Rivanna River Basin Commission Meeting   8/22/2023

but so everyone can accept the recording, that is wonderful.

And Isabella, do you want to read the attendance or just assume that you can, why don't you do that rather than go around and introduce everybody, it'll be easier just to do that.

Okay, no problem at all.

All right, Chair and Mallek.

Here.

Yeah, she's driving.

OK, we see her.

Michael Payne.

OK. Mozell Booker.

She's also absent.

Tony O'Brien.

Marvin Moss, Dale Herring, Abbey Heflin, Alex Vidales, Steve Morris, Swinwater Conservation District, Angus Murdock,

Okay, wonderful.

That is everyone.

Great.

So where it says Greg is really Steve.

Okay, I got it now.

I'm easily confused, so I want to make sure I stay on the program.

Thank you, everyone.

And we do have a quorum.

So first on our agenda, it would be to adopt our agenda by motion.

Are there any changes or corrections to the agenda that need to be made before we adopt it?

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

We are charging on.

Next is comments from the public.

And so limited of three minutes per speaker.

And I guess in general, I'm a member of the public.

This is Greg Witch-Ellens.

It's not Steve.

I thought Steve was on here with a phone call.

I saw his name pop up momentarily.

Not sure where it went.

Just clarification.

I'm here.

Well, we're very glad to have you here.

Thank you.

And please come back again.

Anyone else?

All right, then we will go charging right along.

Isabella, let me go back to my agenda here.

And are there corrections or additions to the April 14th meeting minutes that were circulated earlier?

I move that we approve the minutes.

All right, well, I will second them.

I think I'm not precluded from doing that, at least not at the county board level.

So I hope I'm not making a mistake, but all in favor of approval of the minutes as circulated earlier.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed to approving the minutes?

Aye.

OK. No opposed.

So we have now approved the minutes.

And moving along to item four, which is the TMDL and implementation plan updates, the Rivanna Watershed.

with our many friends present from the Department of Environmental Quality.

Thank you all for being here.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Justin Williams.

I'm the manager of the Office of Watersheds and Local Government Assistance at DEQ.

We joined today presenting along with Madison Whitehurst, who is our NPS data and project coordinator as well within the watersheds program.

Also fortunate to have Stephanie Kreps, who is our NPS grants and implementation team lead with us today, as well as Nasha from our Valley Regional Office.

who provides and works in the TMDL coordination and watersheds program there.

Great.

So I just wanted to kind of start off a little bit and then I'll be turning it over to Madison by providing a little bit of watersheds overview, how we do what we do in terms of looking at water quality.

impairments and improvements in various watersheds across the state, what that process looks like overall, and then talk about TMDLs before Madison talks about implementation, both planning and funding.

Obviously, this is a continuous process, as you can see there.

We have a monitoring and assessment program that's overall part of our water planning division.

And obviously, the goal there primarily is to identify impaired streams.

That's through a consistent network of monitoring

and sampling throughout the commonwealth to identify those streams and then make assessments based on water quality standards.

Where we do have a pair of streams, that's where we move to our TMDL process, identifying point and non-point source loads, and then ultimately for our non-point source components into our implementation planning and our 319 funding.

And of course, there's monitoring that continues throughout this process, and we continue to evaluate

throughout as we both assess and work to improve through TMDL and implementation.

So in terms of just what we do with water quality monitoring and assessment in that first component, here's some numbers for you.

This all comes from the integrated report, which we publish annually, consistent with our Clean Water Act requirements, where we identify and look at streams and water bodies throughout the Commonwealth.

So during

We're still on the opening screen.

I just want to make sure that if you were talking about numbers and we're supposed to be seeing them, we're not.

Yes, I can do it, I think.

We saw that one.

OK, so you've already talked about that.

And then now let me see.

I'm now going to a third slide with numbers.

Thank you.

So there you can see the nature and the extent of the monitoring and assessment that occurs in the Commonwealth with the total number of samples and stations that we collect, including over 3,000 stations throughout the Commonwealth, 100,000 different

Field Measurements, and then obviously looking for various either parameters or constituents.

52,000 analyzed for bacteria, 80,000 for nutrients, 270 fish tissue.

The stations that we have, 1152 samples looked at for BCBs.

1495 for metals and other mercuries.

We have 1100 plus biological stations.

Then we do 3137 micro benthic sampling events each month.

Well, looking at that health.

And this next slide, which hopefully you'll see, gives you an idea as to the extent of the network throughout the entire Commonwealth.

These were the monitoring stations that were utilized for doing the assessments and identifying care extremes as a part of the 2022 integrated report.

Again, you can see that report and all of those numbers and information on our website under the water quality section.

So that's obviously the first step that we undertake, which is to do that monitoring and assessment, go out and collect all of those samples and then use that compared to our water quality standards to identify what is an impaired water body.

Obviously, once we've done that step, we want to move on to developing what we call a total maximum daily load.

And that's really trying to figure out what is that magic number to be able to address and improve water quality.

There's different steps in this process, identifying the sources of the pollutants, doing modeling to identify the path to the stream or water body of concern from those particular sources, and then honing in specifically on the type of waste load reductions that we need in order to meet those water quality standards that were the basis for that monitoring and assessment component for identifying the stream or water body as impaired.

And so that's part of what you can see there as a potential example of where we have multiple sources and identify the potential reductions associated with that.

