Horrible Contrast

By Dave Sligh


This photo was taken last week during the high waters. The stream entering the view from the left is called Buck Island Creek and flows into the Rivanna River in southern Albemarle County. The water in Buck Island Creek is dark brown, as we would expect with high flows and bottom sediments being carried downstream. The tributary to the right is named Slate Quarry Creek and presents an amazing contrast in stream quality. Clearly, large amounts of clay are being washed from the watershed that feeds Slate Quarry Creek - a sure sign that significant land disturbance has been occurring upstream.

I want to thank Patrick Nugent for capturing this great view. Patrick is an environmental studies student at Randolph-Macon College and he interned with me during January. He performed stream habitat assessments for about a dozen streams and helped with mapping and data collection for the James River Basin.


The aerial photograph below, copied from Google Earth, shows the outline of the small watershed for Slate Quarry Creek and some of the land features. My next move is to spend time in this watershed to discover the source(s) of this damaging erosion and stream pollution. I'll let you know what I find, in a later blog.