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Governing Bodies and Laws
"Tidewater Virginia" as defined in the Code of Virginia encompasses approximately 5,000 miles of shoreline.
There are roughly 2,300 square miles, or approximately 1,472,000 acres, of tidally influenced, submerged
lands. This is an area larger than the entire State of Delaware. Additionally, it is not widely recognized
that this responsibility extends as well to non-tidal streams throughout the Commonwealth which had not
been granted to private owners before 1972. Prior to 1962, the authority to grant permission to encroach in,
on or over the state-owned submerged lands was vested in the Office of the Attorney General. In 1962, that
authority was transferred to the Marine Resources Commission. All wetland resources of the Commonwealth
are now managed under a single, unified program. Moving landward from mean low water wetland jurisdiction
now extends to mean high water where no emergent vegetation exists, and to 1.5 times the mean tide range where
marsh is present.
Section 62.1-3 of the Virginia Code states that it shall be unlawful and constitute a misdemeanor for anyone
to build, dump, or otherwise trespass upon or over or encroach upon or take or use any materials from the beds
of the bays and ocean, rivers, streams, creeks which are the proeprty of the Commonwealth, unless such act is
purusant to statutory authority or a permit by the Marine Resources Commission.
The policy stated by the legislature when it passed the vegetated Wetlands Act in 1972 is as relevant today as it was then.
"Therefore, in order to protect the public interest, promote the public health, safety and the economic and general welfare
of the Commonwealth, and to protect public and private property, wildlife, marine fisheries and the natural environment, it
is declared to be the public policy of the Commonwealth to preserve the wetlands, and to prevent their despoliation and
destruction and to accommodate necessary economic development in a manner consistent with wetlands preservation."
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