Sunday, October 15, 2006
William Black wouldn't recognize Stroubles Creek
Christian Trejbal
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A few weeks ago, sunlight beat down on the ocean. A drop of water went through a phase transition, rising into the air where it joined millions of others.
Winds carried the clouds to Virginia. The gray mountains in the sky disgorged their burden. The drop splashed down on Blacksburg.
It soaked into the ground, following subterranean paths until it burst free from the darkness in a spring behind nondescript, multi-unit housing along Giles Road -- the headwaters of Stroubles Creek.
It did not like what it found as it babbled with its brethren toward the Virginia Tech Duck Pond.
The other drops, the ones that had fallen on yards and pavement and stayed above the filtering ground, had carried dust and dirt into the creek. Living things coughed in the heavy water.
Virginia lists Stroubles Creek as an impaired waterway because runoff clouds it to such an extent that wildlife is dying. More than 1,000 tons of sediment flows through the creek annually, enough to fill 26 cement trucks.
Officials from the town, Tech and other local groups gathered a week ago on a dreary, drizzly Saturday morning to spread the word about the water problem. The watershed open house in the parking lot of the new YMCA on North Main Street featured wiggly creatures to entertain children and experts to explain the situation to adults.
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Problems with storm water discharges are common in growing towns surrounded by fields. As new homes and businesses go up, concrete and pavement restrict the ground's ability to absorb water. Rain flows along streets, across cleared dirt on construction sites and through pastures, picking up bits and pieces that wind up in the watershed.
Matt Stolte, an engineer with the Blacksburg planning and engineering department, explained that the increasing sediment was easy to miss because the town no longer draws its water from the creek. The New River now provides Blacksburg's water.
"When we don't need it, we lose a connection to it," he said.
Connection or not, the fate of Stroubles Creek and Blacksburg's three other watersheds -- Toms Creek, Dry Run and Wilson Creek -- should concern all residents.
For many people, the waterways have inherent value. They offer aesthetic and utilitarian appeal, a pleasant route along which to stroll or a cool spot in which to splash on a hot day. Moreover, we have a responsibility not to despoil our world, to preserve it for future generations.
Some see a religious duty instead. The gods put us here and gave us water. Ruining that gift defies a holy covenant.
Others find economic benefits. Visitors want to find clean, healthy waters, not muddy, smelly trickles.
Still others take a broader view. The town straddles the Eastern Divide. Water flows to the Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico or to the Roanoke River and the Atlantic Ocean, depending on which side of town it starts from. Pollution here joins pollution from other streams and rivers, affecting everyone downstream. That is not very neighborly.
But what could convince those who share none of those values? It is reasonable to think, "I get clean water out of my tap. Why should I care if there's a bit of mud in Stroubles Creek killing some minnows?"
The experts at Saturday's watershed event had a good answer: Cleaning up waterways is expensive, and state and federal regulations require the town to do it.
Blacksburg has adopted a storm water management program that features public education and involvement, monitoring illicit discharges and construction runoff, and pollution prevention.
The plan is cooperative, based on incentives and education, not penalties. It urges residents to minimize runoff from their property by, for example, reducing fertilizer use and maintaining vegetated areas.
It also seeks help from developers by encouraging smart designs that rely less on pavement and exposed dirt during construction.
Over a decade or more, Stroubles Creek will return to its natural state.
The plan will help preserve the town's other waterways, too. If they become impaired, future costs would exceed the costs of keeping them clean in the first place. The money spent today saves money over the long run. That should appeal to everyone.
More than 200 years ago, William Black founded Blacksburg here in part because of the bountiful, beautiful, clean water. He described the location as "a piece of ground in a healthy climate, a fertile neighborhood with excellent springs thereon."
It can be that again.
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