This ultimately is the formation of an equation where the TMDL itself at its simplest form is the total amount of a pollutant water body can receive and still not exceed water quality standards.

That is made up of a waste load allocation, a load allocation, and what we identify as a margin of safety.

That is to make sure that through this modeling effort, we've addressed sufficiently those allocations to meet water quality standards based on those numbers generated.

So the waste load allocations and the load allocations ultimately are what ends up splitting out into our non point source identified as load allocations or waste load allocations and ultimately get carried forward into an NPS or VPD rather

And our load allocations are then carried forward and we talked about by Madison and our implementation planning.

TMDLs are required by both federal and state law and sometimes can have multiple phases to them depending upon what the constituent

or the impairment of concern is if there's a benthic impairment that is where we're looking at the health of the stream based upon the benthic life that would have multiple phases both including looking at a stressor analysis that's where we identify the pollutants that might be driving that impairment

or be the stressor for that fenthic concern and then move based on those pollutants into a TMDL or if it's a bacteria or metal TMDL, move into those phases that I described.

And so this kind of breaks down a little bit more into the steps that we go through in terms of characterizing the watershed, accounting for both those point and non-point sources, as I mentioned, looking at those potential model loadings, calculating those reductions, and then allocating that and using that margin of safety as we both determine what should be in a wasteland allocation to go into a permit, as well as be carried forward for load allocation and implementation planning.

This gives you an idea of the status of TMDLs in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

This resource as well is available on our website and materials that we produce for water planning.

You can see in green, those are watersheds with a completed TMDL.

The blue, which is a vast portion of the map, is those watersheds with an approved TMDL, meaning

That for Greene, we've gone through the process, but they may be awaiting final EPA or state water control board approval.

Blue have gone entirely through the process.

The orange are the areas that we will continue to focus on, and I'll talk about some of that with our prioritization and steps for TMDL work, and then white.

Portions are those without a 303D impairment listing, meaning we didn't identify them as being impaired and therefore would not need a TMDL to correspond with those water bodies.

This is the priorities that we've identified statewide and then we'll talk a bit about your all's watershed next.

We do this twice every other year.

This is also part of that integrated report that I mentioned that we provide both an opportunity for identifying impairments as well as our priorities for where we're gonna focus TMDLs based on those impairments and areas that do not have one.

And there is an opportunity in that process and integrated report for public feedback as well.

You can see though this is the statewide map covering the priorities for the next two years.

But I think a particular interest would be, this is a bit of more of a snapshot of the Rivanna River watershed.

This identifies both the watershed, the impaired strains, including those that are impaired with a TMDL or where a TMDL might be needed.

And then some of the areas where there is either an existing TMDL or planned TMDL to address additional impairments.

You can see that more specifically here.

So this is the watershed impairments that we've identified to work on with the next five years from 23 to 28.

and that includes both specifically an upcoming TMDL development of 25 to 26 and 27 to 28.

This TMDL development component as well as the water monitoring and assessment piece is done overwhelmingly out of our regional offices.

And as I mentioned, Nesha's on the call.

She's the coordinator who would be helping and doing outreach on coordinating and developing both these priorities as well as the development of the TMDL.

So after TMDLs, and we have one in place next would come implementation.

Hi, I'm Madison Whitehurst.

Like Justin said, the non-point source coordinator for Piedmont and the Valley.

So like you said, after a TMDL, we have a TMDL implementation plan, which just kind of is what you need to implement non-point source.

So it's just a document that details actions and strategies that you need to do to just achieve load reductions for the non-point source pollutants that are defined by the TMDL.

And then I just kind of provided an overview of what is included in it.

So it does review the TMDL and then just provides updates if necessary.

It has these corrective actions that you need to improve on water quality.

So whether it be best management practices, education or outreach, things like that.

Then there's a cost benefit analysis just to look at what is the best implementation and

compared to costs that could be done for the area.

And then we have measurable goals and a timeline.

And so implementation plans, they have a staged approach for implementing.

And so we usually start with the most cost effective and

The best BMP is that can be done right away and then after those are done after a certain amount of time we look at the water quality again and see if we're meeting our standards and if not then we move on to the next approach and then the most important part is the public participation so we include stakeholders throughout the whole process just like in our public meetings and we really rely on them to just help us with the continuation and implementing our plan.

So how to actually implement implementation plans.

So currently our 319H

The request for application is open.

So what is 319-H funding?

It's just an EPA award from the Clean Water Act for states and territories and tribes to implement TMDL implementation plans.

So local governments, county health departments, soil and water conservation districts, Virginia institutions, planning district commissions, nonprofits, they can apply for this funding.

and they can apply to implement BMPs such as like agricultural, residential, pet waste, urban BMPs, as well as education outreach and water quality monitoring.

And you can apply to work in any approved TMDL implementation plan within your area.

And the current RFA actually is open and it ends August 31st.

And then I just provided a little area snapshot of the Rivanna River watershed.

So there's currently one approved IP, and it's the Morris Creek IP, which can be included in the RFA right now.

And then I'm actually just starting the North Fork Rivanna IP.

I just put in

So the first public meeting will be held September 20th.

And if anyone wants to, I have a list of contacts, but if anyone wants to be included or added, feel free to reach out to me.

I can send you the location and the details.

It should be posted.

So just to provide some additional detail, here's some resources for those that are interested.

So DEQ has an environmental data mapper.

