City Partners With Reedy Creek Coalition

I recently learned of the posting to this newsgroup regarding the meeting between the Reedy Creek Coalition (RCC), the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay (Alliance), and Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU). This posting, which was originally generated from DPU’s blog, contained some misleading information about the activities of RCC. As a member of RCC who attended the recent meeting with the Alliance and DPU, I would like to make some clarifications.

A meeting was held on April 27 with members of the Reedy Creek Coalition and staff members of the Alliance and DPU. Our purpose was to look at how these groups might work together to develop and implement a new model for volunteer water quality monitoring in Reedy Creek. The Alliance was an integral player at this meeting because the Alliance has worked tirelessly with the Reedy Creek Coalition for the past 18 months and has a long history of supporting volunteer water monitoring programs.

Unfortunately, a side conversation that occurred during the course of the meeting was misrepresented in the last paragraph of the DPU blog entry and repeated here. Specifically, it was mistakenly implied that the Reedy Creek Coalition has engaged in digging leaves and tree stumps out of Reedy Creek. Although members of RCC have participated in cleaning up trash from the creek, we have never dug leaves and tree debris out of the creek. The major focus of RCC is to address pollution issues at the source – not after the problem enters the creek. With regard to leaves, the long-term solution is to educate property owners about proper disposal (or preferably composting) of leaves and yard waste. This means not dumping leaves in or near the creek. It also means not piling leaves in the street where stormwater can pick up the leaves and carry them into the creek.

The issue of tree stumps and fallen trees is more complicated. In a healthy watershed, there can be a substantial amount of tree debris in the stream and it is a good thing. Tree debris along the bank and in the water provides cover for fish and a place to live for the aquatic bugs that many fish eat. In addition, the pieces of large tree debris slow down the velocity of the water during rain events which helps minimize erosion of the streambanks.

In urban streams like Reedy Creek, an unnaturally large amount of tree debris can end up in the stream and block the normal flow of water. In severe cases, this blockage of normal flow during storm events can lead to flooding upstream and damage to personal property. However, the decision to remove tree debris from any stream or river needs to be made by professionals who can accurately evaluate potential flooding problems.

Once again, the Reedy Creek Coalition is concerned about the source of the problem when it comes to excess tree debris in the creek. In this case, the culprit is the huge volume of stormwater that quickly enters Reedy Creek during storm events. Much of the rainwater that hits streets, rooftops, parking lots, and driveways is rapidly directed into the creek creating fast flowing waters that erode streambanks. In the few areas of Reedy Creek where the channel is still relatively natural, the force of this excess stormwater has devastated the streambanks and caused trees along the bank to topple into the stream. It is important to note that this stormwater runoff also carries a cocktail of pollutants (nutrients, sediment, fecal bacteria, petroleum products, toxic chemicals).

The Reedy Creek Coalition and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay are currently poised to launch a watershed protection audit program to begin addressing the quality and quantity of stormwater that enters Reedy Creek. The number one focus of this audit program is to help people prevent polluted runoff from leaving their properties and polluting our streams. Not only will this improve our urban streams and help prevent flooding, it will also reduce the amount of tax money that must be spent to solve the many problems stormwater creates.

If you live in the Reedy Creek watershed and are interested in signing up for the watershed protection audit program or learning more about the activities of the Reedy Creek Coalition, send us an e-mail at: reedycreekcoalition@gmail.com. If you are interested in learning details about how you can reduce your contribution to pollution and stormwater runoff, visit the Alliance website at: http://www.alliancechesbay.org/