CHAPTER 456

AN ACT to amend and reenact § 29-151 of the Code of 1950, relat-
ing to dams and fish ladders, and to inspection of them.
[S 168]
Approved April 7, 1950

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1 That § 29-151 of the Code of 1950 be amended and reenacted
as follows:

§ 29-151. Dams and fish ladders: inspection of.—Any dam or
other thing in a water course, 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 control 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 obstruc-
tion 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, however,
that this section shall not apply to the Meherrin River within the
counties of Brunswick and Greensville, nor to the Meherrin River
within or between the counties of Lunenburg and Mecklenburg,
nor to the Nottoway River between the counties of Lunenburg and
Nottoway, nor any streams within the counties of Augusta, Lunen-
burg, Mecklenburg, Louisa, Buckingham, Halifax, Montgomery,
Pulaski, Franklin, Russell, Tazewell, Giles, Bland, Craig, Wythe,
Carroll and Grayson, nor to that part of any stream that forms a
part of he boundary of Halifax and Franklin counties; provided,
however, that no fish ladders shall be required on dams twenty
feet or more jn height or on such dams as the Commission may
deem it unnessary 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 interested 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 respective 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.