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Check out this great interactive map and find out more about your local stream conditions! The County has recently completed a highly informative interactive map that allows you to fill in your address and find out answers to questions such … Continue reading
The following article was submitted by Joe Coleman, President of Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy
For over a year now, Loudoun County has been working on an ordinance to protect our streams by preserving vegetated streamside buffers. Vegetated streamside buffers, or riparian buffers as they are also known, are strips of grass, shrubs, and ideally trees and shrubs along the banks of rivers and streams. They serve as a buffer between our uses of the land and the water itself, and are the last line of defense for water quality. To understand how a buffer works imagine drinking a cup of coffee made without a filter or Continue reading
On Tuesday, February 15th, the Board of Supervisors started working through a matrix of 42 issues to determine the final version of the proposed Loudoun stream protections known as the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance (CBPO). When the Board is finished, County staff will revise the draft based on the Board decisions and advertise it before the final decision to adopt.
In its first vote (9-0), the Board chose to eliminate the “yellow map,” the draft screening tool which was misconstrued by opponents to raise fear about the impacts on residents without a perennial stream nearby. Eliminating this widely misunderstood map takes away the fear of uncertainty that many who do not live by a perennial stream have had. The Board action demonstrates a strong commitment to answering homeowner concerns.
In other good news, the Board voted to provide key exemptions for homeowners whose lots contain the 100 ft stream buffer area known as RPA. These few homeowners (1,675 out of over 80,000 across the entire county) now have a cumulative exemption for up to 150 square feet of structures (e.g. sheds), located within the 100 ft buffer area. In addition, Supervisors voted to exempt playsets up to 500 square feet in the RPA area, while clearly defining what constitutes a playset. Fences are already exempt when constructed in the usual fashion with a space below the bottom edge. Continue reading
Fact: The key word to remember is “perennial.” Any water body, stream, ditch, or lake which has perennial or year-round flow through it, is to have 100 feet of protected area on either side called the Resource Protection Area (RPA). CBPO, Section 1222.05 (b). Most people know if their property has a stream or ditch with year-round flow in it. Continue reading
SUMMARY: The “Important Facts” presented by the Loudoun Environmental Council are riddled with incorrect allegations and misquotes. Errors in reason and judgment demonstrate that the alleged “experts” supporting LEC are not technically qualified to challenge the scientific findings presented in Virginia’s stream assessments. The truth is, Loudoun’s County’s own studies have conclusively demonstrated that our streams are impaired. Furthermore, dozens of peer-reviewed studies show that riparian buffers are a proven means of protecting our streams from sediment-laden runoff.
If you’re a Loudoun citizen and have been even half-awake for the last several months, you probably know a thing or two about the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance (CBPO). There’s been a lot of heated discussion in our county about the Bay Act; after all, citizens want to know what they’re getting, and they should feel confident that the information they receive is accurate and well-cited – which is what makes the purposeful dissemination of misinformation about the Bay Act so disappointing. Continue reading
There are several myths that are currently in circulation about the Chesapeake Bay Protection Act. This articles gets them on the table for discussion.
The Myths:
The following paragraphs debunk these myths. Continue reading
