This map contains two thematically-related sets of layers related to water quality in the Maury River Watershed and Cedar Creek that come from two distinct sources. The “Streams” layer shows the results from the 2014 “Integrated Report” from the VADEQ with Category 4A streams in orange and category 5A in red. Each circle represents a benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring site surveyed by our certified volunteer crew between 2001 and 2018. Hover over a stream to highlight and click to see information from the Integrated Report. Click on a site to see some of its information. The color of each circle corresponds to its average multi-metric score (blue = higher, red = lower- click on the “i” for a key), and its radius indicates the relative number of surveys from that site.
This plot shows the multi-metric scores from all of our volunteer’s survey efforts on record between 2001 and the end of 2018 (241 surveys and counting). Survey sites are listed on the y axis and are arranged in order of the oldest sample date to the youngest. Survey date is ordered on the the x axis from oldest (left) to youngest (right). Colors correspond to multi-metric score with blue = higher, white = med, red = lower. Hover over the tiles for numeric information, drag to zoom in, and double-click to unzoom.
The multi-metric score indicator of water quality requires that certified volunteer monitors capture at least 200 individual organisms- all benthic macroinvertebrates in a survey and categorize them into 20 different taxa (mayflies, stoneflies, midges, etc.). This graph shows the composition (in percent) from the most recent 147 surveys on record (starting in 2008). The x axis shows the 20 taxanomic categories ordered from most abundant (in all surveys) on the left to least abundant on the right, the y axis shows site/date listed alphabetically from bottom to top, and darker shades correspond to a higher percent of the population. Hover over the tiles for numeric information, drag to zoom in, and double-click to unzoom.
The Maury River / Rockbridge Area Conservation Council VASOS program was reinvigorated in 2016. The increase in volunteer participation is largely due to the ongoing efforts of RACC Watershed Committee Co-chair Sandra Stuart.
This table contains information about the survey sites from this program. This will help to match the four-digit site codes (mrsb, etc.) with a physical location. You can sort by column header. A similar table is also available on google docs
This table contains all of the data presented in this RPub document from the RACC/VASOS volunteer benthic invertebrate monitoring program (it does not include data from the 2014 Integrated Report). You can sort by column header and show up to 100 rows at a time. A similar table is available on google docs
This brief (under 5 minutes) instructional video is intended for people already familiar with this project (or similar projects). It shows how to access the information in this RPub document. If you already know your way around (or are naturally good at figuring these sorts of things out on your own), please skip it.
The stream monitoring discussed here is performed by certified volunteers under the organization of the Rockbridge Area Conservation Council (RACC), Virginia Save Our Streams, and Izaak Walton League of America. The multi-metric score is a weighted ratio of more pollution-tolerant and intolerant organisms with higher scores indicating better water quality.
In EPA Category 4A stream segments (shown in orange), water is impaired or threatened for one or more designated uses and has a completed TMDL. EPA Category 5A stream segments (red) include streams impaired or threatened for one or more designated uses by a pollutant(s) and requires a TMDL. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved the Final 2014 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report on 5/19/2016 and released it on 6/13/2016; it is a summary of the water quality conditions in Virginia between 1/1/2007 and 12/31/2012. GIS data used for this map was released in April of 2018. The full report is here.