Notice of Intended Action: The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management (OCM) has approved a program change to Virginia’s Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program on April 30, 2021 (VA-2021-1). The program change converts Virginia’s existing enforceable policies to a narrative format and creates new enforceable policies, in narrative format, for use in federal consistency reviews. Enforceable policies are used during federal consistency review to determine if federal actions, including those licenses and permits listed in Virginia’s approved program, are consistent with Virginia’s CZM Program. Program change documents may be viewed on the NOAA program change web portal https://coast.noaa.gov/czmprogramchange/#/public/home.
In order to more fully represent the commonwealth’s coastal resources and uses, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program has modified two of its enforceable policies. These statements summarize the requirements of the underlying statutory and regulatory requirements of the Virginia CZM Program, and are to be referred to by federal agencies, and federal license and permit applicants when assessing whether their proposed actions may have reasonably foreseeable effects on coastal uses or resources of the Virginia coastal zone, and are consistent with the enforceable policies of the Virginia CZM Program. In addition, the requested program change includes the incorporation of preamble language that includes the general policy from the Constitution of Virginia on which all of the Commonwealth’s environmental laws and regulations are based. This is not proposed as an enforceable policy but rather background, supporting information.
Purpose of the Notice: NOAA’s regulations require that the state post the decision by the Office for Coastal Management for public notice (15 CFR § 923.81(e)(5), as described at 84 FR 38133 (Aug. 6, 2019)).
As of April 30, 2021, the date of NOAA’s decision letter, the enforceable policies identified in the Table of Approved Changes shall be applicable in reviewing federal actions pursuant to the federal consistency requirements of the CZMA and its implementing regulations found at 15 CFR part 930.
To Review Documents: The NOAA decision letter, support documents, and the revised enforceable policies can be found on DEQ’s website: https://www.deq.virginia.gov/our-programs/environmental-impact-review/federal-consistency/.
If you require paper copies of these documents or have any questions about the Virginia CZM Program’s submission, please contact Bettina Rayfield at 804-698-4204 or bettina.rayfield@deq.virginia.gov.
How to Comment: No comments requested. This public notice is provided for informational purposes.
Public Comment Period: NA
Program Change Notification List: If you received this program change public notice via a forwarded email but are not the agency contact listed in the initial email, and you would like to be added to the Virginia CZM Program change notification list, please email your contact information to virginia.witmer@deq.virginia.gov. Please use “Add to Program Change Notification List” as the subject line of your email.
