Agricultural Best management Practices Improve Aquatic Life in the Blackwater River
High sediment loadings led to violations of the general standard for aquatic life use in Franklin County’s Blackwater River. As a result, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) added two segments of the Lower Blackwater River to the 2008 Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters. Landowners installed agricultural best management practices (BMPs); these decreased edge-of-field sediment loading and helped improve water quality. Because of this improvement, DEQ removed two segments of the Blackwater River from Virginia’s 2014 list of impaired waters for biological impairment. To read more click on this link 2014-delisted-blackwater