To Virginians, the Occoquan Policy was a historic breakthrough for water quality in Northern Virginia. To Brad Chewning, it was the launch of a career. “I started out as the first Occoquan project manager. In fact, I was hired before that thing really got going. I was a front-line person dealing directly with municipalities and implementing the policy.”

 

It was the early 1970s, and environmentalism was at a turning point in Virginia. “When I started with the State Water Control Board, they were just beginning to carry out their role and responsibility. They were starting to flex their muscles, so to speak.

 “In 1973, I became the first regional director for the State Water Control Board when they regionalized. With that, I had the opportunity to start up an office on my own in Bridgewater. Then I became the regional director for DEQ, which was, of course, a new agency, with new procedures for bringing separate agencies together.

“The State Water Control Board began as a small agency that had responsibilities for protecting water quality, and when I started it was very much a central Richmond operation and the whole agency had a staff of about 100. It was a very close-knit group; we knew everyone.

 

“Today, the permit system has evolved to better protect the water quality. There are more controls in reporting requirements. Back in the early days, a facility had a certificate to discharge; that was about it. Now we have something that is much, much better. Toxic management and controls are much better today than they were then. We have better air permits and tougher penalties. And public awareness and opportunities for public participation in environmental protection efforts have significantly improved. By and large, the political support for environmental protection is much better than it was back in those early days.

 

“One thing that we had … was the Contrary Creek acid drainage project. This was a small stream in Louisa County that was left over from gold mining. A lot of acid drainage was coming from the stream, it went into Lake Anna, but pretty much both sides of the stream for long distances were void of any vegetation and it was affecting water quality. We started bringing in sludge from Blue Plains [the wastewater treatment plant for metropolitan Washington, D.C.] and mixing it with the soil and putting soil conditioners in there and planting trees and planting grass.” The result, Chewning said, was successful replanting and revitalization of the stream banks.

Sampling near Contrary Creek in Louisa County.  The creek's pH was lowered from previous mining operations

 

“The strength of the State Water Control Board, and DEQ after that, have increased significantly. But we’ve had a good staff in both agencies, a lot of integrity, honesty and commitment to the goals.

 

“But some of the positive things, I think, are public support and political support—and that’s a big change. We’ve come a long way.”