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143rd Year • No. 48 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2020 $1 A FOOTHILLS FORUM • RAPPAHANNOCK NEWS SPECIAL REPORT Is Sperryville ‘subdivision’ inevitable? Planners consider rezoning to 2-acre minimum; public hearings, BOS vote would also be required
B P H Special to the Rappahannock News Does a rezoning inevitably mean development? That was the question swirling around last Wednesday night’s meeting of the Rappahannock County Planning Commission. Protecting Paradise Sperryville resident Tom Taylor and his wife Cheryl, doing business FISHING THE HUGHES RIVER IN F.T. VALLEY • BY DENNIS BRACK under the name Mt. Airy Field LLC, have applied to rezone their 35-acre B S S For Foothills Forum tract along Woodward Road from Ru- ral Residential 5 (RR-5 restricts lot Rivers, t was a report card few residents were anticipating. size to a ve-acre minimum) to R-2, Ahead of its release last October, a crowd of roughly 70 buzzed which downsizes lots to two acres around Pen Druid Brewery drinking beer and mingling, united by their minimum. streams interest in the state of Rappahannock County’s streams and rivers. The possibility of his request for Then Adam Lynch from Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR), rezoning came up earlier in the year Ithe environmental nonpro t based in Fredericksburg that had done the during Planning Commission discus- and soil: grading, stood and presented the report’s ndings. sions about the revised — but yet to Among the highlights: The Jordan River received an A for having be approved — comprehensive plan large amounts of land along the watershed in conservation, and the that introduced boundary maps of Signs of Thornton received top marks for its annual river clean-up. Rappahannock’s major villages. Tay- The bad news: A portion of the Rush River that runs through the lor’s property adjacent to Sperryville Rappahannock County Park had earned a failing grade for recreational has access to the Rappahannock progress, but use for having unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, which can lead to illness County Water and Sewer Authority and infection in humans. sewer lines. work remains See PARADISE, Page 16 See SPERRYVILLE, Page 14
This week Massies Corner hay bales change COMMENT, LETTERS ...... 15 COURTHOUSE ROW ...... 10 ➜ PAGE with the times 9 CLASSIFIEDS ...... 22 LEGAL NOTICES ...... 23 Guilty plea to unlawful wounding, CROSSWORD ...... 21 courtroom outburst ➜ PAGE 6 Protecting Paradise
R a p Land use ratings p a h a n Key to map: n o indicators of land use: c k Perennial stream R iv er Impervious surface • Open space protection. Agriculture • Agricultural management practices that reduce Forest I nd dia n R Protected land • Residential practices that reduce pollutants un Watershed border All of the watersheds in Hittles M ill S 0 5 tre Rappahannock received high marks for having am MILES large amounts of undeveloped land under JORDAN RIVER WATERSHED protection and high ratios of forests Jo Jo rda to impervious surfaces. rd n R an R r . ive Flint Hill RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER WATERSHED (Not part of report card) Ru sh R RUSH RIVER Ri a ve p WATERSHEDWATERSHED r pa N h o a r WashWashingtonington nn th oc F k R o ive rk C r T o h v orn in RAPPAHANNOCK CO. to g n t R o iv n er R . R ShenandoahShenandoah u s h Amissville R NationalNational PParkark .
