Stream walk will study Millboro flooding

Cabin Creek in the Lower Yard area of Millboro was flowing placidly along last Thursday, but that is not the case during periods of heavy rain. A stream walk is scheduled for March 17 as part of a study Bath County hopes will lead to a solution to the problem. Some believe debris in the area from a past logging operation could contribute to the problem. (Recorder photo by Mike Bollinger) MILLBORO — Work to find a solution for flooding along Cabin Creek will take to the field March 17 when the county and several agencies will conduct a stream walk along the creek.

At a second meeting held about the flooding problem last Thursday at the Millboro Volunteer Fire Department, Bath County administrator Bonnie Johnson said officials have been trying to find the cause, and a solution, for the flooding problems for about a year and a half.

“Residents came to the county after a flood in 2006 and were not used to flooding to that extent,” Johnson said. “They wanted to see what could be done. That flood also damaged the (Buckingham Branch) railroad.”

Over the years, Johnson said, residents report the flooding gets worse, and that it could affect other waterways, particularly Mill Creek. Mill Creek is home to the spiny mussel. “The concerns are public safety, the economic effects of property damage and the effect on the railroad, and also environmental,” Johnson said.

Several possible causes have been mentioned, Johnson said. These include beaver dams, flat elevations along portions of the creek, culverts that are stopped up or too small, past tree clearing in the area and loss of areas with good drainage through construction.

A group of agencies experienced in dealing with floodwater was compiled, and several agencies attended the first meeting about Cabin Creek in August 2009. Through the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, grant money has enabled the county to get help from the University of Virginia Institute for Environmental Negotiation.

Other agencies have also been enlisted for advice, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the national and state forest services, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Upper James River Roundtable, Virginia Tech, the Center for Watershed Protection, Buckingham Branch Railroad, Bath County Historical Society, Bath County Industrial Development Authority, the United States Department of Agriculture National Resource Conservation Service, Bath County High School, Virginia Department of Transportation and Millboro Volunteer Fire Department.

“We decided we needed some way to grasp what’s going on, and decided on the creek walk,” Johnson said. “We’re very excited the high school students will be participating.”

BCHS students, through 4-H and science classes, will help gather data during the walk. Johnson said several property owners in the area have given permission for walkers to cross their properties and county planning director Sherry Ryder will seek permission from others through March 5. So far, Ryder said, all those who have responded have given permission.

“The idea is to do the walk, and then the Center for Watershed Protection will analyze the data,” Johnson said. “Then, we will follow up with another meeting to go over what the data shows and what we can do.”

Millboro District supervisor Carol Hardbarger said she has received numerous calls from residents concerning drainage in the area. “I believe the dynamics of how the wa- ter interacts with the ground have changed. The stream walk is necessary because we don’t understand the impact.”

Laurel Woodworth of the Center for Watershed Protection said walking along a stream is the only way to accurately determine what is going on. “We need to see the aquatic life, the stream bottom, the vegetation and what’s going on uphill from the stream,” she said.

Millboro is at the confluence of many small streams with hills all around, Woodworth said. The walk will help determine how much vegetation is on the stream bank to help hold the bank together and to see in how many areas the bank has been scraped away by rushing water. “We’ll take measurements to see what the stream bank looks like. That may help us understand why the creek is flooding,” Woodworth said.

Participants will measure the distance to the channel bottom at various points, and create cross-sectional views of the creek. Those measurements, Woodworth said, will help determine how easy it is for water to get from the channel to the flood plain.

The composition of the stream bed is also important, she said. The more silt there is in an area, the more that indicates flooding.

The Cabin Creek walk will have more participants than usual, Woodworth said. The morning of the walk, railroad officials will conduct training on how to safely access railroad property and the CWP will train participants on the walk.

Following the training sessions, which are estimated to take about an hour, walkers will be divided into groups and the stream divided into quarter-mile sections for data gathering. The day following, Woodworth said, CWP staff will drive around the area and see if anything about the land would add more water to the stream or cause it to run off hills faster.

Each group will have a form to measure certain characteristics of the stream, Woodworth said. Participants will be shown how to use the form and grade the characteristics as part of the training session before the walk.

From the cross-sections, Woodworth said CWP will create graphics that show trends of how deep and wide the creek is. Photos will be taken for analysis.

“We will provide our findings to the county, and the county will decide where to go from there depending on what is found,” Woodworth said. “We will look at areas in which the stream is constricted and see areas where water could possibly be released into open space.”

The students will participate in about two miles of the walk, Johnson said. Once they return to school, the CWP will continue until about five square miles around the impacted area is covered.

Drinking water issues

Near the end of the meeting, Essie Heffler, who lives in the Lower Yard area of Millboro, said every time there is a heavy rain, the water in homes in that area turns muddy. She said residents won’t drink it while it’s muddy and are unable to wash clothes because it turns them brown. The water is provided by the private Millboro Water Association.

Hardbarger said she would conduct a phone survey of residents there to see exactly what happens with the water during periods of heavy rain.

Contact last Thursday after the meeting, Millboro Water Association board member Johnny Mayberry said the water is chlorinated at all times to eliminate germs. Mayberry said sediment does get into the spring-fed system during periods of heavy rain. “We had 27 inches of snow and then that rain Sunday (Jan. 24). The water is safe, I’m sitting here drinking a cup of it right now,” he said.

Bill Manion, one of the operators of the MWA facility, said the water comes from a spring and floodwater does not get into the system. Sediment is what discolors the water, he said. “When it rains heavily, for a couple of days after the rain, the sediment from the ground can get into the system. We ‘shock’ the system to make sure there is plenty of chlorine in it,” Manion said. “Flood water from Cabin Creek does not get into our system.”

According to Manion, state regulations require 1-4 parts per million of chlorine at the system source. He said the MWA keeps the level as close to one part per million as possible because of comments about the taste of the water when it’s higher.

State regulations require a “residual” amount of chlorine at the end of the system’s lines. Manion said. Water at a home near the end of the line was tested last Thursday afternoon following calls from residents, Manion said, and found to have 1.01 parts per million, meeting the requirement.

Manion said Heffler’s water was tested last Thursday afternoon as well, and found to have 2.2 parts per million chlorine. Last Thursday, Heffler acknowledged her water was tested, but said she still wouldn’t drink it. “It’s still cloudy,” she said.

After the Jan. 24 rain, Heffler said her water was brown but had cleared up to being only cloudy by last Thursday. “Every time it rains, we get muddy water. I have lived here all my life, and the water has always been a problem,” she said. “Normally it stays really muddy for a day or so and then starts to clear up. This time it was ridiculous. It was extremely muddy.”

Heffler said as the flooding along Cabin Creek has gotten worse, the water has gotten more muddy after a rain. “I haven’t washed clothes since it rained, and we have been drinking bottled water,” she said. “Many people in this area are in bad health, and this is not good for them.”

Some people in the area had stomach problems recently, Heffler said, but she was unsure whether those were related to the water.

Manion said he doubted anyone had become sick from the water. “If there was anything wrong with the water, everybody in Millboro would be sick,” Manion said.

Heffler said she hopes the study will help with the flooding problems in the area and also with the drinking water. “We really, really need this done,” she said.

Stream walk schedule

March 17, participants will gather at the Millboro Volunteer Fire Department at 9 a.m. Following the training sessions, they will begin the stream walk and eat lunch in the field.

The students will return to the MVFD around 2:15 p.m. to return to BCHS. Adults will then return to the Cabin Creek area to finish the data gathering.

In case of inclement weather, the walk will be held March 24.