Virginia Administrative Code › Title 9 - ENVIRONMENT › Agency 25 - STATE WATER CONTROL BOARD › Chapter 875 - VIRGINIA EROSION AND STORMWATER MANAGEMENT REGULATION › Part III - Virginia Erosion and Sediment Control Program › Article 2 - Land-Disturbing Activities › Section 9VAC25-875-280 - Activities not required to comply with the ESCL

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
Notwithstanding any other provisions of the Erosion and
						Sediment Control Law for Localities Not Administering a Virginia Erosion and
						Stormwater Management Program (ESCL), the following activities are not required
						to comply with the ESCL unless otherwise required by federal law:
1. Disturbance of a land area of less than
					 10,000 square feet in size or less than 2,500 square feet in an area designated
					 as a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area pursuant to the Chesapeake Bay
					 Preservation Act (§
											62.1-44.15:67 et seq. of the
					 Code of Virginia). However, the governing body of the program authority may
					 reduce this exception to a smaller area of disturbed land or qualify the
					 conditions under which this exception shall apply;
2. Minor land-disturbing activities such as
					 home gardens and individual home landscaping, repairs, and maintenance
					 work;
3. Installation, maintenance,
					 or repair of any individual service connection;
4. Installation, maintenance, or repair of
					 any underground utility line when such activity occurs on an existing hard
					 surfaced road, street, or sidewalk, provided the land-disturbing activity is
					 confined to the area of the road, street, or sidewalk that is hard
					 surfaced;
5. Installation,
					 maintenance, or repair of any septic tank line or drainage field unless
					 included in an overall plan for land-disturbing activity relating to
					 construction of the building to be served by the septic tank system;
6. Permitted surface or deep mining
					 operations and projects or oil and gas operations and projects conducted
					 pursuant to Title 45.2 of the Code of Virginia;
7. Clearing of lands specifically for bona
					 fide agricultural purposes; the management, tilling, planting, or harvesting of
					 agricultural, horticultural, or forest crops; livestock feedlot operations;
					 agricultural engineering operations, including construction of terraces,
					 terrace outlets, check dams, desilting basins, dikes, ponds, ditches, strip
					 cropping, lister furrowing, contour cultivating, contour furrowing, land
					 drainage, and land irrigation; or as additionally set forth by the board in
					 regulations. However, this exception shall not apply to harvesting of forest
					 crops unless the area on which harvesting occurs is reforested artificially or
					 naturally in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 11 (§
											10.1-1100 et seq.) of Title 10.1
					 of the Code of Virginia or is converted to bona fide agricultural or improved
					 pasture use as described in subsection B of §
											10.1-1163 of the Code of
					 Virginia;
8. Installation of fence
					 and sign posts or telephone and electric poles and other kinds of posts or
					 poles;
9. Shoreline erosion control
					 projects on tidal waters when all of the land-disturbing activities are within
					 the regulatory authority of and approved by local wetlands boards, the Virginia
					 Marine Resources Commission, or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; however, any
					 associated land that is disturbed outside of this exempted area shall remain
					 subject to the ESCL and the regulations adopted pursuant thereto;
10. Land-disturbing activities in response to
					 a public emergency where the related work requires immediate authorization to
					 avoid imminent endangerment to human health or the environment. In such
					 situations, the VESCP authority shall be advised of the disturbance within
					 seven days of commencing the land-disturbing activity, and compliance with the
					 administrative requirements of Article 2 (9VAC25-875-540 et seq.) of Part V
					 (9VAC25-875-470 et seq.) of this
					 chapter is required within 30 days of commencing the land-disturbing
					 activity;
11. Discharges to a
					 sanitary sewer or a combined sewer system that are not from a land-disturbing
					 activity; and
12. Repair or
					 rebuilding of the tracks, rights-of-way, bridges, communication facilities, and
					 other related structures and facilities of a railroad company.
Statutory Authority: §
													62.1-44.15:28 of the Code of
						  Virginia; Chapters 68 and 758 of the 2016 Acts of
						  Assembly.