Report sees little improvement for area streams

The Rivanna River watershed has made precious little progress since StreamWatch last checked its health, with more than 70 percent of the sites tested failing to meeting Department of Environmental Quality standards.

Though local environmental experts say it’s good news that there’s no evidence the waterways are becoming more polluted, the apparent lack of improvement is frustrating to some.
“With an increase in population, and the demands placed on our water resources by growth and drought, the very fact that we stayed constant in the face of these challenges is a great sign,” said Robbi Savage, executive director of the Rivanna Conservation Society. “On the other hand, if your focus is water quality, the lack of improvement is troublesome.”

The new StreamWatch report is based on data collected between summer 2006 and this past spring. The previous report was based on data collected between winter 2004 and fall 2007.
StreamWatch is a local nonprofit that evaluates stream conditions based on organisms found in the water. Stress-tolerant organisms are found in unhealthy sites, while sensitive bugs can survive only in healthy streams.
Stream sites in the Rivanna River are tested several times by collecting organisms with a net. At least 200 organisms must be identified and classified in each test.
John Murphy, the director of StreamWatch, says human activities contribute to the poor conditions of streams.
“Hundreds of studies, including our own, show a clear correlation between land use and stream health,” Murphy said.
The report data hasn’t changed much in the several years in which volunteers have spent thousands of hours studying the streams’ health, Murphy said, but the researchers aren’t all-knowing.

“Although we don’t see any change in our scores over the six-and-a-half years, our monitoring is not so sensitive that we would necessarily detect the early stages of any trends,” Murphy said.
Of the 35 sites in the survey — in Albemarle, Greene and Fluvanna counties, as well as the city of Charlottesville — five were rated as “very good” and seven as “good.” Eighteen were rated as “fair,” four as “poor” and one (Moores Creek near Woolen Mills in the city) as “very poor.”
Savage said residents are partially to blame for the condition of the streams, adding that landowners do landscaping work and use pesticides “to make [yards] look lovely,” but a lack of stream buffers allows pollutants to seep into streams.
“The time has come that we can’t blame everybody else for our water pollution problems,” Savage said. “We need clean water for our own personal health and well-being.”

Descriptions of the tested streams are available at http://www.streamwatch.org/stream-conditions.
StreamWatch’s budget for its long-term program is $50,000 per year. The Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority, the Nature Conservancy and the Albemarle County, Char-lottesville and Fluvanna County governments are the project’s primary financial contributors.