Adequate Outfall Requirements Will Change Many engineers, land planners and developers have faced issues in meeting adequate outfall requirements in the last 12 to 18 months. Adequate outfall is a Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) requirement, implemented through local ordinances, that mandates that concentrated storm water discharges from a project site be discharged into natural channels that can contain a 2-year storm event within its banks (and a 10-year storm for man-made channels) at non-erosive velocities. Some localities, such as Fairfax County, have even stricter adequate outfall requirements. Recently, the DCR has found many adequate outfall compliance issues in several Northern Virginia localities (Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax Counties). In Fairfax County in particular, adequate outfall has become a controversial issue in rezoning applications and enforcement actions. And it has been found that the outfall requirements can be interpreted in conflicting ways. Because of that, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has requested that the County's Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) review their adequate outfall requirements and develop recommendations for improvement. To date, the Fairfax County DPWES has had several meetings with industry representatives and has developed preliminary recommendations which were presented (link) to the BOS on September 20, 2004. A technical presentation (link) is also available for review. The BOS provided input on September 20 and these preliminary recommendations will be modified as DPWES continues to consult with the BOS, industry and other stakeholders before bringing an amendment to the Engineering Standards Review Committee (ESRC). All land developers should be cognizant of these changing standards and work with their engineers to ensure that new projects are planned with this constraint in mind. For more information, contact Frank Graziano, P.E. or Bill Nell, P.E.