What does the Bay Clean-up Plan mean for us locally?

by admin on April 20, 2012

Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Plan Comes Local:

Information and Discussion on What’s Next

MONDAY, May 14, 2012

2 PM – 4:30 PM

Virginia Dept. of Forestry Building, Charlottesville

For farmers, builders, local governments, business leaders, conservation advocates, and the public

For our planning purposes, please register by May 11 by contacting Jessica Lassetter at (434) 971-7722 or lassetter@rivannariverbasin.org.

Please join the discussion of how we can best move forward with the Bay cleanup plan and ensure the water quality of our own local streams and rivers. Presentations by  James Davis-Martin, DCR Bay TMDL Phase II Coordinator, and Russ Baxter, DEQ Chesapeake Bay Coordinator, plus the local perspective from a panel of local stakeholders and time for questions and discussion.

 This meeting is open to the public and is being hosted by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC) and the Rivanna River Basin Commission (RRBC). For further questions or information, please contact Steve Williams at (434) 979-7310 x110,  swilliams@tjpdc.or or Leslie Middleton at (434) 971-7722, middleton@rivannariverbasin.org.

Background: The Commonwealth of Virginia has submitted a detailed plan to the US EPA to show how the state will manage excessive nutrients and sediment that are polluting the Chesapeake Bay. This plan, the Virginia Watershed Implementation Plan Phase II (Virginia WIP II), also includes strategies that local governments in the Bay watershed of Virginia identified as ways to ensure pollution reduction at the local scale. To meet the reductions, everyone will have to work together, so the Piedmont Regional Pilot Project partnership is hosting this workshop to provide updated information to stakeholders and the general public.  Read more

This meeting is part of the Piedmont Regional Watershed Implementation Planning Project

made possible with funding from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation.

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Cville Streams TMDL Meeting – March 15, 6 pm

by admin on March 13, 2012

Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ) is hosting a public meeting on water quality study update on local streams. Based on routine water quality monitoring, four streams in Charlottesville and Albemarle County have been added to the list of waterways in Virginia that do not meet water quality standards that define what is necessary for aquatic life in streams to thrive.

WHO:  The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Technical Advisory Committee (composed of local stakeholders, and Virginia Tech’s Biological Systems Engineering Department will host a public meeting on a water quality study for Moores Creek, Lodge Creek, Meadow Creek and Schenks Branch.

WHEN and WHERE: The meeting will start at 6:00 p.m. on March 15, 2012, at the City Space on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.

WHAT: Virginia agencies have worked with Virginia Tech and local stakeholders to identify sources of sediment in local watersheds in Charlottesville City and Albemarle County.  Moores Creek, Lodge Creek, Meadow Creek and Schenks Branch in Charlottesville and Albemarle County do not meet water quality standards for aquatic life.  This pollution impacts the diversity and abundance of organisms living on or near the bottom of the stream.  For more information, click HERE.

WHY:   The purpose of the meeting is to present and discuss the study with community members and gather information for the next stage of the process.  During the study, DEQ and local stakeholders have developed a total maximum daily load, or a TMDL, for these streams. A TMDL sets a “pollution budget” for the stream which is the total amount of a pollutant streams can contain and still meet water quality standards. To restore water quality, pollutant levels have to be reduced to the TMDL amount.

WHAT’S NEXT:  The next step in the process will be the development of a “Clean-up Plan”  – actions, practices and strategies to reduce pollution to local streams in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area.  Come, listen, and be involved!

For more information: Please contact Tara Sieber, study coordinator in the DEQ Valley Regional Office in Harrisonburg, by phone at (540)574-7870, or by e-mail at tara.sieber@deq.virginia.gov. Additional information is also available on the DEQ web site at www.deq.virginia.gov/tmdl.

Based on routine water quality monitoring, four streams in Charlottesville and Albemarle County have been added to the list of waterways in Virginia that do not meet water quality standards that define what is necessary for aquatic life in streams to thrive.

