Rivers, streams and soil: Signs of progress, but work remains
It was a report card few residents were anticipating. Ahead of its release last October, a crowd of roughly 70 buzzed around Pen Druid Brewery drinking beer and mingling, united by their interest in the state of Rappahannock County’s streams and rivers. Then Adam Lynch from Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR), the environmental nonpro t based in Fredericksburg that had done the grading, stood and presented the report’s ndings.
Among the highlights: The Jordan River received an A for having large amounts of land along the watershed in conservation, and the Thornton received top marks for its annual river clean-up.
The bad news: A portion of the Rush River that runs through the Rappahannock County Park had earned a failing grade for recreational use for having unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, which can lead to illness and infection in humans.
Moreover, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which collects and tests water samples for bacteria and other pollutants, had listed that portion of the Rush River as “impaired” since 2002.
“We were totally shocked because a lot of us had never heard anything about this,” said Ruth Welch, a board member of the county’s Recreation Facilities Authority, which manages the Rappahannock County Park. If the river had earned a failing grade for recreation, she thought, people shouldn’t be playing and wading in it.
Environmental agencies, experts, non-pro ts and volunteers have been largely successful in keeping Rappahannock’s streams and soils clean and healthy, which preserves the county’s rural and agricultural character. But sustained e orts will be needed to ensure its treasured natural resources continue to bene t the local community as well as the millions of people who live downriver.
FOR’s report card, which draws on data from the DEQ and other agencies, was designed to draw attention to information that might not normally make it into public consciousness, said Lynch.
Stream impairment data, for example, is reported in DEQ’s biannual water quality assessment, but it can be hard to decipher, he noted.