Virginia Law

Article 1. General Provisions.

This chapter may be known, designated and cited as the "Sanitation Districts Law of Nineteen Hundred and Forty-Six."

1946, p. 346; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1560iii1.

Wherever used or referred to in this chapter, unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:

(1) The term "district" means a sanitation district created and existing pursuant to §§ 21-228 to 21-236 or heretofore or hereafter created by a special act of the General Assembly for the purpose of taking advantage of the provisions of this chapter;

(2) The term "commission," except where the context requires reference to the board or commission mentioned and provided for in § 21-238, means the body corporate or politic comprising a district and its inhabitants created and existing pursuant to § 21-237;

(3) The term "chairman" means the chairman of a commission;

(4) The term "sewage disposal system" or "facilities," used in relation to a commission, means the sewers, conduits, pipelines, pumping and ventilating stations, treatment plants and works, and other plants, structures, boats, conveyances and other real and personal property operated by the commission for the purposes of the commission;

(5) The term "waters of the district" means all well defined rivers, creeks or other watercourses or streams within the district, provided they are not "tidal waters of the district" as that term is defined in the sanitation districts law of 1938;

(6) The term "industrial wastes" means liquid or other wastes resulting from any processes of industry, manufacture, trade or business or from the development of any natural resource;

(7) The term "sewage" means the water-carried wastes created in and carried, or to be carried, away from residences, hotels, schools, hospitals, industrial establishments, commercial establishments or any other private or public building, together with such surface or ground water and industrial wastes as may be present;

(8) The term "pollution" means the condition of water resulting from any of the following acts:

(a) Unreasonably contaminating such water;

(b) Rendering such water unclean or impure;

(c) Rendering such water directly or indirectly injurious to public health, or unfit for public use;

(d) Rendering such water harmful for cattle, stock or other animals;

(e) Rendering such water unfit for commercial use;

(9) The term "construct" includes construct, reconstruct, replace, improve and repair;

(10) The term "person" includes an individual, partnership, association, or corporation;

(11) The term "governing body" shall mean the board of supervisors, board of county commissioners, council or other local legislative body, board, commission, or other legislative authority having charge of the finances of any county, city or town;

(12) The term "town" means an incorporated town;

(13) The term "county" means a county exclusive of that portion thereof lying within the boundaries of an incorporated town.

1946, p. 347; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1560iii2.

Every order made pursuant to this chapter requiring the opening of a poll and the taking of the sense of the qualified voters of a district or proposed sanitation district on a question shall designate the question and a date for holding such election not less than thirty days from the date of such order, and may be directed as writs of election are directed for an election district, or to fill a vacancy in the General Assembly or in Congress. It shall be the duty of the regular election officers of the counties and cities in whole or in part embraced within the district or proposed sanitation district to cause to be printed and distributed in the manner prescribed by law for printing and distributing other ballots the proper number of ballots which shall be separate from any other ballots. The ballots shall set forth the question designated in such order and shall be in substantially the following form:

(Here shall appear the question designated in the order)

[ ] YES

[ ] NO

To vote "Yes" on the question, place a checkmark (✓) or cross (+ or ✗) in the space opposite the word "Yes"; to vote "No" on the question, place a checkmark (✓) or cross (+ or ✗) in the space opposite the word "No."

The regular election officers, at the time designated in such order, shall open the polls at the various voting places in the district or proposed sanitation district and at any other voting places at which any qualified voter of the district or proposed sanitation district is entitled to vote, and shall conduct such election and close the polls in such manner as is provided by law in other elections. The ballots shall be counted and returns made and canvassed and the results ascertained and made known as in other elections, and the results certified by the commissioners of election to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, all in such manner as to show the respective numbers of affirmative and negative votes cast at the election. The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall record and tabulate the reports of the commissioners of election and shall certify the result of the election to the court which made the order authorizing and requiring such election.

1946, p. 364; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1560iii25.

Wherever in this chapter the circuit court of any county, or the corporation court of any city, is authorized to accept any petitions or papers, make any order, hold any hearing, hear, consider and determine any question or do any other act or thing, such court, or a judge thereof in vacation, may do and perform the same.

1946, p. 365; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 1560iii26.