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2004 SESSION

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046957372
HOUSE BILL NO. 496 Offered January 14, 2004 Prefiled January 13, 2004 A BILL to amend and reenact § 62.1-194.1 of the Code of Virginia, relating to obstructing or contaminating state waters. ---------- Patron-- Kilgore ---------- Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 62.1-194.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 62.1-194.1. Obstructing or contaminating state waters.

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, floodways, or 100-year floodplains, as designated by applicable Federal Emergency Management Agency maps duly adopted by local ordinance, of or into the channels of any state waters any object or substance, noxious or otherwise, which may reasonably be expected to endanger, obstruct, impede, contaminate or substantially impair the lawful use or enjoyment of such waters and their environs by others. Any person who violates any provision of this law shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction be punished by a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500 or by confinement in jail not more than twelve 12 months or both such fine and imprisonment. Each day that any of said materials or substances so dumped, placed, or put, or caused to be dumped, placed, or put into, upon the banks, floodways, or floodplains of or into the channels of, said streams shall constitute a separate offense and be punished as such.

In addition to the foregoing penalties for violation of this law, the judge of the circuit court of the county or corporation court of the city wherein any such violation occurs, or similar courts in any contiguous locality that share such waters with other localities as common boundary lines, whether there be a criminal conviction therefor or not shall, upon a bill in equity, filed by the attorney for the Commonwealth of such county locality, or the attorney for such locality, or by any person whose property is damaged or whose property is threatened with damage from any such violation, award an injunction enjoining any violation of this law by any person found by the court in such suit to have violated this law or causing the same to be violated, when made a party defendant to such suit. The court shall not require bond of any locality to enjoin violations of these provisions. The court may award costs, including the costs of expert testimony, and reasonable attorney's fees not to exceed $25,000, to any prevailing party authorized to bring an action hereunder provided that the defendant has been provided a 10-day notice to abate such violation and at the time of the filing of the action has failed to do so. Possession of a valid license to operate a business, the activities of which otherwise violate this law, shall not be a defense to an action hereunder.