
Photo by Jay Paul
Along Forest Hill Avenue, yard signs dot most of the properties, allying their owners with different political candidates. But between the campaign signs, one white sign is planted in nearly every yard: “Reedy Creek Stream ‘Restoration’ ” with a red slash through it.
A 2,200-foot section of the creek between Westover Hills Boulevard and Roanoke Street is at the crossroads of a federal effort to reduce pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay and a community’s opposition. The project stems from recent amendments to the Clean Water Act and a credit system that awards state grants for projects like this one. Rosemary Green of the Richmond Department of Public Utilities suggests that failure to accomplish the Reedy Creek project could hinder the city’s legal requirements for pollution reduction under the federal act.
The Reedy Creek Coalition, which leads the opposition, sees the project as destructive to public land and ineffective in addressing the problem. “This is a failure at all levels of government,” says coalition member Bill Shanabruch, a former aquatic biologist at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). “They’ve created this Wild West situation where local governments throughout the Chesapeake Bay are putting in stream restoration projects as fast as possible because there’s credits involved.”
At the end of September, City Council decided to punt the decision to accept a grant funding half of the $1.2 million project from the DEQ until Nov. 14. That puts it in jeopardy, as most of the mayoral candidates have expressed their opposition.
In the Reedy Creek watershed, like others, surfaces such as parking lots cause stormwater to flood and erode downstream areas. Excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous from substances such as fertilizers, pet and yard waste enter the James River. The city’s plan calls for a deeper and wider downstream channel that will flood more naturally. It requires cutting 424 trees, to be replaced later.