Quick answer
President Donald Trump’s September 16 executive order changes the federal framework for Chesapeake Bay restoration and tells the Environmental Protection Agency to press states and localities to reconsider stormwater fees. But it does not itself repeal Virginia Beach’s stormwater charge, and the local fee predates the federal policy that was just revoked.
What happened
That distinction matters in Coastal Virginia, where stormwater charges help pay for drainage systems, water-quality projects, maintenance and flood-related infrastructure in communities where heavy rain, tidal flooding and runoff are recurring public costs.
What the new federal order does
Executive Order 14428 revokes a 2009 Chesapeake Bay protection order issued during the Obama administration. The new order directs EPA and several other federal agencies to focus Chesapeake Bay resources on projects that produce measurable reductions in nutrient and sediment pollution.
It also directs EPA to work with Chesapeake Bay watershed jurisdictions to assess the burden of stormwater management fees and to encourage the repeal or rescission of fees imposed by states or localities.
The administration says some jurisdictions used the 2009 order to justify stormwater charges that raised household and business costs without producing sufficiently measurable water-quality benefits.
The order also says its implementation must remain consistent with existing law and subject to available appropriations. It does not amend Virginia law, cancel a Virginia Beach ordinance or change a local utility bill on its own.
Virginia law still authorizes local stormwater fees
Virginia Code § 15.2-2114 allows a locality, by ordinance, to establish a stormwater utility or system of service charges to support a local stormwater management program. The statute requires the revenue to be dedicated to stormwater purposes and limits collections to the actual costs of operating the program.
That means Virginia Beach’s fee rests on state and local authority, not solely on a presidential executive order.
A federal administration can change how agencies spend federal money, issue guidance or use federal leverage. It cannot, through this executive order alone, erase a local fee created under Virginia law.
For residents, the immediate civic takeaway is that the White House has changed federal policy and instructed EPA to encourage repeal, but the legal and budget decisions that determine whether a Virginia Beach stormwater fee changes still sit with state and local government.
Virginia Beach’s fee began in 1993
Virginia Beach’s own public-utilities materials say the city implemented its stormwater management fee in 1993.
That is 16 years before Executive Order 13508, the 2009 Chesapeake Bay order that President Trump revoked this month.
The timeline does not resolve every debate about how stormwater fees have evolved or how federal environmental requirements have affected local costs. But it establishes an important fact for Coastal Virginia: Virginia Beach did not create its stormwater fee in response to the 2009 order.
The city says the fee supports three broad functions: reducing flooding, improving water quality and complying with regulations, and maintaining stormwater infrastructure.
Virginia Beach’s adopted budget documents also show how large the infrastructure side of the issue has become. The city’s FY2027-FY2032 Capital Improvement Program programs about $269.7 million in the Stormwater category and about $944.5 million in Flood Protection over the six-year plan.
Those categories are not interchangeable, and not every dollar comes directly from the stormwater fee. The budget uses multiple financing sources, including local revenue, state and federal contributions, bonds and other funds. But the figures show why a change in stormwater financing would have consequences beyond water-quality compliance alone.
The current Virginia Beach rate is also the product of a local budget decision. City budget materials say the Equivalent Residential Unit stormwater rate was frozen at 49.3 cents per day through FY2028-29.
What could change next
The most immediate federal change is likely to be in funding criteria and agency priorities, not in a household bill.
Earlier this year, EPA said it was increasing Chesapeake Bay implementation grants and shifting money away from coordination and overhead toward projects that directly reduce nutrient and sediment runoff. EPA reported more than $57 million in implementation grants to Chesapeake Bay signatory jurisdictions in FY2026, including $2.7 million more for state implementation grants than the previous annual level.
The September executive order reinforces that approach. Future federal support is likely to face greater pressure to demonstrate measurable outcomes such as reductions in nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.
That could matter for Coastal Virginia projects that already describe themselves in those terms. Virginia Beach’s current capital plan, for example, includes water-quality projects designed to reduce nutrients and suspended solids entering local waterways.
The order does not identify a list of Virginia Beach projects that will lose funding, nor does it announce a cut to the city’s stormwater program. Any claim that a specific local project has been canceled would require separate evidence.
A regional issue, not just a Virginia Beach one
Stormwater utilities are common across Hampton Roads. Chesapeake currently charges residential property owners $11.35 per month, according to the city, and says the fee supports its municipal stormwater permit, inspections, maintenance, spill response and public education.
That means EPA’s coming work on stormwater fees could eventually touch multiple local governments in and around Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.
But the same legal distinction applies: an executive order directing EPA to encourage a policy change is not the same thing as a city council voting to change a fee or the General Assembly changing Virginia law.
What to watch in the public record
For Coastal Virginia residents trying to follow this issue, four records will matter most: EPA guidance or funding announcements showing how the agency interprets the new executive order; Virginia state actions affecting local stormwater authority; Virginia Beach and Chesapeake budget actions that actually alter fee rates or capital plans; and federal grant decisions showing which Chesapeake Bay projects gain or lose support under the new measurable-results standard.
For now, the documented change is narrower than some of the public rhetoric surrounding it.
The White House has revoked a 17-year-old federal Chesapeake Bay order, redirected agencies toward measurable pollution-reduction projects and told EPA to encourage jurisdictions to reconsider stormwater fees.
Virginia Beach’s stormwater fee, however, remains a local charge authorized under Virginia law. It existed before the revoked 2009 order, and nothing in the new executive order automatically removes it from a resident’s bill.
Sources
- White House, Executive Order 14428, September 16, 2026 — White House. White House, Executive Order 14428, September 16, 2026
- Code of Virginia, § 15.2-2114 — Code of Virginia. Code of Virginia, § 15.2-2114
- City of Virginia Beach, Public Utilities Frequently Asked Questions — City of Virginia Beach. City of Virginia Beach, Public Utilities Frequently Asked Questions
- City of Virginia Beach, Stormwater & Flood Protection — City of Virginia Beach. City of Virginia Beach, Stormwater & Flood Protection
- City of Virginia Beach, FY2027-FY2032 Adopted Capital Improvement Program — City of Virginia Beach. City of Virginia Beach, FY2027-FY2032 Adopted Capital Improvement Program
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Increases Annual Funding to Accelerate Chesapeake Bay Watershed Restoration, April 22, 2026 — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Increases Annual Funding to Accelerate Chesapeake Bay Watershed Restoration, April 22, 2026
- City of Chesapeake, Stormwater Utility Fee — City of Chesapeake. City of Chesapeake, Stormwater Utility Fee