Smith Mountain Lake community meeting
The DEQ West Central Regional Office staff met at the Moneta Branch Library with members of the Smith Mountain Lake Association on April 28, 2005, to discuss the association’s concerns. Also participating were the Tri-County Lake Administration Commission, local county Boards of Supervisors and other county officials, American Electric Power representatives, and interested residents. This meeting was a followup to the DEQ regional community meeting held in November 2004.
Staff members from DEQ and the Department of Conservation and Recreation made presentations on Smith Mountain Lake water quality, and debris in and around the lake.
Participants discussed issues about the lake and began developing an action plan to address their top priorities of sedimentation and debris in the lake. The group also listed numerous actions that could alleviate these concerns:
- Establish erosion and sedimentation controls on upstream activities.
- Take immediate steps to limit impacts of sedimentation on the lake.
- Educate communities around the lake and upstream.
- Enforce existing rules and work in partnership with localities.
- Impose higher fines for littering and illegal dumping.
- Increase permit fees for local building permits, and establish other requirements for construction and land clearing activities.
- Amend local construction land clearing and building permit applications to include debris removal and disposal plans.
- Mulch debris.
- Chip stumps and debris for mulch at regional locations.
- Designate a section of each existing county landfill for stump disposal.
- Promote low-impact development and include an information packet in construction permits for developers.
- Include more specifics on debris handling and disposal in bidding documents.
- Submit comments on Amendment IV of the Virginia solid waste regulations with debris exclusions.
- Hold a forum sponsored by DEQ to bring all regional groups and individuals together – involve the watershed.
- Encourage all stakeholders to work together to develop a watershed plan.
- Work on improvements to one stream, using up-to-date scientific information – make this a model project.
- Participate in the American Electric Power re-licensing process and the accompanying studies to learn about the sediment already in the lake and what is upstream, and to learn the origin of the sedimentation.
- Amend or pass local government ordinances and help all counties that surround the lake to develop similar ordinances on unpermitted dumping and open burning.
- Develop a regional clearinghouse group for watershed activities and communication.
- Add other stakeholders to future discussions, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Virginia Department of Transportation, Virginia Department of Forestry and Virginia Department of Health.
Participants committed to taking what actions they could and requested that DEQ host another meeting on these issues to continue planning with stakeholders.