Two popular Fredericksburg-area water spots have been added to the state’s impaired waterways list.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality conducts a report every two years as part of its water quality assessment program. The program determines whether bodies of water meet quality standards and establishes a schedule to deal with the problem.
The DEQ released the report in early July.
This year’s report is the first to include harmful algal blooms on the list for impaired waterways, which paved the way for two local waterways to make the list: Lake Anna and Aquia Creek.
According to the DEQ report, seven Virginia bodies of water had “confirmed” harmful algae blooms in 2019 and 2020, and all of them have been added to the list of the state’s impaired waterways.
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Those making the list along with Lake Anna and Aquia Creek include Mint Springs Lake in Albemarle County, Wilcox Lake in Petersburg, Woodstock Pond in Williamsburg, Prince Edward Lake in Prince Edward County and a Chickahominy River tributary southeast of the Richmond area.
The most recent harmful algae bloom advisory for Stafford County’s Aquia Creek happened last year, in early August.
Lake Anna, however, has been plagued by the harmful algae the past five summers, including the most recent no-swim advisories in July and earlier this month.
Samples taken Aug. 2 detected unsafe levels of harmful algae at eight locations in the North Anna, Pamunkey branches and at Lake Anna State Park beach, according to a news release by the Virginia Department of Health. The health department has now issued no-swim advisories for portions of the Pamunkey Branch, North Anna Branch, Lake Anna State Park beach and the main branch of Lake Anna from the “Splits” to the confluence of Pigeon Run above Route 208 in Orange, Louisa and Spotsylvania counties.
There are efforts underway to treat parts of Lake Anna, a popular 13,000-acre, man-made lake, which cools the Dominion Virginia Energy North Anna nuclear power plant and is surrounded by hundreds of homes.
The Lake Anna Civic Association is close to raising $110,000 for a program to address the harmful algae with its Cyanobacteria Mitigation Program, which will use BlueGreen Water Technologies’ treatment to target harmful algae without harming other life forms or leaving any chemical trace in the water.
The treatment has been tested in a select area of the lake, with some positive results keeping the algae blooms at bay while other spots have not proven so successful.
Greg Baker, LACA board of directors president, and Harry Looney, LACA water quality chairman, aren’t happy to have the harmful algae blooms at the lake. But they said having the lake put on the state’s impaired waterways list is actually a good thing.
The designation, they said, means the DEQ acknowledges the problem with harmful algae blooms and can open doors to funds to help battle the problem.
“This clears a big, big hurdle” in dealing with the lake’s harmful algae blooms, Baker said.
The most common causes of waterway impairments include bacteria, toxins in fish tissue and dissolved oxygen, according to the DEQ. Bacteria are the major pollutant in rivers while fish toxins and dissolved oxygen plague lakes and estuaries the most.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation noted in a statement on the DEQ report that harmful algae blooms pose a threat.
The harmful algae appear when nitrogen and phosphorus pollution combine with warm water temperatures, with toxins that threaten the health of people, pets, fish and shellfish.
The foundation said that when “the algae die and break down, they create oxygen-depleted dead zones in the water where aquatic life cannot survive.”
“Toxic algal blooms are one of the most troubling signs that Virginia’s waterways are suffering from too much nitrogen and phosphorus pollution,” the foundation’s Virginia Executive Director Peggy Sanner said in a statement. “The solution to cleaning up our waterways is clear—Virginia must continue to invest in programs that reduce pollution from cities, suburbs, farms, and sewage treatment plants.”
She added that Virginia’s “elected leaders invested historic levels of funding in programs that reduce pollution to Virginia’s rivers, lakes, and streams. This funding should make a significant difference. DEQ’s work monitoring and identifying impaired waters, along with the efforts of local groups such as the Lake Anna Civic Association, is also crucial to focusing these restoration efforts where they are most needed.”