Local waters receive mixed grades

 A state water quality report released Monday was a wash locally.

Three “impaired” Culpeper County waterways were added to the Virginia Department of Environmetnal Quality’s 2010 report, but three that showed up on the 2008 report were removed because they now meet water quality standards.

In all, Culpeper County, part of the Rappahannock River Basin, had 23 waterways listed as impaired or threatened by pollution — the same number as two years ago.

Greg Wichelns, district manager with the Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District, said his general sense was that the area’s waterways are getting healthier.

“People are more aware, they’re more sensitive about it,” he said. “The county several years ago adopted a better stormwater code, and I think the amount of federal funding available for the work we do is very high right now.”

Three of the 23 Culpeper waterways listed on the DEQ report were ranked in the highest category (5), meaning the waters are impaired and in need of a cleanup plan.

The other 20 were ranked category 4, meaning the waters are threatened or impaired but do not need a cleanup plan, because pollutant levels were not as prevalent.

More than 10 miles along the Rapidan River traversing Culpeper, Orange and Spotsylvania counties — beginning at Flat Run — was listed for the first time as category 5 impaired because of mercury detected in fish tissue. Three samples showed above 300 parts per billion for mercury in American eel, rock bass and smallmouth bass.

Higher than acceptable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were also detected in 19 miles of Mountain Run, beginning at the U.S. 15/29 bridge downstream to the Rappahannock River.

The fish-consumption advisory, first issued in 2004, limits American eel consumption to no more than two meals per month, and earned the stretch of stream another category 5 impairment ranking. A cleanup plan is scheduled to be complete by 2018, according to the DEQ.

The same stretch of Mountain Run earned Culpeper its final category 5 impairment; this time for having an impaired macroinverterbrate community, that is, tiny organisms such as insects, snails or worms that live on the bottom of streams or rivers. The creatures are extremely sensitive to pollutants and therefore often provide an assessment of ecological health in freshwater bodies.

Most of the rest of the waterway impairments in Culpeper dealt with e-coli bacteria contamination.

“That is not a surprise,” said Darryl Glover, DEQ’s water quality monitoring and assessment manager. “Statewide, e-coli is the worst pollutant in our waterways.”

Agricultural practices appear to be one of the primary sources contributing to the bacteria violations, according to the DEQ report. State standards adopted in February place the e-coli threshold for safe recreational use in freshwater to 126 parts per 100 million.

Specific sources of e-coli contaminants in Culpeper waterways listed in the DEQ report included livestock grazing or feeding, pet waste, waterfowl, wildlife other than waterfowl, septic systems and biosolid application.

A 6.43-mile stretch of Mountain Run was added to the 2010 impaired waterway list for the first time for e-coli — from the U.S. 15/29 bridge downstream to Jonas Run. An 8.22-mile stretch of Blackwater Creek, traversing Culpeper and Rappahannock counties, also showed up for the first time because of e-coli contamination.

In total, 387 miles of river in the Rappahannock River Basin were listed as impaired in the 2010 DEQ report.

The basin covers 2,712 square miles; its major tributaries are: the Hazel River, Thornton River, Mountain Run, Rapidan River, Robinson River, Cat Point Creek and the Corrotoman River.

“The 2006 population of the Rappahannock River Basin was approximately 294,576,” the DEQ report said of the 17 counties located in the region, including Albemarle Culpeper, Fauquier, Greene, Madison, Orange and Spotsylvania.

“The basin is mostly rural in character with no large population centers. However, (it) has seen increasing urban pressure from the influence of metropolitan Washington in the Fredericksburg and Fauquier areas.”

Culpeper waterways removed from DEQ’s 2010 impaired list were Lake Pelham and Mountain Run Lake. The former was listed in 2008 for dissolved oxygen deficiencies and pH. Mountain Run Lake was also listed for dissolved oxygen.

Chris Hively, Culpeper Town Director of Environmental Sciences, did not know why the lakes were initially listed or why they were removed.

“We’re not doing anything different,” he said of the town’s treatment practices. “It’s either a good thing or a fluke.”

The DEQ’s Glover said the trend in recent years has been toward cleaner waters.

“As I stated at the press conference this morning, we have more candidates to come off the impaired list than we have new rivers and streams going on the list,” he said Monday.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation is charged with developing cleanup plans for category 5 impaired waterways. In Culpeper, the Soil and Water Conservation District assists.

Wichelns said practices to alleviate pollutants are more flexible than in the past and provide more government funding to property owners. The CSWCD hosts a free watershed protection program Sept. 1 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Daniel Technology Center.

Impaired waters 2010: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Culpeper County

Rappahannock River Basin

- Mountain Run, 19.33 miles, from U.S. 15/29 bridge downstream to the Rappahannock River — impaired benthic-macroinverterbrate bioassessments and PCB in fish tissue

- Rapidan River, 10.26 miles, from Flat Run downstream to Rappahannock River — mercury in fish tissue (new listing this year)

- Rappahannock River, 6.81 river miles from Great Run to the Hazel River (Culpeper and Fauquier) — e-coli

- Hughes River, 3.67 miles from Kilbys Creek to the Hazel River — e-coli

- Hazel River, 15.43 miles, beginning at the route 707 bridge — e-coli

- Blackwater Creek, 8.22 miles — e-coli (new listing this year) 

- Thornton River, 5.4 miles, beginning at Mill Run — e-coli

- Muddy Run, 12.6 miles near Route 229 — e-coli

- Hazel River, 3.32 miles beginning at Indian Run — e-coli

- Rappahannock River, 2.02 miles from Ruffans Run downstream to Tinpot Run — e-coli,

- Rappahannock River, 2.83 miles from unnamed tributary downstream to Marsh Run — e-coli

- Mountain Run, 7.39 miles, from Flat Run downstream to the Rappahannock River — e-coli

- Mountain Run, 6.43 miles from the U.S. 15/29 bridge downstream to Jonas Run — e-coli (new listing this year)

- Mountain Run, 1.56 river miles, from unnamed tributary downstream to Lake Pelham — e-coli

- Jonas Run, 3.71 miles, from unnamed tributary to Mountain Run — e-coli

- Robinson River, 5.21 miles from White Oak Run downstream to the Rapidan River — e-coli

- Crooked Run, 7.29 miles from Little Crooked Run downstream to the Robinson River — e-coli

- Cedar Run, 3.2 miles, from Buck Run downstream to Cabin Branch — e-coli

- Rapidan River, 4.58 miles from unnamed tributary to Cedar Run — e-coli

- Rapidan River, 3.33 miles from Robinson River downstream to unnamed tributary — e-coli

- Rapidan River, 2.47 miles from Wilderness Run downstream to Middle Run — e-coli

- Rapidan River, 3.46 miles from public water supply about 1.2 miles upstream from Route 3 downstream to Lick Branch — e-coli