Group of local waterways added to state watch list

By Tasha Kates

Published: June 27, 2008

State regulators have added 10 local rivers and creeks to a list of “impaired” waterways, but that classification doesn’t necessarily mean the waterways are off limits for recreation.

The state’s Department of Environmental Quality released its 2008 water quality report this month, adding these waterways to the list — Ivy Creek, Ragged Mountain Reservoir, Moores Creek, Buck Island Creek, Schenks Branch, Venable Creek, Phils Creek and portions of the Hardware River, Rivanna River and Cunningham Creek.

The waterways, parts of which have been listed before, made the new list for everything from too much bacteria in the water to a pH imbalance. Diane Frisbee, a watershed protection specialist with the local branch of the Nature Conservancy, said the report didn’t turn up any surprises.

“This new report supports a lot of the findings that there are some streams in our watershed that suffer from too much bacteria, and that we need to try to restore this area from suffering,” Frisbee said.

The DEQ’s list is part of a water quality assessment prepared every two years, said James Shiflet, a water resources planner in the agency’s Harrisonburg office. Waterways that exceed the agency’s standards by more than 10.5 percent in a six-year window are considered impaired.

“Our sampling is a snapshot in time,” Shiflet said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean the waterways are violating 100 percent of the time. Bacteria counts can go up and down depending on flow and weather.”

A waterway’s mere presence on the impaired list doesn’t necessarily mean it’s dangerous to humans. However, Shiflet said people should avoid immersing themselves in waters with a higher E. coli presence, particularly children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.

Albemarle’s swimming areas — Chris Greene Lake, Walnut Creek and Mint Springs Valley Park — are tested monthly. Matthew Smith, the county’s superintendent of parks, said the waters have consistently met or been under the standard of 200 parts per million of bacteria, E. coli and algae.

“If it was ever to fall above the required water acceptable levels, we would close the facility down immediately and do a retest,” Smith said. “Fortunately, in the 34 years that I’ve worked with county parks, we’ve never had that incident happen.”

Several of the waterways listed on the DEQ’s report, such as Buck Island Creek and Venable Creek, have higher than acceptable E. coli levels. Shiflet said E. coli is present in all warm-blooded animals, and it can be passed into a waterway through urine and waste. Higher E. coli concentrations in rural creeks often come from livestock.

A low or nonexistent presence of benthic macroinvertebrates put four area waterways on the list, including a portion of the Rivanna River and Ivy Creek.

“It means that the benthic, the good bugs, are not present in that stream or are in a reduced population, which means there is some type of stress entering that stream,” Shiflet said. “The absence of those good bugs [is] going to affect the other parts of that ecosystem and stream.”

Robert Lazaro, spokesman for the Piedmont Environ-mental Council, said the DEQ’s report is a good reminder of how landowners can help reduce the impact on streams.

“It puts more importance on land conservation and the appropriate development where it belongs and protecting and repairing buffers so streams don’t became impaired,” Lazaro said.

“There are things that folks can do at their home. You don’t need to fertilize every other day. It can get caught up in the rain and wastewater, which runs into streams.”

Once a waterway becomes impaired, the agency identifies the pollutants responsible. Shiflet said land use and population size are good indicators of what’s affecting the water. For example, sediment from construction sites can flow into streams with storm water.

Robert Brendt, the regional coordinator for the studies, said the DEQ already has completed studies for the presence of bacteria on the North Fork of the Rivanna River, Preddy Creek, Mechums River, Meadow Creek, Ballinger Creek, Totier Creek and Beaver Creek. Sediment entry into the Rivanna also has been studied.

Even though the studies have been completed, it takes about a year to gather public input and more time to create an implementation plan. Projects also need to get funding from the state’s Water Quality Improvement Fund.

“In the Shenandoah projects, there have been hundreds of thousands spent on water quality improvements,” Brendt said. “As the watershed gets larger, costs go up. Costs in the millions aren’t out of the question.”

The new waterways on the list might not have plans written for them right away. The DEQ is under a consent order to create studies for certain waterways by 2010; the order is a remnant of a court case from the 1990s brought because the Environmental Protection Agency wasn’t enforcing the studies under the Clean Water Act.

The photo caption was corrected to add Ivy Creek to the DEQ’s list of “impaired” waterways.