The Amherst County Board of Supervisors strongly supports the proposed changes to the Impounding Structure Regulations, as posted on the Townhall.Virginia.gov website, on March 1, 2012.  Specifically, we believe the revision to Section 4VAC50-20-52 will maintain high levels of safety for the public, while somewhat reducing the financial burden on dam owners.

The revisions to 4VAC50-20-52 will allow the use of the Bureau of Reclamation ACER Technical Memorandum No. 11 in the determination of appropriate dam hazard classifications, through the use of Incremental Damage Analysis.  With this revision the public will ultimately be best served, through both well-established safety standards and cost savings for many dam owners in Amherst County.

This regulation could affect 1,600 dams and their associated owners.  I recommend the routine APA process to make sure all possible owners have an opportunity to review the changes.  Using a fast-track process for regulations that make a number of substantive and discretionary changes should require the normal APA process, not the fast track process.