Virginia Law

To assist local governments in the development of regional water supply plans, the department will:

1. Provide planning, policy, and technical assistance to each regional planning area differentiated according to each area's water supply challenges, existing resources, and other factors;

2. Provide financial assistance from any planning funds and prioritize the allocation of planning funds and other available funds to local governments that sufficiently participate in regional planning;

3. Provide guidance on compliance options;

4. Facilitate acquisition of existing water resource conditions (the department shall prepare and post on its website a list of readily available sources for the items identified in 9VAC25-780-90 B);

5. Facilitate acquisition of existing use information that has been reported to the department;

6. Facilitate acquisition of water management information (the department shall prepare and post on its website a list of acceptable practices that are used with regard to the topics in 9VAC25-780-110);

7. Identify acceptable methods for the projection of future water demands per 9VAC25-780-100;

8. Provide any information regarding known beneficial use conflicts relating to the development of alternatives as identified in the most recent State Water Resources and Supply Plan;

9. Convene kickoff meetings for the regional planning units;

10. Follow up with localities that have been identified as not participating in the regional planning unit and the development of the regional water supply plan;

11. Ensure that local governments coordinate sufficiently in the development of regional plans;

12. Ensure that each regional plan clearly identifies the region's water supply risks and proposes strategies to address those risks;

13. At the request of the applicant, convene a technical evaluation committee meeting; and

14. Provide notice on the department website of local public informational meetings on the regional water supply plan upon notification by the locality.