So this is a GIS system in which you can go in and actually identify those impaired streams and

Zoom in, look at where we have TMDLs, IPs, and so forth, as well as get additional environmental data that DEQ collects.

We have various sections on our website for all of the facets of the water cycle that I spoke about with monitoring and assessment all the way through non-point source management.

And certainly if you have questions, particularly around the 319 funding and implementation work, we have a general email

NPSGrants at DEQ.virginia.gov, you can reach out to and we can provide additional information on that 319 component.

So I know we presented some good information to that water cycle, hopefully, and specifically some of the work going on in the watershed, but happy to open it up for questions.

And certainly if there's interest in that public meeting, here's Madison's.

Email and contact as well if folks want to reach out and get signed up to be included on notifications for that IP.

Well, thank you.

While others are pondering, I'll jump in with one.

So there is some work and some activities going on around looking at PFAS under our water quality program around monitoring and assessment.

I'm not as familiar with that.

Very good.

Thank you.

And as usual, and it's not any

Criticism, but there's always a tricky process to learn when these NOFAs and other things hit the street, because of course, if the deadline is August 31st, we're pretty much out of luck.

So when, how do we do this?

Do you have a list of people to notify in July saying in August, I mean, so the Rivanna River Basin Commission, for example, is a notice sent to agencies like that who would then say to their,

Members, get ready because you have two months right now to get this application in.

Yeah, we certainly try to use different outlets for notification through the town hall system, through our communication system, which focuses on social media.

Through, as Madison mentioned, we tend to try to maintain lists of contacts.

DEQ also has a constant contact you can sign up for.

I know we include notices for activities through that as well.

Thank you.

I do find town hall completely overwhelming.

But there's a lot going on.

There's a lot of work.

And I know, unfortunately, sometimes things can get lost in the shuffle.

We're always interested to see and work with more partners, especially around implementation.

Appreciate it.

Bea, you have a question.

Okay, yes, I do.

Thank you very much, Ann.

For Madison Whitehurst, you're mentioning possible grants funding.

And one of the areas was for agriculture.

How would that work?

So I can speak to that.

So within our implementation plans, there's often three sectors of areas that are identified as needing BMPs.

That includes agricultural,

BMPs?

Best management practices, types of activities that are needed to be undertaken to improve water quality.

Those typically fall out into urban practices.

Those would be things like pathway stations and so forth.

Septic, so septic pumpouts, septic repairs, septic replacements, or agricultural, largely stream exclusions,

along with buffers potentially.

I know Greg's sitting in.

He's one of our big 319 grantee manager folks.

He's done a lot of work in ACT and really uses it as an opportunity to supplement a lot of the funding that comes from DCR as well as here.

But we're in the IP and largely, especially if it's a bacteria impairment, for example,

Septic will end up being one of the areas, or AG as well, that we need practices, so that'll be in the IP.

When we've got an IP in place, as you see here, for example, with Morris Creek, there's those AG practices in the IP.

Okay, so how would that help, let's say, the

Absolutely.

We'll put that as well as a copy to some links and the references we mentioned as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jason.

Yes, thank you.

Jason Halbert, I'm the city rep for the Basin Commission.

Thanks for your presentation.

How does DEQ track its success?

What's the metric for the TMDLs?

So there's a couple of components to that.

Ultimately, within that process, the ultimate goal is to get back to a delisting, right?

Because there you've shown that the water body has gotten back to water quality and meeting water quality standards.

How we would also look at that though would depend on within that TMDL if it was largely associated with waste load allocations and permitting or non-point source load allocations needing implementation plan and funding because there it's different mechanisms.

So if it's waste load allocations once that TMDL goes into place over a period of time we work to get those allocations into the permitting and that's a big driver for being able to measure that success because you're actually measuring that point source and associated load allocation.

With implementation we do is again as I mentioned this continuous type process do implementation monitoring

And so as we have implementation going on throughout the Commonwealth, in addition to all that monitoring and sampling that goes on for driving the impairment and the integrated report, there's dedicated monitoring, looking at implementation activities to see, we're seeing reductions and doing work.

And in fact, within our 319 program, we do have a few grantees.

Again, Greg Colpepper is one of them.

But we do provide some funding for them to do sampling as well to look specifically at the water body where they're doing implementation.

So we try to have a couple of different checks in there to not only look at the health of the water body through the impairment and improvement there, but the activities that we're doing as we're implementing them to address those impairments.

But the overall goal of all of this is to get the water body back to

Thank you.

What I'm getting at is what's the trend line?

As a state, are we reducing the number of impaired streams over time, or is it steady, or are we getting more?

I mean, if you go back historically and look at the number of impairments in the Commonwealth of Virginia, certainly, I would say there's a trend.

I can always speak lightly about this.

It's a different shop that looks at that, but if you've looked at our integrated report, there's a lot of that historical data and information.

One other consideration though is as we look at or consider additional pollutants or concerns, certainly that can be an impact, right?

Because as we look at things like benthic, for example,

or if there's emerging content minutes or constituents that come into play, that can certainly be an element as well.

But I think certainly if you look historically, including, you know, comparatively, we do a lot of similar work around the bank.

We've certainly seen reductions, we've seen improvements, and so

This is Marvin Moss.

I have a question.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Looking at the map, only about 20% right now of the watershed has implementation plans underway.

That means a great deal of the watershed doesn't have implementation plans undergoing.

How do we move that along and how do we get the local jurisdictions?

