Water

Water

From Page A1

record at all.

You must document water quality insisted Mr. Gilliam. Rappahannock has clean water, but it must be proven if it is challenged.

One of the things being worked on at the state level is accepting citizen water monitoring data. Also, high quality monitoring is already being done by many governmental agencies and if requested it can be collected and combined in scientifically defensible ways.

There were many questions about perennial streams (constantly flowing), intermittent streams (wet in the spring and dry in the summer) and ephemeral streams (ditches that collect rainwater and dry up which are not regulated), the effects of logging and forestry, pollution from the poultry industry in the Shenandoah Valley,' the Virginia Right to Farm Act, and the agricultural shift from family farming to industrial farming.

It was mentioned that the D.E.Q. addresses only point pollution (what comes out of a pipe), not non-point pollution which is everything else and is far more pervasive. They recently released a survey showing that three percent of the nitrogen and 10 percent of the phosphorous in the Rappahannock River was from point pollution.

The remaining 97 percent of the nitrogen and 90 percent of the phosphorous was from non-point pollution sources such as septic systems, crop land and pasture run-off. Below the fall-line (the point where seawater is present), point pollution nitrogen rises to seven percent and phosphorous jumps to 28 percent.

Something as simple as having septic tanks cleaned every two years can have a tremendous effect on pollution.

After the problems are assessed, then try to participate in the solutions was the message. Man power is the biggest factor in implementing the solutions, so in Rockingham County they use the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-Hers, V.M.I. students, even prison