Transcript, photos, and additional notes follow below.
TRANSCRIPT
From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is
Virginia Water Radio for the week of April 27, 2015.
This week, we drop in on a public hearing about a subject
that was on the agenda of every Virginia locality at some point between 2005
and 2011, and this month re-emerged
at the state level. Have a listen for about 45 seconds.
SOUND
You’ve been
listening to the county attorney of Montgomery County, Va., at an October 2011,
public hearing on a water-supply plan and a drought-declaration
protocol. If you’re a Virginia
resident, chances are that your town, county, or city’s governing body had
a similar public hearing sometime around then, because by November 2011 all
Virginia localities had to submit long-range local or regional water-supply plans to the Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality, or DEQ. This process
was mandated by the Virginia General Assembly, following the severe drought of
1999 to 2002. Now, the DEQ has incorporated
48 local and regional plans into the
statewide Virginia Water Resources Plan, and on April 7, 2015, the agency
released a 400+-page draft of that plan for public comment. The plan is a comprehensive look at the
Commonwealth’s surface water and groundwater sources and at the capacity of those
sources to meet water demand through 2040, by which time demand statewide is
projected to increase by about 32 percent. Beside increased demand, the
plan also identifies several other water-supply challenges and makes recommendations
to address them. Following the public-comment
period ending May 8, the DEQ and the State Water Control Board will prepare a
final plan for submission to the
General Assembly and the governor. Through
this long public-policy
process—involving elected officials, water-resource managers, and citizens—Virginia
is making probably its most ambitious statewide effort ever to ensure that
future citizens are adequately supplied by this
kind of process:
SOUNDS – Storm,
Stream Flow, Pouring Water – 9 sec.
For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia
water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at
(540) 231-5463. From the Virginia Water
Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for
listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.
SHOW NOTES
[All Internet
addresses mentioned were functional as of 4/13/15]
Photos
Local drought protocols are one part of the Virginia Water Resources Plan, released (draft form) in April 2015. Shown above is a literally dry Dry River in Rockingham County on November 25, 2007; at the time, over 87 percent of Virginia was rated in “moderate drought” by the U.S. Drought Monitor (see http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/MapsAndData/MapArchive.aspx). |
Acknowledgments
The voice excerpts used in this episode were recorded by
Virginia Water Radio at the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors meeting in
Christiansburg, Va., on October 11, 2011.
This episode updates Episode
85, 10/24/11; the audio for that episode has been archived.
Sources for this Episode
Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality, “State Water
Resources Plan open for public comment,” 4/7/15 news release,
available online at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/info/newsreleases.php?show=2499.
Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality, “Water Supply and Quantity,” online at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterSupplyWaterQuantity.aspx (see “Water Supply Planning” link for information about the statewide
planning process).
Virginia Legislative Information System, Senate Bill 1221 in
the 2003 Virginia General Assembly (the bill mandating a statewide water-supply
planning process), online at http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?ses=031&typ=bil&val=sb1221.
Other Sources of
Information about Water Supply
U.S. Geological Survey Virginia Water Science Center, “Water
Resources of Virginia,” online at http://va.water.usgs.gov/.
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation,
“Virginia’s Major Watersheds,” online at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/soil_and_water/wsheds.shtml.
Virginia Water Resources Research Center, “Virginia Water Central News
Grouper” posts on news, events, and information resources relevant to water
supply, online at https://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/category/water-supply/.
Virginia Water Resources Research Center, “Water Supply Planning
on the Agenda in Virginia and Several Other States,” Virginia Water Central
newsletter, November 2009, p.7, online at
http://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/49360.
Some Other Virginia Water Radio
Episodes Related to Water Supply Management
Groundwater - EP178 – 9/9/13State Water Control
Board - EP94 – 1/9/12
Virginia General Assembly - EP147 – 2/4/13; EP247 – 1/5/15
Water cycle - EP191 – 12/9/13
Water resources degree at Virginia Tech - EP243 – 12/8/14
Water cycle - EP191 – 12/9/13
Water resources degree at Virginia Tech - EP243 – 12/8/14
Watersheds - EP156 – 4/8/13, EP251
- 2/2/15
Winter precipitation and water supplies - EP258
– 3/23/15
Worldwide water needs - EP122 – 8/6/12
Worldwide water needs - EP122 – 8/6/12
For a subject index to all previous Virginia Water Radio
episodes, please see this link: http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html.
SOLs Information for Virginia Teachers
This episode may help with the following Virginia’s 2010 Science Standards of Learning (SOLs).
Grades K-6
6.5 - role of water in human environment
6.9 - public policy decisions
Earth Science
ES. 8 - freshwater resources
The episode may help with the following Virginia 2008 Social
Studies SOLs.
World Geography
WG.7 - types of natural, human, and capital resources
Virginia and United States Government
World Geography
WG.7 - types of natural, human, and capital resources
Virginia and United States Government
GOV. 8 - organization and powers of the state and local
governments
GOV. 9 - process by which public policy is made
GOV. 16 - role of government in Virginia economy