Wetlands Watch trains Charles City County board on new Virginia rules making living shorelines the default

At its Aug. 5 meeting the Charles City County Wetlands/Chesapeake Bay Board heard a training from Mary-Carson Stiff, executive director of Wetlands Watch, on recent Virginia law changes that prioritize "living shorelines." "The concern is where land and water meet," Stiff told the board, saying the session would cover the Tidal Wetlands Act and the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act.

Stiff summarized SB 776's purpose as reducing erosion and wetlands loss and said the bill requires property owners to use living shorelines as the state's default erosion-control method, with limited exceptions based on the best available science. The statute defines a "living shoreline" as a practice that "provides erosion control and water quality benefits; protects, restores, or enhances natural shoreline habitat; and maintains coastal processes through the strategic placement of plants, stone, sand fill, and other structural and organic materials," language included in the presentation and cited to § 28.2-104.1. The board was told the updated guidelines require projects to be designed to mitigate coastal hazards and be functionally resilient to sea-level rise.

Stiff also walked through permit-level data localities should expect to collect, including fetch, shoreline morphology, nearshore bathymetry, tide ranges, projected storm water levels as calculated by NOAA and FEMA, and square footage changes of wetland types. She emphasized that applications must consider adjacent shoreline conditions and infrastructure when evaluating whether living shoreline measures are practicable. The presentation noted that the Virginia Marine Resources Commission adopted related guidance in 2021 and that DEQ intends to delay enforcement of the new rules until September 2025 so counties can revise ordinances.