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FOR volunteers to monitor construction sites to head off sediment pollution Date published: 9/4/2009
By RUSTY DENNEN One of the best ways to curb pollution is eyewitness reports. For years, Friends of the Rappahannock has relied on volunteers to monitor water quality in area streams, for example. The latest wrinkle is FOR's Get the Dirt Out campaign to cut stream-clogging sediment pollution by having volunteers monitor construction sites. The pilot project will begin this fall in Stafford County and could be expanded to other area localities. Similar initiatives have worked elsewhere in Virginia. Sediment pollution is one of the most serious threats to the Rappahannock, says FOR Executive Director John Tippett. Especially in the lower part of the river, "It smothers aquatic organisms that live on the bottom, like oysters, clams and mussels," Tippett said. In addition, "Sediment makes the water cloudy, and that prevents sunlight from getting down to underwater plants." Area localities have erosion-control laws aimed at construction sites. "But enforcement of those laws requires constant vigilance. You have to have eyes out there to to make sure that [conservation] practices don't fail. That's a hard job for any locality to have eyes out there all the time," Tippett said. "This is meant to help local government do their jobs." Tippett said Get the Dirt Out simply formalizes what FOR has been doing already. Here's how it will work: After a three-hour training session, volunteers will check on sites along routes where they live and work. "Just to keep a general eye out for issues that might be going on," Tippett said. An example would be the edge of a construction site where a silt fence had been breached during a thunderstorm. "They will not be going on private property. It's what can be viewed from the roadside," Tippett said. The monitor would snap a digital photo and go to the mapping tool on FOR's Web site (riverfriends.org), locate the property, upload the photo and add text about the problem. "The e-mail comes to us, we review it and send it to [local] code administration departments," which use the same mapping system, Tippett said. The volunteer monitoring started on Georgia's Chattahoochee River and spread to other rivers, including portions of the Shenandoah and Potomac. Tippett said such programs augment local and state pollution-control efforts. At a time when state funding for monitoring is limited, "We can flag streams when a problem occurs." Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Date published: 9/4/2009
And why don't you add ag runoff to that list too? Because the state already requires the local gov't to inspect the builders AND have an inspection done by the owner looking at the same stuff. Granted, oversight isn't as good as it could be but having untrained citizens with an ax to grind "inspecting" sites seems like its going to cause some major headaches.
snap some photo's of Spotsy's sewage spill at massaponax creek, F'burg's sewage spill near the falmouth bridge, and Stafford's sewage spill, all last year. Then try to photograph all the sewage issues in the watershed and you will see what the real cause of the water issues is.
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