Pilot Collaborative Modeling Study for Regulatory Issues on the James River

Whereas other shared vision planning studies have typically addressed planning issues for reservoir re-operation issues, there is also a need for the Corps to work with stakeholders to develop a "shared vision" for water management as it performs it's regulatory role under section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Likewise the state of Virginia recognizes the critical role of public involvement in state and local water planning. Therefore, the USEPA, the State of Virginia, and the Corps' Norfolk District regulators are helping guide a pilot Shared Vision Planning in the James River study to identify and describe the water resources management challenges facing growing municipalities in the James basin and to identify strategies for addressing these challenges in support the Corps 404 regulatory role and the State water planning process. A "Pilot" SVP study is proposed to initiate a collaborative process and evaluate the potential for a "full blown" SVP effort. The pilot effort will likely take 3–5 months and will involve several workshops (one or two large workshops plus various meetings of working groups), some model development, limited data gathering and some initial decision-making trials.