n
THORNTHORNTONTON RIVER u WATERSHED R n e l u S t R o t u s t Sperryville a n h . B i F R k or ton on Rive k Thorn rnt r w ho a T H
H a z Thornto e n R l . R iv e r Woodville
Land use report card by watershed UPPER HAZEL RIVER H a WATERSHED Ratio of Open Agricultural Residential z Overall el forest to space management management R impervious protection practices practices Grade iv e r k Upper Hazel HUGHES ee A B C B B RIVER Cr Blackwater WATERSHED Hughes A A C A B+ H u g h e NOTE: Management practices are s H Jordan A A B A A- R a based only on the number of . z e state-funded cost-share projects Hug l h R recorded between 2016 and 2019 and es Rush A A C A R iv B+ don’t account for other measures. i e ver r A A D F C Report Card 2019, by Friends of the Rappahannock
“We were totally shocked because nonpro ts and volunteers have FOR’s report card, which draws on PARADISE a lot of us had never heard anything been largely successful in keeping data from the DEQ and other agencies, From Page 1 about this,” said Ruth Welch, a board Rappahannock’s streams and soils was designed to draw attention to member of the county’s Recreation clean and healthy, which preserves the information that might not normally Moreover, the Virginia Department Facilities Authority, which manages the county’s rural and agricultural character. make it into public consciousness, said of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Rappahannock County Park. If the river But sustained e orts will be needed to Lynch. which collects and tests water samples had earned a failing grade for recreation, ensure its treasured natural resources Stream impairment data, for for bacteria and other pollutants, had she thought, people shouldn’t be continue to bene t the local community example, is reported in DEQ’s biannual listed that portion of the Rush River as playing and wading in it. as well as the millions of people who live water quality assessment, but it “impaired” since 2002. Environmental agencies, experts, downriver. can be hard to decipher, he noted.
16 NOVEMBER 26, 2020 • RAPPAHANNOCK NEWS A FOOTHILLS FORUM • RAPPAHANNOCK NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
R a p Human health ratings p a h a n Key to map: n o safety for humans. Only two are listed here. Water is c k Perennial stream not considered “impaired” if it fails to meet state water R iv designated as impaired quality standards that determine whether water is safe er for bacteria for a variety of uses, such as fishing or swimming. Any Impaired due to bacteria bacteria impairment at a public recreation site that I nd Recreation site with allows swimming earned a fail in FOR’s report card. ia ! n R bacteria impairment un All of the county’s watersheds had Watershed boundary some degree of bacteria impairment. However, in Hittles 0 5 Mill many cases the impairment wasn't much above Str MILES ea the water quality threshold. JORDAN RIVER m WATERSHED Jor Jo dan rda R n River . Flint Hill RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER WATERSHED R (Not part of us h R report card) iv RUSH RIVER er N WATERSHED F RAPPAHANNOCK CO. T h Washington o ! r n B to C i n o g R v B iv i r e n a r g t n o c n h
R R . u s h R Amissville .
THORNTON RIVER n u
WATERSHED R n e l u T t R t s h a o n rn Sperryville B i t k on on Rive River rnt r w ho a T H Only the portion of the Rush River running through Rappahannock H County Park failed for posing a a Thornt z on R el . recreational health risk because the R iv site allows swimming and exposure e r Woodville to bacteria like E. coli could lead to illness or infection.
by watershed UPPER HAZEL RIVER Human health report card WATERSHED Recreational Overall Bacteria health risk Grade
Upper Hazel C Pass B+ HUGHES ek B re RIVER lackwater C WATERSHED Hughes B Pass A-
H Jordan B Pass A- a z e l R Rush C Fail iv C+ er Hughe s R Card 2019, by Friends of the Rappahannock; ive B Pass A- Virginia Department of Environmental Quality r
SERIES GRAPHICS BY LAURA STANTON FOR FOOTHILLS FORUM
The report card is a way of a semi-governmental agency that Hazel River project. What the bacteria data show is that explaining what’s happening in includes Rappahannock in its ve- And they’ve made some progress. some samples from parts of the Rush the watersheds, recommending action county service area and works to The DEQ’s 2018 assessment report River taken in past years exceeded the and inspiring stewardship. encourage conservation management noted that a section of the Rush River Virginia state standard for what’s safe Yet the fact that the report card best practices. had been delisted. That’s a success story for recreation — though not by much. essentially mirrors publicly available The other reason: His group had nobody talks about, Wichelns said. And FOR determined that any DEQ- data is one reason Welch and others been working in concert with various “There have also been positive trends in listed impairment at a public recreation shouldn’t have been surprised, said environmental organizations, county the Thornton at lowering the bacteria site where swimming or wading is Greg Wichelns, district manager ocials and the Virginia Department levels.” allowed earned a fail. at the Culpeper Soil and Water of Health to address the bacteria So really, he said, the devil is in the Conservation District (CSWCD), impairment for years through its Upper details. See PARADISE, Page 18
RAPPAHANNOCK NEWS • NOVEMBER 26, 2020 17 Protecting Paradise
THE SERIES PARADISE Part 1 (Oct. 29): For decades, From Page 17 Rappahannock has been able to preserve its natural beauty and According to Lynch and other stunning views. But more challenges monitors, however, the overall picture are on the horizon. is rosier. “Rappahannock County streams Part 2 (Nov. 12): Preserving a did the best out of any streams in the rural landscape is closely linked to report card,” Lynch noted. And the maintaining a robust rural economy. two healthiest rivers in the report card Land-use tax breaks, innovations program so far were the Jordan and the in product lines, distribution and Rush rivers. marketing all help, but farms are still getting smaller, and fewer.
