Nearly 200 people jammed a General Assembly Building room tonight for a public hearing on a state proposal to toughen storm-water regulations.
Builders said the new rules would add to construction costs. They also said the rules would promote sprawl by driving developments to cheaper, outlying land.
Others said the rules were needed to clean up Virginia rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.
Storm water washes animal waste, oil and other pollutants into streams. The new rules could require additional pollution-catching ponds, among other features.
The state Department of Conservation and Recreation is proposing the tougher rules. Among other things, the proposal calls for a 38 percent reduction in the amount of phosphorus, a key pollutant, that can flow from a subdivision, office building or other site after it is built.
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