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VIRGINIA
Virginia continues to develop watershed projects that combine educational
programs and demonstrations, technical assistance, financial assistance, and
water quality monitoring into a comprehensive approach to watershed
restoration. An example of this successful approach is the Middle Fork Holston
River project.
Awareness Project Promotes Agricultural BMP Use
Cooperation from and coordination among many individuals working on
different aspects of a problem is often the surest way to improve water
quality. That was certainly true in the Middle Fork Holston watershed in
western - Virginia. The water quality awareness project, funded with section
319 funds, promoted the restoration of the Middle Fork Holston River and
encouraged the use of best management practices. It was a small but important
part of the plan to reduce watershed pollution. In 1985, the New River
Highlands Resource Conservation and Development District (RC&D) formed a
committee dedicated to improving the river's water quality by reducing point
and nonpoint pollution sources. In March 1990, the public awareness project
received $7,500 in section 319 funds to further that effort. This was
supplemented by $6,500 from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and $17,000
from the RC&D, the project sponsor.
The project had several components:
Over 600 students participated in an educational program for all local
schools, which included - t-shirts and logo and poster contests.
- About 140 people participated in the widely promoted River Clean-Up Day,
cleaning approximately 36 miles of streambank.
- A successful streambank protection effort--which installed approximately
4,800 feet of fence to restrict cattle access to the river, planted 1,250 trees
beside streams, and built three watering troughs--continues to be used as a
demonstration site.
- Other activities included reforesting a streambank adjacent to an
industrial park, touring agricultural BMPs installed within the watershed, and
developing an educational display of activities to restore the river.
The land treatment BMPs contribute greatly to water quality improvements.
Trees control erosion and stabilize stream temperature. Fences protect streams
against cattle waste, which increases nutrients that contribute to
eutrophication--nutrient enrichment that leads to premature aging of the
waterbody.
The awareness project enhanced public support for existing projects such as
TVA's BMP assistance and monitoring programs and critical site treatment with
federal and state cost-share funds. TVA used the Index of Biotic Integrity
(IBI) to monitor water quality changes and conducted an aerial inventory of
land use and nonpoint source pollution sources. This monitoring has shown that
water quality has improved as a result of installing land treatment BMPs.
Fish populations have increased both in numbers and diversity. Overall, the
fish community has shown an - improvement in the percentage of insectivores,
such as sculpins, and top predators, such as rock bass. These changes are
reflective of a more balanced and healthy stream ecosystem and are attributed
to reductions in sediment and nutrient loadings from the installation of
BMPs.
In 1991, a pilot total maximum daily load (TMDL) project, supported with
section 319 funds, began developing a methodology to link land use changes
brought about by land treatment BMPs with changes in water quality using IBI
techniques. Although more research is required, the completed project shows a
correlation between land use changes and changes in water quality.
Another section 319 project, funded in the fall of 1992, builds on previous
streambank restoration along critical areas of the watershed identified through
TVAs extensive land use inventories. Finally, USDA has approved a land
treatment watershed project on three subwatersheds and will provide additional
funding for land treatment BMP practices.
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