Headwaters to the bay Part 3 (Today): e views get most of More than 750 miles of streams the attention, but the county's water and tributaries course through and soil quality are a critical part of its Rappahannock, eventually owing into environmental health. What shape are the river from which the county takes its they in? name. The Rappahannock and Jordan BY PIEDMONT ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL carve through the north; the Thornton, RappFLOW’s Forrest Marquisee takes a water sample from the Rush River in Part 4 (Dec. 9): It may appear to be Rush, Covington, and Piney rivers bisect Rappahannock County Park as Mike Wenger, le , watches the demonstration. frozen in time, but Rappahannock Rappahannock’s center, and the Hazel is always in a state of fl ux. How it and Hughes rivers cut through the deals with such challenges as climate south. change and invasive species may be a All of them feed the Rappahannock How healthy are R key to its future. ap as it expands from its headwaters in pa ha Shenandoah National Park toward the our rivers? n On RappNews.com n Chesapeake Bay. o Read previous parts of this JORDAN RIVER c Which means the health of those WATERSHED k project at rappnews.com/ waterways matters not just for those Report Card evaluates water Flint Hill R paradise i who use and appreciate them in the v quality conditions and e county, but also the economies and RUSH RIVER r is series is funded in part by a grant quality of life of millions who live surrounding land uses of WATERSHED from the Rappahannock League for downstream, said Claire Catlett, 12 of the watershed’s Washington Environmental Protection (RLEP). In Rappahannock eld representative at tributaries. In this project compliance with Foothills Forum’s Gi the nonpro t Piedmont Environmental Amissville Acceptance Guidelines, RLEP had no Council. we focus on the five that Sperryville role in the selection, preparation or “Protecting Rappahannock County run through THORNTON RIVER pre-publication review of these stories. water resources is the place to start if you Rappahannock County. WATERSHED Foothills Forum (foothillsforum.org) want to make a di erence in everybody’s Woodville is an independent, nonpartisan civic water — in the Chesapeake Bay and even news organization whose mission UPPER next door in Culpeper County,” Catlett HAZEL RIVER includes providing in-depth explanatory said. WATERSHED reporting on issues of importance to Watershed protection is also a pillar Rappahannock County. HUGHES RIVER of the county’s comprehensive plan, WATERSHED which de nes Rappahannock as a scenic county and lays out land-use plans, Overall report card by watershed principles and policies around that Human Land Stream Community Overall recognition. Health Use Ecology Engagement Grade According to the plan, amendments to which are currently under review, Upper Hazel B+ B C+ B+ B focusing commercial and residential development around the villages helps protect the county’s watersheds. And Hughes A- B+ C C B- several of the policies listed under principle number three, which centers Jordan on preserving Rappahannock’s natural A- A- B B+ B+ resources, acknowledge the county’s rivers as among its most signi cant Rush C+ B+ C A B- environmental assets. In 2009, Virginia’s DEQ published a 10-year clean-up plan for the Upper Hazel A- C C A- B- River watershed that o ered a slate of prescriptions to mitigate the bacterial impairment in the Hazel River and its tributaries, including excluding livestock the three counties that comprise the Upper Rappahannock River watershed. It graded them on four subjects – human health, stream ecology, land use and community engagement – by looking at how they performed on 16 from streams, improving pasture indicators, such as bacteria, forest cover, aquatic life and public access points. In many cases, Friends of the management, planting trees and other Rappahannock drew on government data from Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality, the Environmental vegetative bu ers on cropland, identifying Protection Agency, soil and water conservation districts and GIS data. and correcting failing septic systems and maintaining functioning ones. Those e orts, plus the installation of a sewer system in the Town of Washington in 2010, helped accomplish many of