State-level protections for wetlands are more important than ever due to federal rollbacks following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA, which significantly reduced the applicability of the Clean Water Act to wetlands, putting many of these waterways at risk and eliminating one of our best natural solutions to combat flooding.
This legislation strengthens Virginia’s ability to safeguard wetlands by requiring the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) to ensure no net loss of existing wetland acreage when reviewing permits. It also requires appropriate mitigation when wetland impacts do occur and establishes a stakeholder group to address mitigation requirements for tidal non-vegetated wetlands, which play an important role in coastal resilience, helping guide future policy decisions.
HB521 passed out of the House of Delegates 74-25 and cleared the Senate on a party-line vote of 21-19 before being signed into law by Governor Spanberger.