I'm of course from Fluvanna County and I'm concerned that Fluvanna County is doing what is necessary to try to get implementation plans underway.

But I'm concerned that

Yeah, certainly.

And so again, going back to that process, and as I mentioned or showed as well, and let me go back a little here.

So as I mentioned, there's TMDLs prioritized, being prioritized.

So that would be a next step, for example, in getting implementation activities, again, as a part of this watershed.

And those are planned over the next few years, as you see, as I mentioned, we worked out of Nesha Shop and then that allows the opportunity as that TMDL gets set for us to then prioritize and focus on it for an implementation plan.

And again, you see there's one planned for there as well.

Particularly with TMDLs and that prioritization process, but even IPs, we try to get to as much as we can based on resources and of course having to look at the Commonwealth.

but certainly where there is interest we're always curious and want to hear from folks around that if there are areas of impairments or TMDLs in place where there is interest in implementation because we certainly want to go where we're going to have good stakeholder involvement of course where we've got that participation so certainly if there's specific areas or water bodies that you as you look at this watershed or any you're interested in

Thank you.

Sure.

Okay, Angus.

And then Lonnie, thank you.

Yes.

Yes.

There's other factors that would come into play for identifying where we might, once we have a TMDL, move to or develop an implementation plan.

Part of that would be what the underlying TMDL identified as sources.

So if, for example, the impairment and the resulting TMDL showed that it was largely permitted sources, that would end up being done through a waste load allocations and incorporated in the permit.

So we wouldn't focus on an implementation plan as much, because there's not non-point source pollution there to be addressed in the implementation plan.

would be stakeholder interest or sources or opportunities for funding depending upon the nature of that area to actually get practices in place, because plans are great, but we want to be able to get those plans in place and undertaken, actually getting practices on the ground.

And I would, the other thing I would point out is, particularly as across the Commonwealth and as was mentioned with the work on the Bay,

The 319 program and these implementation plans and the 319 funding we do certainly does provide tremendous value, but it's one piece of the overall Commonwealth approach to implementing practices and improving water quality.

As I mentioned, a lot of activity had worked with DCR and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts to get ag practices in place.

And so if you look, for example, at our cleanup report,

for an on-point source annual report, our bay numbers.

There's a lot of other practices as well going on beyond the IPs.

And sometimes that might be a factor.

If there is a lot of implementation already, we're seeing improvements without a plan because of that, that might be a factor as well.

So there's different components or factors that come into play when we look at targeting or planning IPs.

And that's some of them.

We certainly know there was and is and continues to be a lot of interest in the North Fork, Rivanna.

You know what's particularly driving the concern in the North Fork?

So there's a combination there.

The underlying impairments, there was a historical bacteria TMDL that was done, but then more recently as well, Valley and that group completed a TMDL looking at benthic.

impairment that was identified as well.

And so now that really gives an opportunity in one IP to address both impairments, both underlying issues related to benthic and bacteria.

And we also, in addition to that, and that benthic TMDL was more recent than the bacteria the last few years.

Yes, I'm sorry.

I took my hand back down.

But yeah, could you walk us through the different kinds of impairments that qualify a stream for a TMDL?

Yeah, so I'll go back, and I think

So there's a couple of different components to this.

And I think what I would just quickly highlight first is, as I mentioned going back, and as you kind of see here in these numbers, within the monitoring and assessment world, that's the world that's doing the monitoring and sampling to identify and create the impaired waters list and the 3D piece that has some evolution to it in terms of

looking for bacteria, looking at nutrients, doing fish tissue, looking for PCBs for metals and so forth.

I think what you see and have seen as well more on the TMDL side and that component is, so obviously what we're looking for and assessing for that impairments list is gonna be a driver of course, cause it's gotta be impaired for something for the TMDL to piggyback off of.

is a lot of effort in Virginia historically was focused solely on bacteria TMDLs and there's a lot of different reasons for that including related to EPA involvement in the

I'm getting TMDLs in place and we have kind of evolved to not only now as well have undue bacteria TMDLs but actually to emphasize benthic TMDLs as well as we've been developing more recently like PCB TMDLs.

So you're starting a C or we've tried to shift and get to those other pollutants that might be driving or it might be the basis for an impairment.

And so while historically impairments could be based on bacteria or fecal, but there also have been looking at benthic as a consideration or so forth.

TMDL, we're trying to circle back and make sure we're getting to all those different as well.

So what we've got is that that's in our benthic realm.

So where we've got and are looking at a benthic impairment and we do that probable stressor analysis, that's where sediment comes in.

because that's typically a very common stressor.

It's usually, I'm not sure if Stephanie can correct me if I'm wrong, but primarily you'll see sediment or nitrogen and or phosphorus.

Sometimes DO can be a component or temperature can be a component.

Has there been any evaluation or discussion about the impact of invasive species on benthic macroinvertebrates?

Yeah, I can't speak to maybe a specific emphasis on that holistically.

I mean, certainly as we develop the TMDL and we look at the potential stressors and conditions of the water body specific to that.

This is Nesha.

Lonnie, we have looked at some of that when we do a benthic stressor analysis as well because we look at the functional feeding groups of the bugs that are present.

So, you know, you're looking at shredders and scrapers and filters and so on, predators.

So, you know, we might

I see an absence of shredders, let's say, in a stream that maybe is dominated more by an invasive species that's not going to create the same extent of leaf litter that you'd see from native trees and shrubs.

