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Show Chapter 46. VIRGINIA CONTENTS Page 1. Development of Virginia Water Law___________________________ 745 2. State Organizational Structure for Water Administration and Control _ 746 2.1 Administration of Water Rights_______________________ 746 2.2 Resolution of Water Use Conflicts_____________________ 746 2.3 Other Agencies Having Water Resource Responsibilities___ 746 3. Surface Waters___.....___________________________________ 750 3.1 Method of Acquiring Rights__________________________ 750 3.2 Nature and limit of Rights__________________________ 750 3.3 Changes, Sales, and Transfers_________.______________ 753 3.4 Loss of Rights_____________________________________ 753 3.5 Storage Waters, Artificial Lakes, and Ponds______________ 754 3.6 Springs__________________________________________ 754 3.7 Diffused Surface Waters_____________________________ 754 4. Ground Water_____ _._______._________-___________________ 755 Publications Available------------------------------------------------------------- 757 DISCUSSION 1. Development of Virginia Water Law As a humid State with substantial rainfall, Virginia adopted the reasonable use rigime of riparian water rights. While Virginia, from the beginning, recognized a need to regulate certain of its waters, such regulation was largely confined to navigation, fisheries, shellfish, and flood control; and little attention was given to the regulation or administration of water for agricultural, municipal or industrial use. That inattention seems now to be a thing of the past, because Virginia has recently recognized that its water supply must be regulated and managed in order to meet present and future demands for water use.1 There are nine river basins in Virginia, and the division of water resources of the department of conservation and economic develop- ment has recently suggested that a number of intrastate interbasin transfers probably will be required to satisfy shortages in water short basins, and that competing demands upon ground water in some areas of the Coastal Plain are causing a number of contro- versies to develop.2 It has been estimated that by the year 2000 the withdrawal demand will be 8.4 billion gallons per day, compared with current withdrawals of 4.2 billion gallons per day.3 The divi- sion of water resources has concluded that: In order to assure that every citizen of Virginia is guaranteed his right to a fair share of the State's water resources, provisions must be made for State Government to assure equitable use of both ground and surface water.4 1 Va. Code Ann. Section 62.1-11. For convenience, the statutes will be cited hereafter by section numbers only. 2 Water Resources Legislative Concerns, Virginia Department of Conservation and Economic Development, Division of Water Resources, at 1 (Dec. 1970). aid. at 2. 4 Id. at 1. 745 |