Category: riverine

South of the Tracks

left bank of Moore's Creek

Sec. 10-71. Duty to retain or establish stream buffer.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this article, any land adjacent to the following listed waters, shall provide buffers for the purposes of retarding runoff, preventing erosion, and filtering nonpoint source pollution from runoff:
(1) Rivanna River;
(2) Moore’s Creek;
(3) Meadow Creek.
(b) A required stream buffer shall be no less than one hundred (100) feet wide on each side of the stream, which buffer
shall be measured horizontally from the top of the stream bank.–CHO Minicode

North of the tracks we are spending millions to restore Meadow Creek. South of the tracks, on Moore’s Creek, the poor man’s creek, is there a mitigation plan, any plan? Put in the new sewer pipe, grind up the trees. That is that?

53 mgd


Tandem Friends School students test Rivanna River water with technical direction and apparatus provided by Rivanna Conservation Society executive director Robbi Savage.
The students canoed to Riverview Park from an undisclosed location on the north fork of the Rivanna.

April 6, 2011, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will hear from Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority executive director Tom Frederick about locating a new, fifty-three million gallon per day sewage pumping facility in this park.
If you are a county resident, please communicate with your supervisors about this bad idea. Riverview Park and Darden Towe Park are our community’s only gateways to the Rivanna River. Not good locations for sewage infrastructure.
To petition the Board of Supervisors on this issue click here.
Architect’s rendering of the proposal for the park.

influent


Tom Frederick of the RWSA and Janice Carroll of Hazen Sawyer confer during slide presentation regarding RWSA’s Rivanna Interceptor Sanitary Sewer Pumping Capacity Improvements.

The Rivanna Pump Station is currently located adjacent to Riverview Park, at the end of Chesapeake Street in the Woolen Mills neighborhood.

Woolen Mills Neighborhood Association president Victoria Dunham summarizes the four pumping station options presented by the RWSA below…

The RWSA has presented four potential options.  The new station will have a bigger footprint, but will also need to be taller because the electrical equipment has to be above the 100-year flood level.

Option A leaves the pumping station in roughly the same vicinity, but enlarges it and moves it closer to Bev and Dimi’s house.  For the many folks in the neighborhood who have fought the good fight for so many years re odor and eyesore, this is a discouraging option.  They say it probably won’t smell this time. but that’s one heck of a gamble for us to take as a neighborhood.  Needless to say, this is the cheapest option.

Option B moves the pumping station down into the park.  That will necessitate a lot of clearing and a road system into the park to service the station.  As the park was always intended to remain as untouched as possible, and this solution would shrink the acreage a bit, this is alarming.

Option C moves the pumping station onto their own property (the main plant), which make a lot of sense.  There’s a significant problem with this however, because the RWSA would have to acquire an easement across four properties along E Market St.  As a neighborhood, we would need to be absolutely certain that those four neighbors were completely fine with that.  (I’m not 100% sure exactly which of the properties would be impacted, but guess it would be from Jon Fink and Roger Voisinet, on down the north side of the street to the old mill property.  The pipe would be placed 30ft deep, which is one heck of a trench to be dug in one’s back yard.

Option D moves the pumping station across the river on the opposite bank, which is owned by State Farm.  From an environmental justice perspective, this is a sound solution.  When one considers the negative quality of life suffered by our neighborhood at the hands of the RWSA over the last 30+ years, this is a mighty tempting option.  Needless to say, it’s also the most expensive.

To see RWSA’s powerpoint and learn more visit…
http://www.rivanna.org/pumpstation/index.htm

Past contretemps with byproducts from the RWSA’s service region:
compost
wastewater
biosolids
mother of all outhouses

rain


I am a weather water streams nerd, product of growing up in the streams, rivers and estuaries of this state, Virginia.
This year, I introduced 80 yearling trees to the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the weather took a xeric turn.
I am so happy to see rain falling.
Good places to observe and quantify precipitation:
Doppler radar storm total.
iMap
Weather Underground personal weather stations
USGS stream flows

To the end that the people have clean air, pure water, and the use and enjoyment for creation of adequate public lands, waters and other natural resources, it shall be the policy of the Commonwealth to conserve, develop and utilize its natural resources, its public lands and its historic sites and buildings.

Further, it shall be the Commonwealth’s policy to protect its atmosphere, lands and waters from pollution, impairment or destruction for the benefit, enjoyment and general welfare of the people of the Commonwealth.–Constitution of Virginia

rain


the rain gauge in my back-yard reads 2.2 inches. The first significant rainfall this month.

The gauge at Palmyra, downstream from CHO pulsed. It will be interesting to see the change in the community’s reservoir water levels tomorrow.

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.