FRIENDS OF THE NEW RIVER

NEWSLETTER
SPRING | 2017

INTRO JOIN! WEBSITE

Friends of the New River is a
nonprofit organization
incorporated in the
Commonwealth of Virginia.
The nucleus of the
organization is the Board of
Directors, which currently
includes Rick Roth (President),
Llyn Sharp (Vice President),
Paul Angermeier, Bob Barnes,
Mike Harvey, Suzie Lesley, and
Rick Van Noy.
Our mission is to promote the
conservation, protection, and
enjoyment of the natural,
cultural, recreational, scenic,
and historical values of the
New River from Claytor Dam
downstream to the West
Virginia state line.
Membership for both individuals
and organizations is $10/year
and runs on a calendar year
basis. To join, please send a
check for $10.00 made out to
Friends of the New River, along
with the following information
to FONR, 1000 Highland Circle,
Blacksburg, VA 24060: name,
address, telephone number,
email. Indicate whether you
would like to be put on the
FONR listserver. If you are already
a member, your membership
renewal would be appreciated.
UPCOMING EVENTS
As you may recall, FONR had a
website hosted by the
Blacksburg Electronic Village at
a great price. However, the BEV
has gone away, or at least they
dont do web hosting anymore.
After our site went down, we
just never quite got around to
putting it up again... Until now!
Thanks to the Radford
University Students in the
Professional Writing Program,
we will have out website back
up and running soon!

We encourage any FONR

NEW RIVER
member interested in serving
on the board to attend one of
our meetings, which are
SYMPOSIUM
TUES. MAY 16
announced on our listserver, or
to just get in touch with us.
 FRIENDS OF THE NEW RIVER
NEWSLETTER
SPRING | 2017

