http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler stories of landscapes, conservation, and people in and beyond the Rivanna Watershed Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:11:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 © lmiddleton@embarqmail.com () lmiddleton@embarqmail.com() stories of landscapes, conservation, and people in and beyond the Rivanna Watershed lmiddleton@embarqmail.com No no http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler 144 144 http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:00:17 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/feed/ 0 5:34 January 8, 2009 The City of Charlottesville, along with Albemarle County, UVA, and PVCC, are all submitted renewal applications for the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) ... January 8, 2009 The City of Charlottesville, along with Albemarle County, UVA, and PVCC, are all submitted renewal applications for the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) General Permit for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4's).nbsp; The permit describes how these entities will manage stormwater in their jurisdictions, but much of the management really rests on you and me and how we manage the stormwater that we create because of our modern lifestyle. Chilling, cold, welcome, seasonal.nbsp; These words could all describe the precipitation of the last couple of days.nbsp; Cold and chilling, as temperatures hovered below freezing, icing roads and dusting the Blue Ridge white.nbsp; Welcome, and seasonal, since we rely on wintertime precipitation to keeps our rivers and wells flowing, our groundwater replenished, our reservoirs full and to hold off the press of drought. But this water ndash; mostly clean as transits from clouds to earth ndash; becomes something else once it hits our streets, yards, and houses.nbsp; It becomes storm water ndash; and it is hardly benign.nbsp; Rather than infiltrating the soil as it does in the forests, stormwater rushes to creeks and to the Rivanna, carrying litter, oils, pet waste, and dirt, rushes in such volume and velocity that stream banks are continually scoured and the Rivanna runs brown after even a modest rain. Environmental professionals characterize water pollution sources as either "point" or "non-point."nbsp; Point sources are discrete - water from a single point or conveyance, such as the waste treatment plants at Moores Creek, Camelot, Lake Monticello, discharges from which are highly regulated with increasingly stringent controls. Non-point sources are simply the opposite ndash; pollution that enters our streams from a diffuse or general area, such as excess water that travels across agriculture or playing fields transporting pollutants such as excess fertilizer or manure.nbsp; Rainwater that traverses urban parking lots and roads into storm "sewer" systems might be considered non-point because it is a collection of water (and all that is carried with it) fromndash; my yard, my street, my neighbor's yard, the street around the corner. But the Clean Water Act defines this kind of stormwater also as a point source ndash; because it is conveyed through separate storm sewer systems (such as maintained by Charlottesville or Albemarle County in the urban areas) ndash; and through ditches and channels that direct the water, untreated for the most part, before it enters the river. And as a point source, it too is regulated by the Clean Water Act, with permits required by the state of Virginia for urban areas, industrial sites, and construction activities.nbsp; In the second phase of permitting, since 2003, Charlottesville, Albemarle, UVA, and PVCC are defined as operating Municipal Storm Sewer Systems, or MS4s.nbsp; The five-year reapplication process is underway right now ndash; applications in which these entities show how various programs are reducing the discharge of pollutants from areas and facilities under their jurisdiction to the maximum extent practicable. Now, I have read the permit application from the City of Charlottesville, and it includes descriptions of how the City will maintain structural controls, such as curb inlets and retention basins; and how it will maintain public roads (and try to minimize pollutants coming off of them).nbsp; I've read how Parks and Rec. will minimize use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.nbsp; How the City will permit and monitor erosion and sediment control practices on construction sites.nbsp;nbsp; But the bottom line is this:nbsp; much of the pollution that ends up in stormwater results from how we citizens live our day-to-day lives.nbsp; After all, you'd have to keep a fleet of street cleaners busy 24 hours a day to keep most of the street wastes out of the storm sewer system ndas... Albemarle,County,,Charlottesville,,Education,,Neighborhood,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,Stormwater,,Water,Quality lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/07/97-street-work-what-lies-beneath/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/07/97-street-work-what-lies-beneath/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:39:49 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/07/97-street-work-what-lies-beneath/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/07/97-street-work-what-lies-beneath/feed/ 0 00:01:01 August 7, 2008 This show originally aired in August 7, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. ... August 7, 2008 This show originally aired in August 7, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net Replacing aging infrastructure is costly and disruptive to utility services, but watching the water lines being upgraded and replaced on my street helps me understand just why the price tag is so high.There are markings on the pavement in front of my house on Oxford Road. Day glow green circles, yellow dots and dashes like a Morse-code message from the underground. Red and green marks, too. Up the dense periwinkle that hugs the slope between the curb and our lawn are bright blue lines sprayed 2 inches wide ending at the round cast iron water-meter. If I didnrsquo;t know better, I'd think it was some new kids' game made permanent with the upgrade from chalk to spray paint. But I do know