Fauquier County, VA Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

Fauquier County Code § 11-4(c) requires that, except for state agency projects or activities exempted under § 11-5, no person shall engage in any land-disturbing activity until an erosion and sediment control (E&S) plan or an agreement in lieu of a plan has been submitted to the VESMP administrator. Section 11-5 exempts minor disturbances under 10,000 square feet, bona fide agricultural tilling and harvesting, home gardens and landscaping under that same threshold, and a handful of utility and emergency-response activities, but specifically does not exempt agricultural or farm roads, riding rings, or farm buildings.

For a single-family home or a farm building with under five percent impervious cover, § 11-51 allows a simplified agreement in lieu of a plan; larger projects need a full E&S plan under § 11-76, which must show limits of clearing and grading, existing and final topography at no more than two-foot contour intervals, drainage areas, proposed control measures and a construction sequence, sealed by a licensed professional. The VESMP administrator has fifteen calendar days to find a submitted plan complete and sixty days to approve or deny it; an unanswered complete plan is deemed approved.

Once approved, the plan must be kept on-site at a central location at all times under § 11-76(d). Inspectors check E&S measures during installation, at least every two weeks, within 48 hours of a runoff-producing storm, and again before releasing any performance bond, under § 11-126.