Send a letter to Governor McDonnell urging him to craft a watershed implementation plan with substance. If the EPA doesn’t receive an actionable and adequate plan written by our State, the EPA will craft the plan, an outcome no one wants.
Category: damage
Waynesboro, Virginia, downtown
Over the past 40 years, Waynesboro, like downtowns across the country, changed drastically due to the creation of the interstate highway system and subsequent growth of suburban communities. Downtown businesses closed or moved to the mall, shoppers dwindled, property values and sales tax revenues dropped. —Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc.
dirty water
Federal and state governments have been trying to fix these problems since 1983. They have spent more than $5 billion, but the cleanup devolved into an odd kind of cordial failure. The EPA did not punish states that failed to deliver on promises. And states – which cracked down on sewage plants – shied away from requiring more expensive changes on farms and from urban storm-sewer systems.–WaPo
In recent years the EPA has been going after point source pollution, mess that comes out of a pipe. While our region is embroiled in discussion about the future of its water supply, the local water and sewer authority has budgeted 71% of its money (the rate payers’ money) over the next five years for sewer infrastructure, taking care of old business.
Next up, farmers who ignore fertilizer run-off, let their cows wallow in streams. Next up, municipalities that are cavalier about impervious surface and storm water run-off.
Oh! We can’t fix those things now, times are hard…
“Full implementation of this plan will likely cost billions of new dollars,” Virginia’s plan read. “In these austere times, we cannot guarantee such significant additional funding will be provided by our General Assembly.”
When?
Public meetings are scheduled.
But, breathe easy. Maybe, instead of living up to this old promise, the tea-party/Republicans will resume control, dissolve that pesky EPA.
Carassius auratus auratus
Cygnus olor, Swan v Automobile
eating machine
Caterpillars have about 4,000 muscles (compare humans, with 629). They move through contraction of the muscles in the rear segments pushing the blood forward into the front segments elongating the torso. The average caterpillar has 248 muscles in the head segment alone. Wikipedia
bucket of bugs
lack of water
Yellow poplar (Liriodendron) is notorious for shedding many leaves during summer droughts, sycamore (Platanus) sheds some leaves, and buckeye (Aesculus) may shed all of its leaves as drought continues. On the other hand, leaves of dogwood (Cornus) usually wilt and die rather than abscise. If water becomes available later in the growing season, some trees defoliated by drought may produce a second crop of leaves from previously dormant buds. Many times these leaves are stunted.–Dr. Kim D. Coder
These three trees planted in 2009, a swamp white oak and two sycamores in Riverview Park, need water. Trees are like dogs, or children, if you plant two inch caliper ($100) trees, they have to be cared for until their root systems are established.
According to Dr. Coder’s article these juveniles might still have a chance…