So that's certainly something we consider.

I think that

You know, we're looking for what we call the most probable stressor to develop the TMDL for.

So, you know, most often something else stands out beyond just invasive species where they do play a role.

And certainly as we look more at temperature, I think we could see more of that too.

Other questions?

I can only see a few, so wave your hands if you are putting your hand up.

Okay, I will throw in a couple here just before you get away.

Number one, totally off the program, are the teacher kits still available?

Do you all still hand those out to people to do testing at home?

I mean I could never get a dissolved oxygen to ever work, no matter what.

So there are limits, but I don't know if that's still going and that's maybe something that she could bring if they're still available to her community meetings and try to that I think would really encourage people to get interested in involved in something they could get their hands on.

I agree that the sediment is such an incredible problem around here with our new high velocity storms.

And it just makes me cringe every time it rains four inches in an hour or two hours.

And then I think, well, there goes 10 years worth of improvement that we've made in our streams because it's all now channeling everything around.

But I'm very grateful for the work that's coming on the North Fork.

I think that will be very impactful, especially when two different counties share the river and then

There's drinking water, you know, downstream for the city and all the communities downstream as well.

So we want to be doing our best work along those drinking water bodies.

That's for sure.

And we'll certainly make sure to, Madison will share the details with you all of that meeting.

So for any of those.

Interested, certainly look forward to you coming out and learning more about that process and the work in that area.

Really appreciate everyone's time today.

We'll share around the presentation.

And as always, if you think of anything else on your end or any questions we can answer, always happy to engage with folks.

Thank you all very, very much for your time today.

See you soon.

All right, let's see.

Let's go back to our

All right, on the agenda.

Next, I'm going to punt because it says report from the chair nominating committee, but I'm going to ask Isabella to update on where we are on that.

I know that we have people who have been invited to do it and talk to us about the schedule there.

Yes, absolutely.

So as part of the Rivanna River Basin Commission Bylaws, prior to an election, the chair will nominate a nominating committee, which can choose one or multiple possible nominations for each member of the officers for the Rivanna River Basin Commission.

So at this point in the schedule, Ann has chosen three different

people to be a part of the nominating committee whose terms go into next year.

And then at our next meeting in the first meeting of 2024, the nominating committee will share their potential nominations.

And if any members of the commission would like to include any other nominations, they're welcome to do that.

But that's the role of the nominating committee, basically.

Oh boy.

I know it was three people who were going on and I think Jason was one, but now I'm drawing a blank on who the others were.

There you go.

Thank you, Jason.

Wonderful.

So you three are very capable and I look forward to your work on that.

Thank you so much for taking a little time to

So can we, well, I've noticed that ostensibly I'm treasurer right now, but there's not been a whole lot of work for the treasurer in the past years.

Yes, so I can pull up the bylaws if we want to just look at it from there.

But the current officers are a chair, a vice chair, and a treasurer.

Ann Mallek is the chair, Dale Herring is the vice chair.

And I will share the bylaws in the chat to everyone here.

but the bylaws were put into place when the commission kind of had its own staff and an executive committee that kind of informed that staff and as the TJPDC acts as the

Administrator for the finances to the RRBC, we are doing the financial tracking.

And as part of trying to continue transparency between our staff and the members of the commission, we've been doing RRBC staff reports at the first meeting of each year to share progress on our funding and spending and our deliverables as part of the work program.

And within the bylaws, you can see the rules of each officer.

I would just leave it in place in the event that we someday need the treasurer again.

Let's just name it even if it's titular.

You just have to get to the bank to sign the card.

Excuse me.

Great.

All right, well, we look forward to hearing back from our committee as they do their work and come back to us for the 2024 meeting, which is great.

Let us jump on to staff updates.

And the most important thing right off the bat is the RRBC Annual Conference.

Isabella has worked very hard to gather a terrific group of people together to talk to us.

All righty.

I'll just share my screen.

Hopefully you're just seeing the intro slide to my presentation now.

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you all for your time.

So yes, let's jump right in.

At this point in the year, the main focus has been planning the annual meeting.

And so just to share a few of the details.

It will be on September 28 at the Albemarle County Office Building and Lane Auditorium and the presentations will go from 9 to 1230 pm.

We have registration free and open to up to 85 attendees with currently 16 registered and more outreach occurring this month and next.

We're working with Albemarle County staff to secure a food truck that will be available for an optional lunch following all of the presentations at 1230.

And at this point, I'm meeting with them on Thursday to confirm and finalize, but it's looking like we will have a food truck provided by Little Manila, a Filipino truck.

So I think that'll be really yummy.

And then we'll also have a short break where light refreshments, coffee, tea, fruit, muffins will be available.

I had to unmute.

Thank you.

I know there was some confusion.

I have it on my calendar.

I had it on my calendar for the 28th.

Then I received something and switched it to the 29th.

And now it looks like it's back to the 28th.

So

Yes, it's Thursday the 28th.

It's listed on our website and on our Facebook page with the correct date and time as well as on the event right so hopefully that will clarify some things and we'll send out another reminder to all of the attendees or the invitees that receive that email with the correct date as well to confirm that but we'll have perspectives from local state and federal experts on the regulatory landscape

The landscape of testing for their prevalence in the environment.

And I will share the Eventbrite link in the chat right after this presentation for anybody that's interested in registering to attend.

and a little bit more about why we're talking about PFAS at this year's conference.