those water quality goals, in Rush River’s progress Welch from the parks authority joined part by expanding on the work from When the FOR report card came in a training in January on water quality the Culpeper conservation district and out, it sparked an initiative to monitor testing. others to restore the Upper Hazel River. the Rush River among PEC and PEC started doing water quality But those successes were not enough Rappahannock Friends and Lovers of sampling and monitoring of the Rush to remove all the tributaries from their our Waterways, or RappFLOW. River on a small scale just before bacteria-impaired status. Members of both organizations and coronavirus restrictions came into
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GLOSSARY How our streams can get polluted cover. Riparian bu ers: Trees and other “If the stream is healthy vegetation that absorb pollutants, for macroinvertebrates, it’s also such as nutrients from soil, bacteria, wildlife among them. Some pollutants occur naturally and others, like healthy for sh and amphibians and sediment and keep them from fertilizers, are synthetic. who eat the bugs. And then also for entering waterways. ey also help the mammals and birds who eat the sh restore stream banks and prevent and amphibians,” Wenger said, noting erosion. And they prevent excessive 1 that many bugs aren’t a ected by the runo , so that rain water can Rain water washes over land and bacteria that harm humans, so a stream replenish groundwater rather than carries loose soil and its contents can be healthy for macroinvertebrates running into streams. into waterways. Poor septic but still have E. coli. systems can also leak into ground What matters most about all of this Macroinvertebrates: Small, and surface water, and storms testing, he noted, is that it helps ll in spineless, cold-blooded animals large can fill streams with E D gaps that government agencies don’t enough to see without a microscope. H have the people, time or resources sediment. S Some macroinvertebrates are highly W A to gather; serves as an early warning T E R tolerant of pollution, while others are system to detect emerging problems; not, so measuring for them is a good gathers and maintains additional data to way to determine the water quality of ll in the picture; and creates awareness freshwater streams. and education about stream health. “I think we’re really seeing the Stormwater runo : Rain water bene ts of a lot of good collaboration that does not get absorbed by land and communication among the parties,” cover or soil or ponds and lakes and Evans said. “And so I think it bodes well leaves the land primarily by overland for continued improvements.” fl ow into waterways. As it leaves the As is the case for RappFLOW, land it can carry things with it, such as however, COVID-19 has mostly put sediment. It can also get fi ltered, and an end to the master naturalists’ some land management practices are macroinvertebrate monitoring since it designed to do that. requires sitting closely around a small table sorting and counting for an hour Scenic rivers: In 1970 Virginia or more, said Wenger. approved the Virginia Scenic Rivers Act, which works with residents and 2 3 local organizations to protect rivers Sediment can block It doesn’t stop there. Challenges ahead in the state. More than 900 miles of out light and add Pollutants continue flowing In Rappahannock, agriculture, septic rivers are currently protected under nutrients to the stream that downstream into other, bigger over ow and wildlife all contribute the Virginia Scenic Rivers Program. alter its chemistry, harming bodies of water, such as the to watershed impairment. The most Virginia’s Department of Conservation habitats for aquatic life. Chesapeake Bay. common sources of pollution are and Recreation has provided bacteria, sediment and nutrients that this designation to three rivers in can come from fertilizers and animal Rappahannock — the Rappahannock, manure. the Jordan and the Hughes. force. Catlett continued biweekly three sites in the county this summer, The Culpeper conservation district is — Sara Schonhardt testing at three monitoring not including the park, and while working to address the impact of septic sites and provided her data to the some of the samples indicated there e uent in groundwater because