by admin on March 16, 2011
On March 15, 2011, RRBC gave a presentation about the Piedmont Regional Pilot Project to the Middle James Roundtable, a collaborative effort that brings together stakeholders to improve water quality through local and regional community-based watershed projects.
Ms. Joan Salvati, Director of DCR’s Division of Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance , and DCR’s team leader in development of the Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs), also spoke about Phase II WIPs. She reported that DCR is close to finalizing guidance for local governments about Phase II, which will identify the accounting, documentation, and planning that will take place during 2011. She distinguished between the “allocations” that are a regulatory requirement that the Commonwealth of Virginia is responsible for — and the target reductions of nutrients and sediment that will be asked of localities to help meet the allocations.
The Rivanna flows muddy after a rain storm
by admin on March 10, 2011
The RRBC is developing the Rivanna Watershed Action Plan to help fulfill its mission of “promoting communication, coordination, and education, and by suggesting appropriate solutions to identified problems” in the Rivanna.
A Rivanna headwater stream
An important component of the Rivanna Watershed Action Plan will be on preserving the healthy waters that we are fortunate to have in our region.
Much has changed since TJPDC published the 1998 State of the Basin Report, so the RRBC is updating the information and will be working with partners to develop a comprehensive watershed plan over the next two years.
The watershed planning process will be coordinated with the pollution prevention measures that will be developed by Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans for the Chesapeake Bay TMDL.
by admin on January 4, 2011
Three Rivanna tributaries have made it to Virginia’s “dirty waters” with Virginia DEQ. That’s the bad news. Meadow Creek, Moores Creek, and Schenks Branch do not meet the Virginia’s water quality standard for supporting aquatic life. The good news is that DEQ will be working with Charlottesville residents and stakeholders to identify the sources of pollution and to develop a clean-up plan for the creeks. On Thursday, January 6, 2011, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Walker Upper Elementary School at 1564 Dairy Road, Charlottesville, DEQ will host a public meeting to discuss early results from testing and preliminary studies, and describe how developing the clean-up plan will progress.
The clean-up plan will start with establishing the pollutants of concern and developing a TMDL, or Total Maximum Daily Load, for those pollutants. This is the same process as EPA has just undergone with its state partners, only on a much, much larger scale for the Chesapeake Bay TMDL. We are fortunate to have this work underway in Charlottesville — because everything that we do to restore these streams to health will also help in our efforts to clean up the Bay. Charlottesville City and RRBC staff will be at the meeting to talk about how this TMDL relates to the Bay TMDL.
For more information, 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.
by admin on December 30, 2010
EPA signed and published the final Bay TMDL (Total Daily Maximum Load), a massive document that describes how the Bay will achieve water quality goals by 2025. The document, which includes Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) from all six Bay states and Washington DC, can be accessed here. Of special interest is the Executive Summary and Chapter 8, which outlines how much of the each jurisdiction’s Nov 2010 WIPs were included in the final Bay TMDL — and how EPA intends to continue its oversight of the clean-up process. 
The Bay’s water quality is degraded by excessive amounts of nutrients (phosphorous and nitrogen) and sediment that are part of run-off from the land and discharges from waste treatment plants and other sources. Many Rivanna stream segments are also unhealthy for some of the same reasons. The Bay clean-up plan requires that Virginia work in 2011 with local governments and others to identify the ways that these pollutants can be reduced — so, in the Rivanna watershed, what we do to restore our local streams will also help with the Bay clean-up effort.
by admin on December 21, 2010
The Commission has started a blog to provide updates to RRBC projects and related watershed events. You can sign up to receive these updates by RSS feed or email to your Inbox and are welcome to post relevant comments. The Commission continues to update content on its website frequently, especially a week before and after all Commission meetings, to include meeting materials for that meeting. The URL for the blog is http://rivannariverbasin.org/blog/.