For background PFAS are persistent synthetic chemicals that are used in many different consumer products as you can see in this image and they first began being manufactured in the 1940s and they consist of over 4,700 different types of chemicals

Their chemical structure makes them useful in being sand resistant, water resistant, heat resistant, but it also makes it so that they do not really break down in the natural environment.

EPA reports that exposure can lead to some adverse health impacts such as fertility issues, changes to immune system, cholesterol and liver and enzyme levels.

EPA established a health advisory in 2016 for these and then additional health advisory for additional PFAs in 2022.

And in

March of this year, EPA announced a national primary drinking water regulation for six of these different PFAS, which limited their maximum contaminant drinking levels in drinking water, or at least it's a proposed regulation which will limit them.

And they've anticipated that they'll finalize this regulation by the end of 2023, which would then in turn give

Public Drinking Water Systems through years to be in compliance with these maximum contaminant level goals.

And so given that more regulation is likely to occur before the end of the year and that there are negative health and environmental impacts, ensuring that the Rivanna watershed is equipped to understand these regulations, the funding sources that are available to address PFAS and how other areas have worked to limit PFAS is why we're talking about this now.

We've already seen some shifts to the Virginia legislation to address this.

The Virginia General Assembly and Governor Youngkin signed HB 2189, which establishes requirements for certain industrial users discharging to publicly owned treatment works to test for PFAS, which began on July 1st of this year.

And I'll also follow up in the chat with some links that share the proposed drinking water regulations from EPA, some frequently asked questions to the proposed regulation, and then DEQ's PFAS sampling dashboard, which is sampling for occurrence of PFAS in soil, fish tissue, as well as surface water.

Our speakers, we'll have five different speakers.

First, we'll have Zach Kaschafer, who is the Senior Administrator to EPA's Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water.

And he'll be sharing about the regulatory updates from EPA and progress on their end of things.

From the Virginia Department of Health, we'll have the Deputy Director of Public Health Engineering,

in the Office of Drinking Water.

And VDH is currently undertaking phase two of a monitoring and occurrence study to collect additional data on the occurrence of PFAS in specifically Virginia's drinking water supplies.

And they're trying to help determine the fiscal impact of PFAS and support rulemaking for those maximum contaminant level goals.

We'll have Mike McEwey from the Western Virginia Water Authority who has recently seen in the past year one PFAS known as Gen X within their drinking water supply as well as the Roanoke River.

And they've been working with the state and EPA to address this problem, although the regulation is still not in place, so there's no mandatory action.

Taken, they're just concerned about the health and environmental impacts.

So they have since installed the only approved treatment mechanism to remove PFAS from the water system, which is known as granular activated carbon.

So they'll share a little bit about the landscape there, the community response, the treatment, and the actions that they've been taking to correct this.

The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority will share on their testing process and updates on their findings.

In July, two different types of PFOS, PFOA and PFOS were detected at the Northern Rivanna Water Treatment Plant above the maximum contaminant level goals.

They've also since adjusted their infrastructure to include the granular activated carbon

So they'll share more on that.

And then to end on what's happening in the way of solutions, we'll have James Moneymaker from DEQ with the Clean Water Financing and Assistance Program, which is an important funding source for clean water projects in the Commonwealth.

But recently, DEQ has announced an additional $10.8 million in funding to address specifically emerging contaminants such as PFAS.

So they'll provide an overview of that funding source, the types of eligible projects that can be applied for, and the technical support available to help with the solutions.

So just as an overview, the presentation will go in the order that I just explained the speakers.

We'll have two presenters joining virtually and then a short break at 10.40 for refreshments.

And we've invited the Greene grannies to come serenade us for about five minutes during that break.

So we'll see if they're able to join.

I think that'll be a fun interruption.

And then it's also worth noting that we will save question and answers for a final panel discussion.

I will be collecting questions from the audience throughout all of the presentations using the online tool Mentimeter.

and Ann Mallek, our chair, will serve as the moderator using questions from the audience from Mentimeter as well as we'll pass around a microphone for everyone.

And then

We will be recording the meeting via Zoom as we'll have two of our presenters joining virtually.

But we won't be sharing the virtual link prior to the conference because we'd like to encourage in-person attendance.

But following the meeting, we'll share the recorded video via Zoom or via our website.

And yeah.

And then we have also recently confirmed, well, let me back up a little bit.

So in previous years, as part of the Rivanna River Basin Commission Conference, we've typically had some type of engagement activity, whether it's a river walk at the end or a community river float.

And this year, as we're talking about sort of water quality and science of PFAS,

While the Rivanna Conservation Alliance doesn't do testing specifically for PFAS, they do a lot of different water quality and stream health testing with the support of citizens from the community.

And so they will be sharing an overview of their citizen science opportunities the afternoon of our conference from 5.30 to 7 through a separate registration where I've shared it through our Eventbrite, this information about this workshop,

But it'll be a separate registration link that all attendees are invited to sign up for if they're interested in it.

They'll provide an overview of their biological monitoring, their benthic or their bacteria monitoring, and then a new program that's occurring over the winter known as Salt Watch.

where they'll be able to pass out the kits for people that attend the community workshop who can then test for road salts that have ended up in their local waterways.

Yeah, since that's the monitoring program that occurs in the winter, so they'll be prepared for that and will support this meeting by sharing the registration through

our community outreach links as well as with the local parks and recreation directors if they're interested in sharing that information.

