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.