Natural Resources

Water Quality

Water Quality

Good water quality means much more than having clean water to drink and a nice place to swim. Streams, rivers, bays and coastal estuaries provide a long list of important economic functions in Hampton Roads, as well as in Virginia as a whole.

Why is This Important?

Clean water is an input to industrial and agricultural production and is an essential resource for supporting the fishing and tourism industries. Clean water is a habitat for economically and ecologically important species; it is also necessary for the daily health and hygiene of every citizen of Hampton Roads. Dirty water results in large private and public expenditures to clean the water before use. In short, clean water is an essential component of both economic growth and citizen well-being.

How is Hampton Roads Doing?

One of the most telling measures of water quality in the Hampton Roads area is the Chesapeake Bay. The quality of the water entering the Chesapeake Bay reflects not only the actions of residents and businesses in Hampton Roads, but also those from across Virginia and the surrounding states.

Virginia has agreed to reduce its contribution to excess levels of certain nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, entering the Bay by substantial amounts by 2010. Progress toward this goal is being made; both nitrogen and phosphorous discharges have decreased more than 10 percent since 2000. Hampton Roads is currently seeking to complete an estimated 20 studies and implementation plans before the 2010 deadline to deal with waterways that do not meet the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements set forth by the state's Clean Water Act.

Phosphorous and Nitrogen Discharges into Chesapeake Bay, Millions of Pounds

	2000	2002	2004	2006	2008	Tributary Strategy Goal
Nitrogen	78,104,767	77,804,285	74,391,207	73,870,596	70,560,792	52,068,665
Phosphorous	9,605,977	9,835,124	9,213,543	8,906,210	8,603,500	6,038,999

A large factor in Hampton Roads' contribution to the protection of local waterways will come from the control of stormwater run-off. Stormwater run-off from urban areas has the potential to carry harmful debris and chemicals into waterways. A combination of careful regulation of run-off from construction sites and municipal areas as well as an environmental education initiative, both currently underway, can help to control this potential source of pollution.

What Influences Water Quality?

Water quality is degraded when toxic chemicals, biological waste, sediment, and excess nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous, flow into rivers, streams, wetlands and coastal waters. The pollutants are categorized by their source: point sources, where the effluent has a single known point of discharge into state waters such as a discharge pipe; and non-point sources, which are diffuse sources where pollutants often travel with stormwater runoff or groundwater. Examples of non-point sources include runoff from farms, septic fields, paved surfaces and lawns. Water can also be polluted by deposition from air.

Point source discharges and some non-point sources are regulated under federal and state law. However, a significant number of non-point sources fall under voluntary, incentive-based programs such as those that cost-share the installation of agricultural non-point source pollution control practices. Pollution can be limited "at the source" through prevention techniques that limit the generation of the pollutants in the first place or by treating the effluent by physical, chemical or biological means prior to discharge into state waters. Control of point-source discharges has proven easier than the control of the considerably larger non-point discharges, which are largely agricultural in origin and managed under voluntary programs.