New James River Health Alert System for Richmond, VA Residents

Richmond, VA city residents may now receive e-mails from the city keeping them informed about the health of the James River. The e-mails will be activated by the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) system which will notify residents any time untreated storm runoff water has entered the river. Storm runoff may include oil, pesticides, trash and other pollutants that are picked up by storm water before it enters the storm drain. Within Richmond's CSO area there are 29 CSO outfalls located at various points along the James River.

This can be crucial information for Richmond residents (and others!). The James River affords numerous recreational activities like kayaking, canoeing, boating, fishing and even just wading in the water. These alerts will help residents make more informed decisions about whether or not they want to fish or otherwise come in contact with the water.

According to Bob Steidel, deputy director of water and wastewater for Richmond City Department of Public Utilities, "The whole idea behind this is to give the citizens more information so they can make decisions on how they want to use the river, especially after a heavy rainfall, they can go in and check and see if there has been a CSO anywhere in the system."

Citizens who wish to take advantage of the new e-mail notification system can subscribe by logging on to the Richmond City's webpage at www.richmondgov.com. When residents receive an e-mail from the city notifying them of a discharge, they can then click on a series of maps to find out the location of the discharge, according to Public Information Director for Richmond City Public Utilities Department, Angela Fountain.

Mr Steidel predicts occurrences of storm runoff and wastewater into the James River from between zero to four times per year, depending upon the rainfall amount and how quickly it came down. The city's CSO system was implemented in 1983. "Sometimes we'll get a very heavy rainfall and it will exceed [the sewer system] capacity," Steidel said, adding that the new alert system is consistent with what many cities are doing throughout the U.S.

Caine O'Rear, a reporter for Richmond.com reports "Last month, the James River Association, a non-profit group that promotes conservation and stewardship of the state's largest river, issued a report that said the health of the James River had reached a "tipping point." The agency's report - the first of its kind in five years - gave the health of the James a grade of "C."

In May, a fish kill surfaced in the James River. Testing conducted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) found that 25 percent of the smallmouth bass, redbreast sunfish and rock bass found near Horseshoe Bend (west of Richmond) in the upper James contain lesions or sores. According to the DEQ, this was the first time the conditions had occurred in the James River. While the Department of Environmental Quality has not yet identified the exact cause of the problem it maintains there is no threat to humans.

Information for this report was obtained from richmond.com and the City of Richmond web site.