I attended a meeting yesterday with citizens and officials from the Rivanna River watershed who are trying to see if they/we can help determine the way that EPA's newest efforts to protect the Chesapeake Bay can and should be applied in the area. I hope this effort can be a model that other citizens in watersheds throughout the upper James basin might emulate, because it could help local folks be more committed to following-through on the implimentation of pollution control plans. These plans are designed to benefit the Bay and all of the downstream resources but can and must correct significant problems from sediment and nutrient pollution in waters throughout the headwaters and Piedment areas of the James watershed.
If you don't yet know about initiatives that EPA, the states, and groups like ours are involved with to finally move Bay restoration forward forcefully, you might be interested to read some of the background materials. One good place to start is the Virginia DEQ's site at: http://www.deq.state.va.us/tmdl/chesapeakebay.html/chesapeakebay.html. We'll working to keep you up-to-date on these issues in the coming year or two and will need your help to support strong, specific cleanup goals and vigourous enforcement. Please also check out our brand new "State of the James" report - our report card on the River and its tributaries (http://jamesriverassociation.org/the-james-river/state-of-the-james/).
Finally, I'll leave you with a view of the Rivanna River this past summer, to remind you of the kinds of impacts an over-supply of nutrients can have on local streams.
The solid-looking masses you see in the Rivanna are not rocks but large clots of algae that made the stream unpleasant for human use and are a symptom of water quality problems.
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