Title 10.1, Title 10.1. Conservation

The Department of Environmental Quality shall publish in March of each year the information reported by industries pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 11023 in its document known as the "Virginia Toxic Release Inventory." The report shall be (i) organized by chemical, facility and facility l…

A. The Department shall compile and maintain a Hazardous Waste Site Inventory (the Inventory) comprising a current listing of sites permitted by or in corrective action under the Department at which the disposal of hazardous waste, as defined in § 10.1-1400 and not otherwise excl…

A. As used in this section, "supplemental environmental project" means an environmentally beneficial project undertaken as partial settlement of a civil enforcement action and not otherwise required by law. B. The State Air Pollution Control Board, the State Water Control Board, …

A. The Department and the State Air Pollution Control Board have the authority to consider the cumulative impact of new and proposed electric generating facilities within the Commonwealth on attainment of the national ambient air quality standards. B. The Department shall enter i…

A. The State Air Pollution Control Board, the State Water Control Board, and the Virginia Waste Management Board, in their discretion, or the Director, in his discretion, may employ mediation as defined in § 8.01-581.21, or a dispute resolution proceeding as defined in § 8.01-576…

A. The Department, with assistance from the Ombudsman for Tribal Consultation designated pursuant to § 2.2-401.01, shall develop policies and procedures, to the extent permitted by law, to ensure an opportunity for meaningful and appropriate written consultation with potentially …

In addition to the authority of the State Air Pollution Control Board, the State Water Control Board, the Virginia Waste Management Board and the Director to bring actions in the courts of the Commonwealth to enforce any law, regulation, case decision or condition of a permit or …

The Department may participate in any carbon market for which submerged aquatic vegetation restoration qualifies as an activity that generates carbon offset credits. Any revenue resulting from the sale of such credits shall be used to implement additional submerged aquatic vegeta…

The conditions, requirements, provisions, contents, powers and duties of any section, article, or chapter of the Code in effect on March 31, 1993, relating to agencies consolidated in this chapter shall apply to the Department of Environmental Quality until superseded by new legi…

"Board or Boards" means the State Air Pollution Control Board, the State Water Control Board, and the Virginia Waste Management Board. "Department" means the Department of Environmental Quality. "Director" means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. "Environmen…

The Department may establish programs to recognize facilities and persons that have demonstrated a commitment to enhanced environmental performance and to encourage innovations in environmental protection.

A. The Director shall establish different categories of participation and the criteria and benefits for each category. Such categories shall include, but not be limited to: (i) E2 facilities, (ii) E3 facilities, and (iii) E4 facilities. B. In order to participate as an E2 facilit…

A. The Director shall develop guidelines and procedures for implementation of the program, including procedures for submitting applications, guidelines for annual reports from participating persons or facilities, and procedures for reviewing program implementation. B. Upon review…

A. Participants shall submit annual reports in a format and schedule prescribed by the Director, including information on environmental performance relevant to the program. B. The Department shall submit a report to the Governor and to the members of the House Committee on Agricu…

A. To the extent consistent with federal law and notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Air Pollution Control Board, the Waste Management Board, and the State Water Control Board may grant alternative compliance methods to the regulations adopted pursuant to their author…

The Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards shall be awarded each year to recognize participants in the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program that have demonstrated extraordinary leadership, innovation, and commitment to implementation of pollution prevention practices and…

The State Forester, under the direction and control of the Governor, shall exercise the powers and perform the duties conferred or imposed upon him by law and shall perform other duties required of him by the Governor or the appropriate citizen boards.

A. The State Forester shall supervise and direct all forest interests and all matters pertaining to forestry within the Commonwealth. He shall have charge of all forest wardens and shall appoint, direct and supervise persons he employs to perform labor in the forest reservations …

A. The State Forester shall establish and administer a century forest program to honor families in the Commonwealth whose property has been in the same family for 100 years or more and includes at least 20 contiguous acres of managed forest. In order to be eligible for recognitio…

The care, management and preservation of the forest reserves of the Commonwealth and the forests thereon, and all moneys appropriated in that behalf, or collected therefrom in any way, and all personal and real property acquired to carry out the objects of this chapter, shall be …

A. The State Forester shall have authority to purchase in the name of the Commonwealth lands suitable for state forests. He may accept for state forest purposes gifts, devises and bequests of real and personal property as well as endowments, funds, and grants from any source. Unl…

Any waste and unappropriated land, other than ungranted shores of the sea, marsh or meadowlands exempted from grant by the provisions of § 41.1-3, may be set apart permanently for use as state forest land, by a grant and proclamation signed by the Governor upon the receipt from t…

Lands acquired by the Commonwealth for forestry purposes shall not be subject to warrant, survey or patent.