better, because for last couple of months the street in front of my house has been busy with special equipment from the City and its contractors who first and foremost must mind these marks of the Virginia Underground Utility Code. As I work at my desk inside, I've come recognize the sounds of dump trucks, and graders -- the clang of the backhoe bucket as it hits the pavement, the vibratory call of the jack-hammer. Oxford Road is being torn up and redone hellip; and it's making me think about how much lies beneath the roadway that I normally think of as simple conveyance for people and cars. We've all heard or seen the effects "aging infrastructure" and how many facilities ndash; from bridges to roads, sewers systems and reservoirs ndash; are facing costly upgrades and maintenance that has been neglected. The latest round of discussion about area drinking water has been driven in part by the desire to see that the function of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir as storage for our drinking water ndash; is not lost to the siltation that has been as steady as the loss of trees and farmland to development upstream. Less evident, because it is mostly out of sight, is the state of our public utilities: that vast network of the water and sewer mains, pump stations, conduit and piping for gas, telephone, cable, and electricity. But tending to much of this infrastructure is the job of the City of Charlottesville's Utilities division, which has been working to keep pace with the loss of water to leaks and corrosion. The position created several years ago of Water Conservation Specialist is held now by Jennifer Watson. Though part of her job is to build awareness and promote public education, she's also busy planning and managing the system-wide repairs and upgrades so that little water is lost as it is conveyed to customers. Somehow, Oxford Road made it to the top of the work list, and it has been under siege since early spring. Jennifer explained to me that the schedule is based on whether there's been a repeated need for repairs in a given area and if existing water lines are the galvanized steel that are prone to longitudinal cracks and leaking. Sewer lines are also being replaced. In March, the Oxford Road sewer line was upgraded using a cure-in-place process that lined the existing pipes with a resin-hardened synthetic fabric. The repairs and upgrades are not cheap. Though the City usually spends about $3 million a year on water and sewer improvements, earlier this year it estimated that it will cost about $19 million dollars fort just water line repairs and upgrades over the next five years and half again as much to do the same for the city's share of sewer infrastructure. Watson estimates that our street alone will cost on the order of $360,000 to replace the main water line with a ductile iron pipe, to install additional fire hydrants at the required 600-foot intervals, and to replace and tie in about 35 lateral lines with copper for that final leg between water main and meter for each house. When they're done, sometime later t... Charlottesville,,Neighborhood,,Water,Supply lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/07/17/95-deer-sightings-in-the-city/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/07/17/95-deer-sightings-in-the-city/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:28:06 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/07/17/95-deer-sightings-in-the-city/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/07/17/95-deer-sightings-in-the-city/feed/ 0 00:01:01 July 17, 2008 This show originally aired in July 17, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. ... July 17, 2008 This show originally aired in July 17, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net As I sat at our kitchen table yesterday evening, casually peering into the loose thicket of privet that divides our lot from our neighbors, I was startled to see the tawny brown of what could only be a deer moving slowly across the lawn towards his house. Head down, browsing on the choice green grass, the deer was unconcerned, casually munching as if it had been there before. Now, for many in our watershed, this would not be an unusual sight, but not only do we live in the city, we live uphill, across the street, and several houses away from the green corridor that flanks the unnamed stream that flows downhill from the ridge of Rugby Road. So why did the deer choose to cross the road, after all? It was dinner hour and quiet in the neighborhood. People at pools or on vacation. A hot summer day ending in slow summer evenings. The deer must have emerged from the thicket of bamboo that grows wild and barely checked along the drainage swale, traversed the slight slope of the houses, smelled something alluring in our next-door neighbor's yard, and went for it. From where I sat, the deer was twenty feet away. It was small, anterless. I guessed it was in its first year. It must have heard us talking at the table with the windows open in voices focused on other matters. I suspect the deer can discern when the attention in focused towards them ndash; just as how one can drive alongside a herd that remains unconcerned until the car stops or a person cracks the window or door. I stepped outside onto the front porch to watch the deer ramble back down the adjacent yard and cross the street, pausing as if to look both ways. My neighbor, camera in hand, was mid-stride when we caught each other's eyes, wide in amazement. "Can you believe that?" Walking back inside to own dinner, I suddenly realized that my hostas were no longer safe. As it turns out, perhaps the deer aren't either. Indeed, since the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries started tabulating the number of deer killed per square mile of suitable habitat in the commonwealth, some of the highest rates have occurred in cities, where herd populations have soared the absence the hunting pressures. This has given rise to the Urban Deer Archery Season which last year in Virginia was from September 15 to October 5th, and then again from January 9 through the end of March. The state has overall regulation, but each locale specifies additional requirements such as lot size, permits, notification of landowners, and access to