Mr. Justin Williams                                                                                                  April 25, 2024                                                                             

Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

1111 East Main Street, Suite 1400

P.O. Box 1105

Richmond, VA 23218

This comment sent by email to   Justin.Williams@deq.virginia.gov

Re:  Fairfax County Ordinance Chapters 116 and 118, and Petition for Establishment of a Regulation or Policy Interpreting the Definition of a Nontidal Wetland

Dear Mr. Williams:

I  respectfully submit the following comments regarding the March 11, 2024 Petition to the State Water Control Board (the Board) for Establishment of a Regulation or Policy Interpreting the Definition of Nontidal Wetlands Under 9VAC25-830-40, 9VAC25-830-80, and Fairfax County Ordinance Ordinances.

The petition as I understand it is to reduce and constrict the Fairfax County Resource Protection area based on the recently decided federal  Sackett case.  Others have made legal arguments that Sackett should not be applied to the Fairfax RPA.  I leave those arguments to legal experts.

Fairfax and the Commonwealth have well established procedures to determine what should be protected and included in the RPA.   These areas are established by  professionals taking into account surface water, soils, groundwater, vegetations and a variety of other factors.

 While the petition does not specifically include reference to tidal wetlands, it is a small and harmful jump to apply Sacket to these important wetlands as well.   The Commonwealth has a wealth of laws going back to the 1970s as well as regulation and guidelines applied by VMRC, VIMs, and local wetlands Boards to establish tidal wetlands to which Sacket should not apply.

I oppose this petition for the reasons stated above.

I am a Virginia Professional Engineer.  In addition I am appointed  member of the Fairfax County Environmental Advisory Committee (EQAC) and Chairman of the Fairfax County Wetlands Board (FCWB).  My comments are my own individual comments and are not made as representations of positions taken by EQAC, the FCWB, or of Fairfax County Government.

Yours truly,

Clyde Wilber  PE

301 346 8209

cc:         Mike Rolband, Director, DEQ