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Virginia Case Supports Regulation of Roadside Ditches
NAHB members who have to contend with wetlands regulation were dealt a legal setback on Sept. 10 when the U.S. Fourth Circuit ruled that ditches can be considered tributaries of the waters of the U.S. and that development activities affecting those ditches can be regulated.
In its 3-0 decision in favor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Army Corps of Engineers in the case of Treacy and U.S.A. v. Newdunn Associates, the court said: “It is undisputed that water flows intermittently from wetlands on the Newdunn Property through a series of natural and manmade waterways, crossing under [Highway] I-64, draining into the west arm of Stony Run, and eventually finding its way 2.4 miles later to traditional navigable waters.”
In the case of U.S. v. Deaton, a federal appeals court earlier this summer reached a similar conclusion that man-made roadside ditches can be regulated under the Clean Water Act.
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