind or name whatsoever or any raft or any part of a raft to any buoy, beacon, or day mark, placed in the waters of Virginia by authority of the United States or shall in any manner hang on with any vessel or raft …

The cost of repairing or replacing any such buoy, beacon, or day mark which may have been misplaced, damaged, or destroyed by any vessel or raft whatsoever having been made fast to any such buoy, beacon, or day mark shall, when the same shall be legally ascertained, be a lien upo…

It shall be unlawful for any vessel to anchor on the range of any range lights established by the United States unless such anchorage is unavoidable, and the master of any vessel so anchoring shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished b…

It shall be unlawful for any person or corporation to dredge, dig or otherwise remove and carry away any part of any deposit of sand or gravel, or mixture of sand and gravel from any part of the fastland, or beach or bluff, abutting upon any of the rivers, streams or other waters…

Any person or corporation violating the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Any owner of any such fastland or beach, bluff, or bed of stream, between high- and low-watermark on which any such deposit exists or from which it extends towards the middle line of the water, as aforesaid, may, by appropriate proceedings brought by such owner, have an injunctio…

The prohibitions of this chapter shall not apply to any owner of any fastland, bluff, beach or bed of stream, upon or in front of which such deposits may lie, nor to any person or corporation acting under written permission from, or contract with such owner. None of the provision…

Except as otherwise permitted by law, it shall be unlawful for any person to cast, throw or dump any garbage, refuse, dead animal, trash, carton, can, bottle, container, box, lumber, timber or like material, or other solid waste, except fish or crab bait in any form, into any of …

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 expecte…