We'll also provide the homeowner toolkit that describes the common residential best management practices and funding and technical resources if they're interested in more ways to bring conservation to their lives.

And then we'll also provide refreshments at that meeting.

Yes, sorry, another question.

No worries.

So they'll actually be coordinating with the Rivanna Conservation Alliance on this.

And I'm not exactly sure how that process goes, but at the community workshop, they'll be sharing what's involved to kind of be engaged in that process.

I believe, though, that the kids would have to be returned to the Rivanna Conservation Alliance.

And one exciting thing that I learned about RCA is that

They are the only nonprofit in Virginia that is certified to the highest level to share their water quality monitoring data for biological and bacteria monitoring to DEQ.

Yeah.

Okay, well, that actually concludes my update on the conference.

Conference questions, get your registration here.

Yeah.

The seventh one, I think, and each one gets better and better.

So thank you, Isabella, for your presentation here.

Yeah, okay, so I'll shift gears.

Feel free to shoot me any questions along the way.

But we've been considering developing standing meeting dates to provide more structure and predictability and avoid scheduling conflicts and allow for better planning and improved communication.

So these are the two proposed times I have for future meeting dates in next year and in following years.

I'd like to choose a time that works for everybody so if you have any issues with these dates please let me know.

And what I was thinking was I'll share this information available on the RRBC website as well as through a calendar hold for the next two years to all of our current board members and if there's any shifts

after elections of this year.

I'll make sure to inform the new members.

And then two weeks prior to the meetings, I will still send a reminder and include the agenda.

If there's any changes or additions that you'd like to make that as well as just to inform you that we have the meeting coming up.

No qualms.

Last year when I first came on Isabelle and I met about trying to get some grants going grant funding to do some projects to improve the situation in the Rivanna and then my parents subsequently went in their health decline and I was out of town for the latter half of last year so I was unable to activate on the things we talked about but given the presentation and the continual

And increasing with PFAS, you know, there's tons of unknowns about the pollution levels and the threats in our watershed, our drinking water.

I think it's incumbent upon us at some level to try to do a little more and bring in some funding from the state or federal sources as we've done in the past.

And I'm happy to re-volunteer to try to get something going, but I want to get a sense from the rest of the group

Well, I for one think that is an absolutely splendid idea because with the NFWF grant that got us started all those many years ago, there was an activity, sort of an example activity in every jurisdiction, which really did help to raise awareness

for the populace in each one of those places.

And as you say, everything is changing almost every day.

So I really appreciate your volunteering to take the lead to dig around and see what might be available.

And we can all pile in to help pull things together when you get that part.

Well, I think another piece to this too is it's not always just about the funding.

For example, in terms of agriculture right now,

We have a lot of funding, so much funding that it's actually going to be hard to spend it.

So, you know, I think with some of the TMDLs that I've seen fail, be it Moore's Creek or ones that have not been doing so great, like the hardware, I think that the

A lot of it comes down to that TMDL process and making sure that the grant, the money for the grant to solve the identified problems is really the most effective use of that money.

For example, in the hardware, the one thing we need the most, which is tree planting,

It's not really part of it.

So we're struggling to get money spent on septic pump outs and these other things.

But the very thing that actually is the biggest thing, there are no buffers on those streams, the hardware.

That's the one thing that's not adequately funded.

And so, you know, once again, with Morris Creek, there were probably other things that could have been the pet way stations.

That was a, I mean, that was an interesting thing to tackle.

Was it the most effective?

That's helpful.

And we'll definitely consider or continue that conversation.

I just have one more piece to work through here on our future stakeholder advisory group meetings.

I'm running.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

Thank you, Ann.

Okay, so as part of the RRBC bylaws and as we stated in the five-year work plan that we've developed, the RRBC will convene its stakeholder advisory group or watershed roundtable at least two times per year.

And this will be to discuss RRBC's current efforts, issues affecting the basin, applicable grant opportunities, and discuss appropriate solutions to those issues.

As members of the commission, you are standing in by tease.

And we have our next meeting scheduled for October.

So here I just wanted to share about our ideas for the topic that we'll be addressing.

So we've heard from some local staff that because there's not staff time that's dedicated to supporting the administration of the Rivanna River Basin Commission, sometimes it's difficult to identify standing members to be part of the stakeholder advisory group.

And so we've kind of tried to shift the definition of what it can mean to be a little bit more flexible to focus on some of our current initiatives.

So for example, our first stakeholder advisory group meeting as part of this new work program was held in February of this year, where I shared about an initiative that supports our Rivanna stewardship understanding, which is a page on our

RRBC website, as well as an initiative of the Watershed Implementation Plan that the PDCs contracted to DEQ through, which is the Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project.

And we provided an overview of the initiative and then gathered feedback from about 25 different environmental stewards in the region to help inform that effort.

We're still working through that project, but we're in a phase where we'll be closing the survey in about a month and then we'll be cleaning and

visualizing that data and are not yet ready for an engagement opportunity or a meeting.

So we're considering other topics of interest.

And as a later part of our work program, beginning in 2024, we will be focusing on a historical timeline of the Rivanna Watershed.

And my thought is that having a stakeholder advisory group that might be able to better inform that work might be

Well aligned with our values as RRBC, but we're not quite at that stage yet.

So focusing on the RRBC's overall mission to promote activities that foster resource stewardship,

for the environmental and economic health of the basin by supplying a forum for communication, coordination, and education is what we're thinking.