UPDATE 1
Our primary interest is in
short distance to the New
maintaining or restoring
River. The City notified FERC
optimal ecological
of its intention to seek
The Little River Dam and the conditions upstream and
relicensing in 2014, and the
reservoir it creates is a downstream of the Little
relicensing process has been
hydroelectric power facility River Dam, and secondarily
underway since then. Under
located just upstream of the representing the interests of
the Federal Power Act, FERC
confluence of the Little River river users. Heres where the
is required, in issuing
and the New. It is owned and relicensing process stands:
licenses, to consider equally
operated by the City of The City of Radford has
the public need for electric
Radford and provides a small stated that it intends to
power and the impacts on
percentage of the Citys repair the generating
the environment. FONR,
electricity (about 2%, the rest equipment (it has not
represented primarily by
being supplied by generated power in several
Rick Roth, is participating in
Appalachian Power Co). Like years) and keep operating
the process, along with other
other private hydroelectric the dam as a hydroelectric
stakeholders including state
power facilities, the project operation. A number of
natural resource agencies
operates under a multi- studies have been
(VA Department of
decade license issued by the undertaken, and the City
Environmental QualityDEQ,
Federal Energy Regulatory just submitted its Draft
Virginia Department of
Commission (FERC). The License Application to FERC.
Game and Inland Fisheries
current operating license, Stakeholders including
DGIF, and Virginia
which expires May 31, 2019, FONR will be reviewing and
Department of Conservation
sets forth the conditions of commenting on this
and Recreaiton DCR). The
operation of the project. between now and April 25,
New River Conservancy
These operating conditions in 2017, which is the deadline
(formerly NCNR) is also
turn have effects on how for submission of
involved. As was the case
much electricity is generated comment.If anyone is
with the Claytor relicensing,
(clean energy, it should be interested, the documents
we strive to speak for the
noted); as well as on fish and can be downloaded from
critters that inhabit the river
wildlife, recreation, and water https://kleinschmidt.sharefil
including the human critters:
quality both in the reservoir e.com/d-
anglers and boaters.
and downstream a relatively sccedb4245e44ae18
 FRIENDS OF THE NEW RIVER
NEWSLETTER
SPRING | 2017
UPDATE 1
CONT.
The project, in my opinion,
presents an opportunity for
river restoration through dam
removal, but it isnt entirely
clear to me at least that this
would be the best course,
particularly now that the City
is committed to bringing it
back online as a power
generator. The downstream
impacts of the dam
operations only affect a short
reach of the Little River, and
the reservoir behind the dam
is a really lovely place. You no
longer need a permit from
the city to park and launch at
the ramp just above the dam,
so check it out sometime. I
hear the fishing is pretty
good up there. I hope that
the application document
clarifies some of the tradeoffs
involved. I look forward to
studying it.
--RR
UPDATE 2 agencies such as VDGIF and
the Corps of Engineers seem
not to have much experience
A FLOATING DEVELOPMENT
with something like this. If I
ON THE NEW RIVER has
may be allowed to
been proposed in Giles
editorialize, its analogous to
County, on river right in the
someone putting up some
Eggleston Pool, just
trailers on a state-owned
upstream from the
park-and-ride parking lot, or
Eggleston Cliffs. The proposal
maybe even on the shoulder
seems to have gained the
of a highway, and renting
support of the Giles County
them out. The river is public
Planning Commission. As
property. How can a
proposed, it seems that four
landowner appropriate it for
or five small floating
their private profit? FONR will
houseboats would be
continue to follow this
anchored in the river. These
closely and will certainly
would be rented out as
comment if a permitting
vacation cottages. The
process with VMRC or other
Planning Commission seems
agency takes place.
to be impressed with the
economic development and
--RR
tourism aspect of this.
According to one person
familiar with permit
requirements, it would at a
minimum need a permit
from the Virginia Marine
Resources Commission, and
perhaps others as well. Its
kind of an unusual situation,
and people FONR has
contacted at resource
 FRIENDS OF THE NEW RIVER
NEWSLETTER
SPRING | 2017
UPDATE3
The New River, despite
being one of the healthiest
large rivers in the
Commonwealth, is
considered impaired or
polluted in several sections
for different reasons. One of
the most widespread causes
of impairment is the
presence of PCBs, or
polychlorinated biphenyls.
These are members of a
chemical family of
chlorinated hydrocarbons
which were widely used up
until production was
banned in the late 1970s in
the U.S. Because they were
widely used, for example in
electrical equipment, they
are ubiquitous in the
environment. Not
surprisingly, their presence
has been detected in the
New Rivers water,
sediments, and fish tissues,
the latter leading to a fish
consumption advisory by
the Virginia Department of
Health. They were banned
because they are cancer-
causing in animals, are
probable carcinogens in
humans, and also have other
toxic effects including
immune system impairment
and endocrine disruption.
Because the New is impaired
for PCBs, regulations require
that the Virginia DEQ
prepare an analysis of sources
of PCBs going into the New,
called a TMDL a Total
Maximum Daily Load
analysis, or as some call it, a
pollution diet.The analysis
seeks to identify and quantify
the contributions of various
sources of PCBs up and
down the New and its
tributaries. Once this is done,
a plan can be developed to
control the sources, allowing
PCB levels on the New
eventually to be declared
safe.The DEQ is currently in
the process of developing
this TMDL analysis. Rick Roth
has been participating on a
technical advisory committee
established by DEQ.
At this point it is clear there
are many sources of PCBs,
mainly from historical uses.
For example, Walker Creek
in Giles County has a site
near Bane, VA where an old
schoolhouse was used to
refurbish transformers,
which commonly were filled
with PCBs. Soils around the
schoolhouse are
contaminated, and this is
considered a likely source of
elevated PCB levels in
Walker Creek. Similar
situations are seen
throughout the watershed.
In many cases, elevated PCB
levels are seen in tributary
streams, but no obvious or
likely source can be
identified.When will the
New be free of PCBs? Not in
our lifetimes, most likely.
There are many sources and
a lot of PCB is already in the
river, its sediments, and its
food chain. These will not
easily be removed, and
PCBs last a long time in the
environment. Moreover,
though a
 FRIENDS OF THE NEW RIVER
NEWSLETTER
SPRING | 2017
UPDATE3
CONT.
though a cleanup plan may
eventually be completed,
funding for implementation
of that plan will be a
problem. Many lessons could
be drawn from this situation
for example, wouldnt it have
been better to test the safety
of PCBs before
manufacturing large
quantities and putting them
into the environment?
Ahh, hindsight!
The DEQ has thoughtfully put
reports, presentations, and
other resources and
documents pertaining to the
New River PCB TMDL on its
website, at
http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Pr
ograms/Water/WaterQualityIn
formationTMDLs/TMDL/PCBT
MDLs/NewRiverTMDLPCB.asp
x, or you could just google
New river PCB TMDL and
you will find it.
SYMPOSIUM
On a cheerier note, Radford
University, the New River
Conservancy (formerly
NCNR), and FONR will
present the 2017 edition of
the New River Symposium
Tuesday, May 16. We are in
the planning stage and have
just sent out a call for
presentations. As in the past,
we hope for and expect an
eclectic mix of science,
archaeology and history,
artistic interpretation, river
issues, case studies, and
policy discussions. The
Symposium will be a one-
day affair starting early in
the morning and ending in
early evening with a poster
session and mixer with cash
bar. It will be held at
Radford Universitys Selu
Conservancy
https://www.radford.edu/con
tent/selu/home.html and we
hope to be able to keep the
registration at about $50
including lunch. Please