CHAPTER 607

AN ACT to amend and reenact § 29-151, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia, relating to dams and other obstructions in watercourses.

[S 272]
Approved March 29, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 29-151, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

_§ 29-151. Any dam or other thing in a watercourse, which obstructs
navigation or the passage of fish, shall be deemed a nuisance, unless it be
to work a mill, manufactory or other machine or engine useful to the public,
and is allowed by law or order of court. Any person owning or having con-
trol of any dam or other obstruction in any of the streams of this State
above tidewater which may interfere with the free passage of fish, shall
provide every such dam or other obstruction with a suitable fish ladder, so
that fish may have free passage up and down the streams during the months
of March, April, May and June of each year, and maintain and keep the
same in good repair, and restore it in case of destruction; provided, how-
ever, that this section shall not apply to the Meherrin River within the coun-
ties of Brunswick and Greensville, nor to the Meherrin River within or be-
tween the counties of Lunenburg and Mecklenburg, nor to the Nottoway
River between the counties of Lunenburg and Nottoway, nor to Abram’s
Creek in Shawnee District, Frederick County, nor to the James River be-
tween the counties of Bedford and Amherst, nor any streams within the
counties of Augusta, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Louisa, Buckingham, Hali-
fax, Montgomery, Pulaski, Franklin, Russell, Tazewell, Giles, Bland, Craig,
Wythe, Carroll and Grayson, nor to that part of any stream that forms a
part of the boundary of Halifax and Franklin counties; provided, how-
ever, that no fish ladders shall be required on dams twenty feet or more
in height or on such dams as the Commission may deem it unnecessary on
which to have ladders. Any person failing to comply with this provision
shall be fined one dollar for each day’s failure; and the circuit court of the
county or the corporation court of the city in which the dam is situated,
after reasonable notice, by rule or otherwise, to the parties or party inter-
ested and upon satisfactory proof of the failure, shall cause the fishway to
be constructed, or put in good repair as the case may be, at the expense of
the owner of the dam or other obstruction. It shall be the duty of the
game warden to make a personal inspection of dams and rivers in his re-
spective county or city in the months of April and October of each year and
report to the circuit court of the county or the corporation court of the
city any violation of this section.