republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2018/hb-1307.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Stormwater management; rural Tidewater, tiered approach to water quantity technical criteria."
description: "Allows any rural Tidewater locality, as defined in the bill, to comply with water quantity technical criteria for certain land-disturbing activities based on the percentage of impervious cover in the watershed. The bill provides that any eligible locality electing to use certain control standards shall, by ordinance, adopt an official map that indicates the percentage of impervious cover in each watershed within the locality and shall update the map at least annually. The bill allows any such locality to apply one of the following three standards for managing water quantity to any new development project: (i) if the site, as indicated on the map, has less than 5.0 percent impervious cover, the standard shall be a particular State Water Control Board regulation; (ii) if the watershed has 5.0 percent or more but less than 7.5 percent impervious cover, the standard shall be the one-year, 24-hour release method; and (iii) if the watershed has 7.5 percent or more impervious cover, the standard shall be the energy balance method. The bill provides that any project whose construction would cause the watershed in which it is located to step up to the next higher tier shall be evaluated under the energy balance method or a more stringent alternative."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 1307"
citation: "Virginia HB 1307 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Tidewater Virginia", "Waters of the State", "Ports and Harbors"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["M. Keith Hodges"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 18
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2018-01-10"
last_action: "2018-03-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ce8a4fbf-6f9e-482b-a736-a076425ef809"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB1307"
source_hash: "e4e4ca36bfe21e37ee367391f74d1b66ab8da39b68920c2cec83505925b92014"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1307 (2018) — Stormwater management; rural Tidewater, tiered approach to water quantity technical criteria.

Allows any rural Tidewater locality, as defined in the bill, to comply with water quantity technical criteria for certain land-disturbing activities based on the percentage of impervious cover in the watershed. The bill provides that any eligible locality electing to use certain control standards shall, by ordinance, adopt an official map that indicates the percentage of impervious cover in each watershed within the locality and shall update the map at least annually. The bill allows any such locality to apply one of the following three standards for managing water quantity to any new development project: (i) if the site, as indicated on the map, has less than 5.0 percent impervious cover, the standard shall be a particular State Water Control Board regulation; (ii) if the watershed has 5.0 percent or more but less than 7.5 percent impervious cover, the standard shall be the one-year, 24-hour release method; and (iii) if the watershed has 7.5 percent or more impervious cover, the standard shall be the energy balance method. The bill provides that any project whose construction would cause the watershed in which it is located to step up to the next higher tier shall be evaluated under the energy balance method or a more stringent alternative.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1307ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB1307ER)
2. **House: Presented and ordered printed 18103913D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB1307)
3. **House: Printed as engrossed 18103913D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB1307E)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendment — **8–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources — **14–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources with amendment — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- M. Keith Hodges — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-10** Presented and ordered printed 18103913D `introduction`
- **2018-01-10** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-29** Assigned ACNR sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2018-02-05** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2018-02-05** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2018-02-05** Engrossed by House as amended HB1307E
- **2018-02-05** Printed as engrossed 18103913D-E
- **2018-02-06** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2018-02-07** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2018-02-07** Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-20** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2018-02-22** Enrolled
- **2018-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2018-02-23** Signed by President
- **2018-02-26** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 26, 2018
- **2018-02-26** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 5, 2018
- **2018-03-05** Approved by Governor-Chapter 154 (effective 7/1/18) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ce8a4fbf-6f9e-482b-a736-a076425ef809`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).