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Catoctin Creek Watershed Project Final Year Meeting Held
The Catoctin TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) Implementation Project is well into its final year of helping farmers and residents reduce their impact on Catoctin Creek and its tributaries. A final year update meeting was held at Ida Lee Park on July 27th to provide a snapshot of the project and to encourage anyone who might have interest in getting cost share funds for work on their own farm or septic system to come forward before the program wraps up at the end of the year.
Speakers at the event included Chris Van Vlack from Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District, Matt Tolley and Bob Lee from Loudoun's Environmental Health Department, David Ward from Loudoun Watershed Watch, Charles Lunsford from the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and James Hanlon from the Environmental Protection Agency.
To date, 48 agricultural Best Management Practices have been installed utilizing cost share funds from the project. These include stream fencing to keep horses, cattle, and other livestock out of water, water troughs to provide clean drinking water to livestock, and cover crops to trap nutrients and sediment on crop fields during the winter time. Another 22 projects (over $90,000 worth of cost share funds) are "in the pipeline" to be completed prior to the end of the year. Well over $113,000 has been contributed through the Catoctin Program to local farmers, with the balance of the cost of the projects being covered by the farmers themselves.
Stream data shows a slight decline in bacteria levels in Catoctin since monitoring began in the 1970s, but the water still exceeds government standards for full body immersion for swimming in enough of the test samples that the Creek still is classified as impaired.
Citizen monitoring (which is more widespread than that done by the Department of Environmental Quality) has been performed by Loudoun Watershed Watch and in many respects mirrored the DEQ data, showing a slight decline in a number of sub watersheds, but with levels still exceeding standards.
In addition to the bacteria impairment, a number of stream segments of the Catoctin also have benthic impairments which are noted by the reductions in the populations of sensitive aquatic species. These impairments many times are due to elevated sediment levels which damages the in stream habitat for these creatures. These segments include the main stem of South Fork Catoctin beginning in the Town of Purcellville.
In tackling the issue of water quality, whether on a big scale like the Chesapeake Bay, or some a smaller local level like the Catoctin Watershed, Mr. Hanlon of the EPA explained the "E3" approach. E3 stands for "everything, everywhere by everyone" and emphasizes the fact that all segments of the community contribute to water quality. Through the Catoctin Creek TMDL Project local farmers and septic system owners are doing their part to reduce their portion of the "E3." But it is only with EVERYONE's participation that the Catoctin will be removed from the impaired waters list.
ALL the major watersheds of Loudoun are impaired according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, so in the end we are all part of the problem, and we all must be part of the solution.
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