RD236 - 2011 Report on the Status of Virginia’s Water Resources: A Report on Virginia’s Water Resources Management Activities


Executive Summary:
This annual report, submitted to the Governor and the Virginia General Assembly in accordance with Chapter 3.2 of Title 62.1 of the Code of Virginia, describes the status of the Commonwealth’s surface and groundwater resources, provides an overview of climate conditions and impacts on water supplies in the Commonwealth, and provides an update on the Commonwealth’s Water Resources Management Program for Calendar Year 2010. Quantity rather than quality is the focus of this report. Quality issues are addressed in the State’s Water Quality Assessment Report which can be found at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/wqa/homepage.html.

Virginia’s estimated 52,232 miles of streams and rivers are part of nine major watersheds. Annual state-wide rainfall averages almost 43 inches. The total combined flow of all freshwater streams in the state is estimated at about 25 billion gallons per day. The 248 publicly owned lakes in the Commonwealth have a combined surface area of 130,344 acres. Additionally, many hundreds of other small privately owned lakes and ponds are distributed throughout the state. Other significant water features of Virginia include approximately 236,900 acres of tidal and coastal wetlands, 808,000 acres of freshwater wetlands, 120 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline, and more than 2,300 square miles of estuaries. A summary of Virginia’s surface water resources is provided in Appendix 1.

Most all locations across the Commonwealth have received large amounts of rainfall. This can be attributed primarily to frontal passages and a persistent upper-air low associated with the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee in September and Hurricane Irene in August. Stream gages in areas west of I-95 are recording flows below normal to well below normal ranges. Stream gages in the Coastal Plain are recording rises to reflect the increased runoff from the hurricane and are in the normal to above normal range of flows.

Groundwater levels continue to generally align with surface-water levels with most wells recording levels in the normal to above normal range in the Coastal Plain. Water Levels west of Interstate 95 have continued to decline and remain well below normal.

The Office of Surface and Groundwater Supply Planning resides within the Water Division of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The Office consists of four programs, including Surface Water Investigations, Groundwater Characterization, Water Supply Planning, and Water Withdrawal Permitting (See Section III for summaries of programs). The Office of Surface and Groundwater Supply Planning collaborates with other state and federal programs to support local water resources planning. Significant programmatic highlights of the Office of Surface and Groundwater Supply Planning for 2010 include:

• Monitoring of 74 surface water, 42 groundwater, and 62 Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) data sites (Section III.A.);

• Eleven observation wells in southeast Virginia equipped with real time data collection platforms (Section III.B.);

• Additional new real time wells installed in the Northern Neck Peninsula (Section III.B.);

• Development of Virginia Spring Database and continued geophysical logging activities (Section III.B.);

• Development of ten (10) local water supply programs and funding of 14 regional water supply plan development projects (Section III.C.);

• Funding of five (5) wellhead protection implementation grant projects and one education effort (Section III.C.)

• Management of 246 active groundwater withdrawal permits and 96 active permit applications (Section III.D.);

• Management of 67 active Virginia water protection permits and 10 active permit applications (Section III.D.);

• Development of an electronic reporting option leading to improved reporting under Water Withdrawal Reporting Regulation (Section IV.);

• Public water supplies continue to account for the greatest percentage of the total water use in Virginia (Section IV.);

• Observation of decreased demands on surface and groundwater resources (Section V.);

• The Proposed Expansion of the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area (Section VII.);

• Acknowledgement of the need for a secure source of funding for surface and groundwater supply planning (Section VII.).

Virginia’s public health, environment, and economic growth depend on the availability of quality water resources. To assure water resources are available for future generations and the continued growth of Virginia, effective water resource management must continue to be premised on a process that improves the quality and quantity of water available to the Commonwealth.