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By Galen C. McBride
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Last Friday night, environmentalist Thom Savage spoke at the county library on the 1997 Agricultural Stewardship Act (ASA). Attendance at the seminar, one of a continuing series promoting educational and agricultural programs presented by the Ragged Mountain Resource Center, suffered due to the evening’s severe rainstorm. A resident of Goldvein in Fauquier County, and an attorney, Savage spoke “as a knowledgeable citizen familiar with laws and how they are drafted.”
In his opening remarks, Hunt Harris, organizer of the series, reported that, according i to the Virginia Department of f Environmental Quality, the Rappahannock River was “the most degraded” of the three southern rivers running into the Chesapeake Bay.
Savage’s interest in the law j stems from personal experii ence. “Reports are coming out,” he said, “that the system is broken. The Chesapeake Bay is on the decline. Rivers are deteriorating. Oysters and mussels are in decline,” and erosion is so severe that “downstream from Fredericksburg, where the white water turns to tidal, ther6 has been a great expansion of mudflats” due to silting.
In 1996, the DEQ declared Deep Run Creek, which runs behind his home, an “impaired waterway.” Curious, Savage took water samples from the creek and had them analyzed by a professional laboratory. The lab found significant amounts of fecal coliform contamination present. Savage attempted to use the law’s provisions to find the source of the pollution and take corrective steps to end it. He’s been at odds with state environmental regulatory agencies, local politicians, and some of
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