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Moores Creek Clean Up Plan Receives Funding

by admin on January 23, 2012

The Rivanna River Basin Commission and local partners have received a grant of up to $267,000 to be used over the next two and half years to address the bacterial contamination of the Moores Creek watershed that drains portions of Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville. Project partners receiving funding include the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District (TJSWCD), Thomas Jefferson Planning District (TJPDC), and StreamWatch.

This funding from the Department of Conservation and Recreation will be used specifically to address the bacterial pollution coming from livestock operations, failing or non-existent septic systems, and pet waste. Over 60% of the funding will be made available as “cost-share” to help homeowners in the watershed address the sources of pollution on privately-owned lands. Most of the funding is federal EPA dollars, but a portion is from Virginia state funds.

During the grant-funded project, TJSWCD will reach out to homeowners in the watershed to encourage “best management practices,” or BMPs, ranging from exclusion fencing for livestock from to septic system pump-out and repairs. Funding will also be available to help homeowners connect to existing public sewer. Home composters specially designed for pet-waste will be made available for homeowners to encourage pet-waste collection that reduces polluted run-off to area streams due to cats and dogs.

Bacteria pollution in Moores Creek is from fecal coliform, found in the intestines of all warm-blooded animals, including dogs, cats, cattle, humans, and some wildlife. A 2003 plan? outlined many corrective measures including stormwater trunk repair and replacement and prevention of illicit discharges, and over 40% of these corrective measures have been completed or are planned soon. This project brings resources to the community to help with pollution reduction from homeowners and citizens.

The Moores Creek watershed covers 35 square miles of Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville. The creek forms much of the southern boundary of Charlottesville, draining the southern part of the city and parts of Albemarle County to the south and west of the city.  For a map of the Moores Creek watershed, see MooresCreekMap-AIR1

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Rivanna “Healthy Waters” Project Highlights Opportunities for Conservation and Restoration

by admin on April 21, 2011

The Rivanna River Basin Commission reports that about 35% of Rivanna streams meet the criteria of “healthy waters,” based on an assessment tool developed by Virginia Commonwealth University developed specifically to identify healthy waters in the Commonwealth of Virginia. While this is a greater percentage than many areas in Virginia, the study highlights the importance of protecting existing healthy waters before they become degraded.

Of the 54 streams assessed in the Rivanna basin, 16 streams (29%) and 4 streams (7%) were “exceptional” based Virginia Commonwealth University’s INSTAR assessment tool developed for Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

Thirty-six of the streams assessed in this study had occurrences of ecologically or economically important aquatic living resources, including brook trout, American eel, and smallmouth bass.

RRBC undertook this project because of the understanding that conservation and protection of healthy waters and their watersheds is the most cost effective means of protecting water quality and has the most benefit for the natural world because these efforts focus on maintaining the ecological integrity of natural systems.

RRBC is continuing to work to develop tools for integrating healthy waters into land use planning and decision-making in accordance with the spirit of and provisions for anti-degradation in the Clean Water Act.

More details on the project and the full report are available online at http://www.rivannariverbasin.org/dcr-healthy-waters.php.

 

Project funding for the Rivanna Healthy Waters Pilot Project came from USEPA through a grant from Virginia DCR.

VCU Scientists Collect Fish Sample in a Rivanna Tributary (summer 2010)

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RRBC Named to Virginia Stakeholder Advisory Group for Chesapeake Bay TMDL

by admin on April 14, 2011

To provide expertise and recommendations to the Commonwealth’s team developing the Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan for the Bay TMDL, Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources, Doug Domenech, is appointing a stakeholder advisory group. Leslie Middleton, Executive Director of the Rivanna River Basin Commission, has been named to this group, which meets for the first time on April 26, 2011.

Ms. Middleton, who also served on the Phase I Chesapeake Bay TMDL Stakeholder Advisory Committee, will join members of local governments, representatives of the Virginia PDCs, and others to advise Virginia agencies as they detail the Bay TMDL pollution reduction goals from the major tributary level (such as the James) to the scale of local governments.

RRBC will continue to work with its partners, Thomas Jefferson PDC, Culpeper and Thomas Jefferson SWCDs, and the Rivanna local governments, during 2011 as information from localities is identified and utilized by the state to craft the Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan. The draft of this plan is due to EPA in November 2011.

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