Spotsylvania County, VA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

The alcohol ban sits in Chapter 22, Article III, which the board of supervisors adopted to govern only the reservoirs and the reservoirs property, as § 22-227 defines the article's reach, with reservoir meaning the county's Hunting Run Reservoir and Ni River Reservoir under § 22-226. Inside that recreation area, § 22-240 flatly forbids any use of alcoholic beverages, bars anyone under the influence of alcohol from operating a boat or riding as a passenger in one on the reservoirs, and excludes anyone under the influence from the park at any time; no exception for licensed events or private boat owners appears in the text.

The rule sits alongside a dense set of reservoir-only restrictions: § 22-241 bans hunting, § 22-242 bars discharging firearms, shooting arrows and fireworks, § 22-243 prohibits swimming, wading and water-skiing, and § 22-245 bars littering on the water or the flood-easement land. Enforcement authority comes from § 22-228, which lets the park attendant, the county sheriff's department and state game wardens police the recreation area to keep order and enforce this article and other ordinances of the county and the laws of the state. Because Article III applies only to the reservoir properties, it does not reach other county parks, streets or public spaces; Spotsylvania's general code does not carry a countywide open-container or public-intoxication ordinance outside this reservoir chapter, so anywhere else in the county, alcohol regulation defaults to state law rather than a local rule.