It is the purpose of this chapter to establish minimum stormwater management requirements and controls to protect properties, safeguard the general health, safety, and welfare of the public residing in watersheds within the county and to protect aquatic resources, as authorized by Title 10.1, Chapter 6, Article 1.1 (sections 10.1-603 et seq) of the Code of Virginia.

Additionally, amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act, in 1987 required the Environmental Protection Agency to establish National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit regulations and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to establish the Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) permit regulations for municipal separate storm sewer systems. These regulations require the county to adopt an ordinance to prohibit illicit discharges into the storm sewer system. It is also the purpose of this chapter to meet the requirements of prohibiting illicit discharges.

This chapter seeks to meet these purposes through the following objectives:

1. Require that land development and land conversion activities maintain the post-development runoff characteristics, as nearly as practicable, to the pre-development runoff characteristics in order to reduce flooding, siltation, stream bank erosion, and property damage;

2. Establish minimum design criteria for the protection of properties and aquatic resources downstream from land development and land conversion activities from damages due to increases in volume, velocity, frequency, duration, and peak flow rate of stormwater runoff;

3. Establish minimum design criteria for measures to minimize nonpoint source pollution from stormwater runoff which would otherwise degrade water quality;

4. Establish provisions for the long-term responsibility for and maintenance of stormwater management control devices and other techniques specified to manage the quality and quantity of runoff;

5. Establish certain administrative procedures for the submission, review, approval and disapproval of stormwater plans and the inspection of approved projects; and

6. Establish controls to reduce pollutants to the storm sewer system from illicit discharges to the maximum extent practicable, as required by the county’s small municipal separate storm sewer system VPDES discharge permit.


(Ord. No. 06-17, 7/18/06)