it ows DEQ, which can draw on certain data is more bacteria going in the water into streams that lead to the bay. from outside the agency to list and than the water quality standard says is Sediment — which can come from delist impaired waters, track progress appropriate, “it’s not super high.” agriculture, land development and toward restoring those with cleanup even recreation — is another problem plans and target waters for future DEQ since too much of it over too long a time monitoring. (The data is submitted The power of people starts to restrict the water movement through the Chesapeake Monitoring Having good data on stream health in streams, which leads to more erosion Cooperative, which is also the program that could identify sources of bacteria along their banks, said Wichelns. that trained PEC and RappFLOW to do will help groups know when events and According to Catlett, too much the water quality sampling.) land-use practices are having a negative sediment blocks oxygen from reaching RappFLOW secretary Forrest impact, said RappFLOW board member deeper waters and will su ocate sh Marquisee, a former Foothills Rachel Bynum. It could also spur support and invertebrates that live in the bottom Forum adviser, took over the E. coli for mitigation measures — though of streams. Too much phosphorus and monitoring on the Rush from Catlett COVID-19 protocols have temporarily nitrogen — chemicals that are produced in August. In an email to RappFLOW limited RappFLOW’s meetings and in agriculture — can cause harmful members ahead of their October a ected momentum for activities, overgrowths of algae. These blooms meeting, he said testing trends Bynum noted. block light, raise pH levels and reduce WHAT IS FOOTHILLS FORUM? show that the park is not currently In addition to the monitoring done the availability of oxygen, threatening Foothills threatened by unsafe levels of E. coli. by RappFLOW and PEC, Old Rag habitat conditions for sh. Forum is an Catlett found the same results over Master Naturalists, a volunteer group Waterborne bacteria, on the other independent, the summer at both the park and the helping manage natural resources in hand, isn’t life threatening, but can community- monitoring point near Sunnyside the region, conducts regular sampling cause illness or infection in humans. supported Orchard Road, a DEQ testing site that of small cold-blooded animals, known More extreme rainfall and heat is nonprofi t tackling the need for allows them to compare their ndings as macroinvertebrates, in several exacerbating the problem, with rising in-depth research and reporting with earlier data. A testing site further designated spots around Rappahannock temperatures putting stress on aquatic on Rappahannock County issues. upstream o Harris Hollow Road has County in partnership with the Culpeper life and increased ooding raising the e group has an agreement with continued to show high levels of E. coli, conservation district. potential for erosion and runo . Rappahannock Media, owner which Catlett suspects could be related Mike Wenger, who coordinates A water supply plan prepared for of the Rappahannock News, to to stormwater runo . the master naturalists’ citizen the county in 2011 and reviewed in 2018 present this and other reporting No one is currently investigating monitoring e orts and is a board found that drought and extreme heat projects. the cause of that impairment, but member of the Rappahannock League combined by increased storms have ➜ More at foothillsforum.org RappFLOW plans to work with for Environmental Protection, which raised concerns about whether the Catlett and PEC to create a more partly funded this reporting, said that water supply will continue to meet the What do you think? comprehensive testing network and during a survey volunteers count the county’s needs. Let us know what you think of this wants to add more testing sites. macroinvertebrates by species and That’s why environmentalists project. Send feedback to editor@ Dave Evans, who covers check other stream health indicators, say natural bu ers such as trees and rappnews.com. Rappahannock for the DEQ, said the such as water temperature, relative department conducted weekly tests at sedimentation and type of vegetation See PARADISE, Page 20
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