During the 1970s, the Occoquan Reservoir, a primary source of drinking water in Northern Virginia, was what Thomas Faha, director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s Northern Regional Office, described as “pea soup,” thick with algae and “as green as a four-leaf clover.”
“At times and in some areas, I did not want to go near the water for fear that I even smell it because it was so rancid at times,” Faha says. “I have four sons, and I am thrilled to death that they are now fishing in the waters that as a child I did not want to go near.”
Despite the fact that Virginia’s population has grown by 25 percent over the past 20 years—putting roughly 1.8 million cars on Northern Virginia roads—air, water and land quality in Northern Virginia has generally improved. Air pollution has decreased 42 percent since 1980 due in part to The Clean Air Act. Nitrogen flowing into the Chesapeake Bay through contaminated tributaries has decreased from over 35 million pounds in 1995 to less than 21.4 million pounds as of 2011. And since 1996, the Voluntary Remediation Program has allowed for more than 3,400 acres at 275 different waste sites (scrap and rail yards) to be converted into various functional business and medical facilities.
These improvements have come from both regulated and unregulated practices—regulated practices put forth by federal, state and local governments and unregulated practices enacted by individual efforts from environmentally conscious people.
“As we have progressed from decade to decade, the bar gets higher and higher and challenges greater and greater, and we must continue to move towards achieving them,” Faha says. “It takes time, a great deal of investment and everyone’s participation, but when you do this over the entire area, little by little, day by day, I am really confident that we will see improvements in air, water and land quality in another 25 years.”
In response to government regulations, the City of Alexandria’s Department of Transportation and Environmental Services created a “pollution budget” in 2010, which has since seen spending grow to meet those goals.
“Right now, we are doing a better job than we are mandated to do, but the challenge is that there is so much more to do in the next 10 years that will be very costly,” Yon Lambert, director of Alexandria’s T&ES, explains. “We have taken care of the low-hanging fruit, and now we are going to be doing some things that are really complicated.”
Those complicated things manifest as two projects: the first a $300 million investment that would create tanks below the city’s combined sewer systems, which currently release a mix of both storm and sanitary water into the Potomac River’s Oronoco Bay, and the second finding ways to filter stormwater before it flows into creeks and streams. Alexandria City Council will be making its final decision on how to fund these programs in the beginning of May.
“We really see these two separate projects that we are working on making major clean water improvements for Alexandrians for generations to come, and we are already starting to see improvements in the Bay,” Lambert says. “All of this is happening because cities like Alexandria, Fairfax, Arlington, D.C. and Maryland are all making investments to reduce the amount of pollutants they produce.”
Below highlights where you can go for some Earth Day inspiration.
Find Earth Day inspiration at these local events
Haley Park Invasive Plant Removal
April 1, 9-11 a.m.
This monthly event works to keep the land between Haley Park, Oakridge Elementary School and Gunston Middle School free from unwelcome earthly invaders. Tools will be provided, but volunteers (ages 9 and up) should wear long pants, sleeves and a hat.
Earth Day Celebration
April 11, 1-2 p.m.
Instill in your children how they can do their part to take care of our planet at the Gulf Branch Nature Center & Park Earth Day Celebration. Parents and older siblings can stay and observe, though children must be registered and pay the $5 fee either online or by calling 703-228-4747.
E-CARE
April 15, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Arlington residents looking to rid themselves of bikes, small metal items, shoes, clothing and hazardous household materials can do so at the Arlington Environmental Collection and Recycling Event. The collection will take place at Thomas Jefferson Middle School’s West parking lot.
Growing Kids & Trees for Virginia’s Forests
April 17-28
Schools and youth groups can obtain their own hardwood seedlings (Silky Dogwood, Common Apple and Bald Cypress) from the Virginia Department of Forestry and Virginia Cooperative Extension office (8033 Ashton Ave., Suite 105, Manassas) in celebration of this year’s Earth Day. Interested groups must fill out three forms to reserve their seeds (quantities are limited) prior to pickup between April 17-28.
Historic Manassas’ Live Well Festival
April 22, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Having attracted approximately 4,000 community members in the past, the Live Well Festival will return to Historic Manassas. Shred no-longer-necessary documents, recycle electronics, check out the farmers market and sidewalk sale, craft and donate old household items or clothing to a nonprofit.
Leesylvania State Park Useful Garbage & Green Fire
April 22, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. information sessions, 8-9 p.m. screening
At the Leesylvania State Park Visitor Center, guests can learn how to reduce the garbage they generate as well as learn how to help entangled critters out of household trash. A screening of Green Fire will explain how Aldo Leopold changed conservation as we know it.
Earth Day on the Rappahannock
April 22, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Fredericksburg’s 14th Annual Earth Day Festival is free to the public and offers an assortment of exhibits, live music and food. Face-painting, scouting groups, pony rides, beekeepers and birds of prey are only some of the sights to see at this Old Mill Park event.
Alexandria Earth Day
April 29, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
This year’s Alexandria Earth Day centers around the theme “Clean Water Starts With You!” and will feature a Trashion fashion show; tent talks about water, recycling and other environmental topics; food trucks; music; and yet another fashion show, this one displaying dogs in past Earth Day event shirts. The event will take place at the Lenny Harris Memorial Fields next to the Braddock Road Metro Station.
PWC Annual Compost Awareness Day
April 29, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Prince William County’s Compost Awareness Day, held at the Balls Ford Road Compost Facility, will focus on “Compost! Healthy Soil—Healthy Food.” Compost bins and plants will be sold, samples and coupons made available, and three PWC Extension Master Gardeners will lead demos on how to make a container vegetable garden, general composting and worms/vermicomposting.
Fairfax SpringFest
April 29, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Clean Fairfax partners with the Fairfax County Park Authority to host SpringFest at the Sully Historic Site this year. In addition to a puppet show, pony rides, a petting zoo, environmental crafts and consultations with Master Gardeners, the FCPA Healthy Strides Expo will make an appearance offering workshops, vendors and activities to promote “Health People—Healthy Planet.”