Violators of any regulation for the supervision or use of any state forest, park, road, street or highway traversing the same, shall be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor.

Any person who kindles fire upon any of the state forests of this Commonwealth, except in accordance with regulations prescribed by the State Forester, or who cuts and removes any timber, or who damages or causes the damage of forestland or timber belonging to the Commonwealth, s…

The State Forester shall distribute notices, printed in large letters on cloth or other suitable material, calling attention to the danger of forest fires, to the forest fire laws, and to trespass laws and their penalties, to forest wardens, and to owners of timberland to be post…

No action for trespass shall lie against the State Forester, or any agent or employee of the State Forester for lawful acts done in performance of his duties.

A. The State Forester may establish and maintain a nursery or nurseries, for the propagation of forest tree seedlings, either upon one or more of the forest reservations of the Commonwealth, or upon such other land as he may and which he is empowered to acquire for that purpose. …

For the purpose of maintaining in perpetuity the production of forest products on state forests, the State Forester may designate and appraise the trees which should be cut under the principles of scientific forest management, and may sell these trees for not less than the apprai…

All money obtained from the state forests, except as provided in subsection E of § 10.1-1107, shall be paid into a special nonreverting fund in the state treasury, to the credit of the Reforestation Operations Fund (the Fund). Interest earned on the moneys in the Fund shall remai…

The State Forester may cooperate with landowners, counties, municipalities and state agencies, by making available forestry services consisting of specialized or technical forestry equipment and an operator, or rent to them such specialized equipment. For such services or rentals…

The State Forester shall keep a full and accurate account of the receipts and expenditures of the Department.

The State Forester shall preserve all evidence taken by him with reference to conserving the forests of the Commonwealth and the methods best adapted to accomplish such object. He shall report his actions, conclusions and recommendations to each session of the General Assembly an…

There is hereby created in the state treasury a special nonreverting fund to be known as the State Forests System Fund, hereafter referred to as "the Fund." The Fund shall be established on the books of the Comptroller. All contributions from income tax refunds and any other sour…

A. The Office of Working Lands Preservation is established in the Department of Forestry under the supervision of the State Forester. B. As used in this article, unless the context requires a different meaning: "Fund" means the Virginia Farmland and Forestland Preservation Fund. …

A. The Office shall have the following powers and duties: 1. To develop, in cooperation with the Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, the American Farmland Trust, the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation, the Virginia Outdoors…

The Virginia Farm Link Program is hereby established in the Office to assist retiring farmers and individuals seeking to become active farmers in the transition of farm businesses and properties from retiring farmers to active farmers. Such assistance shall include (i) assistance…

The State Forester shall submit a written report on the operation of the Office by December 1 of each year to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources. The prov…

In preparing its report on each major state project, as required in Article 2 (§ 10.1-1188 et seq.) of Chapter 11.1, each state agency shall demonstrate that it has considered the impact that project would have on the availability of working farm and forest lands as required in §…

A. In preparing environmental impact reports in accordance with § 10.1-1119.6, state agencies shall consider the impact of the major state project on all farm and forest lands that: 1. Have soil classified as capability class I, II, III, or IV; 2. Have an exceptional combination …

A. All state agencies, boards, authorities, and commissions or any branch of the state government shall prepare and submit an environmental impact report to the Department on each major state project. For the purposes of this section, "major state project" means the acquisition o…

The Department of Transportation (VDOT) shall, as part of the environmental review it conducts for a road or highway construction project, include in an environmental impact statement a list of any existing terrestrial or aquatic wildlife corridor identified in the Wildlife Corri…

Within sixty days of the receipt of the environmental impact report by the Department, the Department shall review and make a statement to the Governor commenting on the environmental impact of each major state facility. The statement of the Department shall be available to the G…

The State Comptroller shall not authorize payments of funds from the state treasury for a major state project unless the request is accompanied by the written approval of the Governor after his consideration of the comments of the Department on the environmental impact of the fac…

The Department shall, in conjunction with other state agencies, coordinate the development of objectives, criteria and procedures to ensure the orderly preparation and evaluation of environmental impact reports required by this article. These procedures shall provide for submissi…

All departments, commissions, boards, authorities, agencies, offices and institutions within any branch of the state government shall cooperate with the Department in carrying out the purposes of this article.