Category: environment

Rivanna Renaissance

Rivanna River Woolen Mills
“The degradation of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem took place more than two centuries; it will take more than three decades to reverse. The newly signed Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement—with its clear, well-defined and achievable goals and outcomes, its flexibility to respond and adapt to changing conditions and its public engagement—sets the course and provides the watershedwide commitment to get us there.”–Nicholas DiPasquale, Director of the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program (left, DiPasquale paddling the Rivanna, October 1)
DiPasquale one of the speakers at today’s Rivanna Renaissance conference.

anisota senatoria

yellowstriped oakworms in situ
University of Florida has an excellent write-up about these critters.
q palustis w/ egg cluster
They tend to lay egg masses on the lower leaves. So if you were able to inspect a few thousand leaves…
3 versions of same thing
Hoping the Charlottesville downtown mall isn’t beset by these. They particularly like q. phellos.
Differences between instars can often be seen in altered body proportions, colors, patterns, or changes in the number of body segments. —Wikipedia

A million cubic feet

CAT 740B
Work was paused temporarily Monday at RWSA’s excavation for members of the public to visit the site, the location of the future Rivanna pumping station.


nobody looks good in a hardhat
First up. Schooling from Dr. Richard Gullick on this great project, using gravity to transport waste water to the sewage plant instead of building a massive pump station adjacent to residences, a state scenic river and a park. The influent to the new pumping station will flow through a pipe in a tunnel bored through 1600 feet of bedrock.


big hole
Attendees at the edge of the excavation.


release the Kraken!
The tunnel boring machine, the mechanical star in our community drama of doing the best, not the cheapest, thing. Enduring thanks to the public and the RWSA Board for this outcome.

Palustris

wetland
Andrea Terry of RWSA is leading a tour of the Moores Creek Environmental Preservation Area, Friday May 15.
Meet at the Franklin Street wetland gate ( north of the stockyard) at 10:00 AM. (near 706 Franklin ST).
This is the hardwood wetland that was built to mitigate loss of wetlands with
the expansion of Ragged Mountain reservoir.
Rubber boots are advised.
Please RSVP to aterry(at)rwsa.org.

Palustris is a Latin word meaning “swampy” or “marshy”. It is often used in taxonomy for species names
typically in scientific names for animals and plants to refer to the typical habitat of the species.–Wikipedia

what is in a name?

global warming
In 1980, Dominion Resources, Inc., was incorporated as the holding company for VEPCO. For us ratepayers on the ground Virginia Electric and Power Company became Dominion.


transporting fracked gas
Dominion came through the Woolen Mills recently, whacking trees. Line maintenance. They provide the power that I post by here. But what is the price of the power?


North Anna, James
Is it possible for a monopoly to be true to its place of origin? To care about cultural and natural resources? To care about the environment? Here recently, the corporation has been in the news, often. From the outside they’ve been acting more like the Dominator than the Virginian. Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Transmission lines over the James River. New nuclear facility on a faultline.


political clout
Yesterday, people from across Virginia came to speak to the dominator. To date, there is little indication that Dominion has ears.

where is the light switch?

CHO Mayor Huja silhouette
The City of Charlottesville is a quarter finalist in the Georgetown University Energy Prize, a nationwide competition for small-to-medium sized
communities to compete to win a $5 million grand prize by saving energy.
The Council meets tomorrow afternoon for a budget work session.

While operating 6016 streetlights, the City doesn’t appear to have an IES certified individual (Illuminating Engineering Society) on staff.
Who is in charge of the lighting? Who directs spending in this arena to make sure we get best lighting for dollars spent?
Who knows how many dollars are spent on lighting?
There are forms available to request the addition of streetlights, drop lens, highway-style fixtures, but
no one knows where the light switch is, where the form is to request the removal of lighting.
We submitted a dark-skies petition in 2000 trying to reclaim the night..
Someday…
(read Janis Jaquith’s essay “Turn Off The Lights”)

Paulownia tomentosa

Paulownia_tomentosa
Summer in the City.

It is tolerant of pollution and it is not fussy about soil type. For this reason it functions ecologically as a pioneer plant. Its nitrogen-rich leaves provide good fodder and its roots prevent soil erosion. Eventually, Paulownia is succeeded by taller trees that shade it. It cannot thrive in the shade of other trees.
Paulownia is in honour of the Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia, with tomentosa being derived from the Latin meaning ‘covered in hairs’–Wikipedia