Disappointing News on State Water Quality

The News & Advance
Published: August 18, 2008

When the state Department of Environmental Quality issued a report on the water quality of Virginia’s rivers and streams 12 years ago, slightly more than 2,000 miles of waterways were deemed impaired. That means the waterway failed to meet Virginia’s clean water standards.

Sadly, the water quality in those rivers and streams is not getting any better.

A report the environmental agency is scheduled to release this fall will show that Virginia’s 51,000 miles of rivers and streams may be getting dirtier. More than 10,600 miles of waterways were listed as “impaired” between Jan. 1, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2006, according to the report. That marks an 18 percent rise in impaired waters over the report issued two years earlier.

As The Daily Progress in Charlottesville reported last week, the state report is published every two years and is the state’s most comprehensive look at the health of Virginia’s waterways. The latest report shows an alarming trend toward poorer water quality, but some of that increase may be attributed to more widespread monitoring.

So who or what is responsible for fouling more miles of the rivers and streams that run from the mountains in the west to watersheds that empty into the Chesapeake Bay?

Higher levels of E. coli bacteria seem to head the list of ingredients making the waterways more unhealthy. And that bacteria is coming primarily from farm operations. It also mentions urban runoff, leaking sewers, failing septic tanks, domestic animals and wildlife as contributing factors.

Portions of the James River near Lynchburg have been listed as impaired in the past, partly as a result of the runoff from the city’s antiquated sewer system that allows storm water overflows to combine with raw sewage that flows into the river during heavy rainfalls. The combined sewer overflow project that has been in the works for a decade or more at a cost of millions will correct that when it is finished.

Population growth around the state has created the need for more housing and roads. Those houses — and apartment complexes — put stress on surrounding streams that often lead to lower quality water flowing through them.

Many of the state’s waterways are monitored by volunteers under a program coordinated by the DEQ. Those water monitors take samples from their local waterways, testing for temperature, pH, nutrients such as phosphorous, ammonia and nitrogen, and bacteria such as E. coli.

The state government only monitors about a third of Virginia’s waterways. The volunteers help keep an eye on much of the balance of them, which helps expand the state’s monitoring network.

The more widespread monitoring provided by volunteers accounts in part for the greater percentage of impaired waters. But the state and the General Assembly, which appropriates money for the monitoring efforts, should view the results of the water quality tests with concern.

Poll after poll has said that Virginians consider their environment — and the water quality that is part of it — important. Keeping a vigilant eye on the waterways will ensure, one would hope, that they don’t become any dirtier.