public lands. Each city, town, or county must formally opt in to the program, which now includes the cities and Colonial Heights, Danville, Emporia, Franklin, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Radford, Richmond, and Winchester, and the towns of Altavista, Amherst, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Farmville, Independence, Purcellville, Richlands, Rocky Mount, Tazewell, and West Point. Add to the list Fairfax County and you get a picture of where the deer are. Are we headed this way in Charlottesville? It remains to be seen. The City Parks and Recreation Department is creating a Wildlife Conflict Resolution Policy, driven primarily by the desire to do something about the Canada geese inhabiting our public parks. Ryan Summers who manages the golf course at Pen Park says deer herds are very visible and cause no more damage than hoof prints on the putting greens that are easy to smoothe out. As he points out, the golf course has plenty of food and water and no predators. He says they are considered more mascot than nuisance. It remains to be sent whether the conflict resolution needs to be between humans and deer or between humans and other humans who have different ideas of where the deer should and should not be. I confess to feeling qui... Charlottesville,,Ecology,,Neighborhood,,Wildlife lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/04/08/82-building-outdoor-memories/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/04/08/82-building-outdoor-memories/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:45:33 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/04/08/82-building-outdoor-memories/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/04/08/82-building-outdoor-memories/feed/ 0 00:01:01 Environmental educators are pushing legislation called "No Child Left Inisde" to promote outdoor, experiential time in nature to help combat what is now being ... Environmental educators are pushing legislation called "No Child Left Inisde" to promote outdoor, experiential time in nature to help combat what is now being called "Nature Deficit Disorder." But it does not take just special programs in school to help get kids outside and enjoying the wonders of nature: simply inviting a young friend to the woods or the stream will yield great rewards for both of you. This show originally aired on April 3, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net. I have promised my six-year old friend that our time together this afternoon will involve "water," so Aibek arrives at my house with boots that reach almost to his knees, a change of clothes, drinking water, and a snack. We are ready! We walk through the neighborhood, where many of the backyards lean down towards small creeks that are headed, like us, towards Greenleaf Park. Upon arrival, the swings beckon ndash; and we spend a good 15 minutes in our special game that consists of shouting real and made-up words when our faces meet at the height of the swing's trajectory. Afterwards, we walk down towards the wooded section of the park, past the rain garden, installed a couple of years ago, where vegetation is just starting to fill in a bit. I explain that most of the pollution that gets collected in the rain garden is OK, because the plants are able to turn it into food for themselves or bacteria that lives in the soil. It's a subtle point, and the stream below us, the one that's being protected by this rain garden, beckons. We cross a small wooden footbridge into the woods and hop into the stream. Aibek grabs a stick and starts scraping the rocks, seeking a satisfying splash. But it's only a couple of inches deep, and the best tools are our hands. So we walk the creek, overturning cobble and rocks to see what we can find. We are in luck! There's a crayfish scudding away from his eager fingers, its claws arching up at the young giant that has backed it into a rocky corner. "You pick it up," he commends, suddenly still, my clue that he's had some experience with the sharp pinchers of this miniature freshwater lobster. With fingers that feel way too big, I pick up the inch and half long crayfish, trying to be both firm but gentle. "Do you want to hold him?" "No! You!" he yells, jumping with a thrill, as fear and excitement course through his small body. I return the stunned creature to the stream, and we continue to walk and look. There are very few aquatic bugs, which doesnrsquo;t surprise me, this being an urban stream and one that's been disturbed for many years. But once again, Aibek sees something. This time, he reaches for it himself, and proudly offers up a crane fly larvae, whose white, grub-like body is a chubby, alluring inch long torpedo. He holds it for awhile, considering. It seems that it needs a proper home ndash; so Aibek spends the next fifteen minutes building a small rock wall enclosing the platform on which he has placed the crane fly. He caps the house with a flat rock for a roof. I watch him at work, crouching in the stream, totally absorbed in selecting just the right rocks based on size or shape, or texture or heft. Or maybe factors that only a six year old can understand. It is unlikely that he will remember this exact day, the water cool between his own small fingers, the slick soft pressure of the crane fly's wormlike body, the early spring sun warming his back. I donrsquo;t know if he will, when he is grown, remember our word game on the swings, or making a house for the crane fly, or perhaps the picture that I show him later of the adult cranefly that the larvae will become in a few short weeks. But as sure as the warm breeze on this early spring afternoon pulls me back to my own unspecific childhood memories of playing in the woods, I know that this kind of time is somethin... Charlottesville,,Ecology,,Education,,Neighborhood lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2007/12/27/72-look-for-the-thousands-of-birds/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2007/12/27/72-look-for-the-thousands-of-birds/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:07:45 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2007/12/27/72-look-for-the-thousands-of-birds/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2007/12/27/72-look-for-the-thousands-of-birds/feed/ 0