So for topics of interest, I have two for you.

So currently, non-MS4 localities, so in the Rivanna River basin, that would be Greene and Fluvanna,

They may choose whether or not they like to opt in or out of the Virginia Stormwater Management Program.

And if they choose to opt out, then DEQ is designated as their administrator.

Non-MS4s that do opt in assume an added task and expense of administering this program, but there are some benefits that are typically associated with that.

And so we were considering having a locality that

opted into the program as a non-MS4 to share what were the considerations that informed that decision, what benefits do they see, what drawbacks do they see to having to administer this program.

And just of note, there's 95 localities that are VSMP authorities in the state.

and 58 of those are the MS4 localities but there are 37 that are the non-MS4s like Fluvanna and Greene that have actually voluntarily opted into that program so there is some draw to it.

And you can see in the map that's more center of the screen that the Greene are the local authorities that have opted in or are mandated to administer the VSMP.

And then related to this and within the same topic,

Albemarle is in the process of updating or developing riparian buffer overlay district as part of their stream health initiative and to be more consistent with the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act to protect and improve vegetation along rivers and streams.

So the other map that I have here, more to your right, hopefully,

is Virginia's coastal zone.

And in that coastal zone, that is where provisions of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act have to be adopted by localities there.

But Albemarle was actually the first outside of Virginia's coastal zone to adopt provisions of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, such as this riparian buffer overlay district.

They already had other provisions and some of their ordinances prior to this.

But a planner there has offered to share updates related to

developing this overlay district and could potentially share more insights into what has encouraged Albemarle to adopt additional provisions of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act into their level ordinances.

And we would plan to invite local planners from each jurisdiction across the watershed as well as planning commissioners, local board members, and anyone else that's interested to hear their updates and be a part of this discussion.

And then our other topic,

One of the options that we discussed earlier this year for the conference was considering the discussion on utility-scale solar and the policy surrounding that.

And while we didn't choose that for this year's topic, we could cover it during the stakeholder advisory group meeting with speakers from UVA's Weldon Cooper Center, who presented at our previous conference, but they consult localities across Virginia on these practices and policies.

And they also have a toolkit with many different resources such as funding opportunities and other tools like SolSmart to support localities and decision making related to solar policy.

Virginia Tech has also recently announced that they'll be leading a study on

Utility Scale Solar's impact on stormwater.

And this will be a six-year process, but it could be interesting to hear an update from them.

And outside of our watershed in Louisa, they've recently adopted a technology overlay district and a solar conditional use permit that requires significant vegetative buffers around each of those use types.

And it may be interesting to hear what motivated that.

as well as some perspectives from developers taking creative approaches to address community concerns and the environmental impact of large-scale solar.

We'll have the same members or same stakeholders be invited and then address questions like what types of projects have seen community support and hear this as a round table from the different members within

And then those are the two different options that we have provided.

If you want to share what might be a priority in your jurisdiction or what you see as a higher priority within the Rivanna watershed or our next stakeholder advisory group meeting, that would be appreciated.

But feel free to also just share your ideas, perspectives, and questions related to the RRBC's values and any issues impacting the watershed.

And these can be items that the RRBC can address at future meetings, issues that your locality's facing related to the goals and values of the RRBC, questions or perspectives that might be worth sharing through our social media or the Rivanna Forum on our website.

And maybe there's achievements that you might be interested to share about.

I just want to understand that the topics you listed, those are potential topics for the stakeholder meetings, and those are not yet scheduled.

Is that correct?

Yeah, no worries.

So the next stakeholder meeting is scheduled for October.

I don't have a firm date yet, but I was kind of just hoping to

OK. All right, the last item on the agenda is roundtable discussion items for the next meeting.

So this is where each commissioner can speak up if they have something in their area or locality they wish to bring to the group.

Yeah, certainly.

Anyways, I might have missed that.

Well, last time on the agenda was 2.10 to 2.30.

It was a roundtable discussion.

OK, perfect.

I just have one more slide here.

I just wanted to share.

This is the items that we already have for the March meeting.

We'll welcome any new members that have joined and then hear our report from the nominating committee and do the election of officers.

And you'll hear our staff updates with the RRBC report and the WIT program updates.

Yeah, I'm sure there's some funding opportunities available to me that could be, or case studies from other areas, how that's being addressed.

All right.

Any other suggestions?

And you can always email, too, prior to the March meeting.

But make sure, if you want a guest speaker, that you give Isabella plenty of time to find somebody.

Don't email the end of February or March meeting presentation.

It's appreciated.

All right.

Any comments from any commissioners or any updates you wish to share?

Everybody's pretty quiet.

Isabella, thank you for getting everything together today.

I think the meeting was very informative.

There were a lot of good questions concerning the TMDL presentation there.

If we have no other comments, and please be aware of that, definitely not Ann, as far as being chair of this organization.

That motion is second.

All those in favor to adjourn?

So they're probably saying aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And so far, I've never heard anybody oppose an adjournment to a meeting yet.

So I'll keep waiting for the opportunity.

I hate to do this after a few people have popped out.

But I just noticed we had somebody from the public that joined in.

And I just wanted to open the floor up again because we did have comments from the public earlier, but James Schoonster.

And thanks for your comment.

It's not out of line.

It's appreciated.

Okay.

Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you so much.

Yes.

Have a great day.

Bye.

Bye.