When volunteers with the Izaak Walton League’s Virginia Save Our Streams (VA SOS) program in Christiansburg, Virginia, reached out to the town’s Environmental Program Supervisor, Patricia Colatosti, about monitoring water quality in the town’s streams, she thought that sounded like a great idea. The town had recently completed a stream restoration project along a stretch of Towne Branch that runs through Depot Park, a park which, according to resident and VA SOS monitor Tonia Moxley, didn’t use to have much appeal to the local community. The polluted stream certainly wasn’t doing the park any favors - Towne Branch’s watershed is steep, very urban, and burdened by a highway that predates stormwater controls. All of that led to the stream being flashy – meaning water levels rise rapidly during a rainfall - and having issues with E. coli and sedimentation. Crab Creek, the slightly larger stream that Towne Branch flows to, has been listed as impaired for E. coli and sediment since 1996.
To address the pollution issues, and to make Depot Park more enticing for families, the Town of Christiansburg began a major park revitalization project in 2012. The effort included lifting the streambed up from the bedrock it had eroded down to, amending the washed-in stone that made up the previous streambed material, creating step-pools and riffles, restoring adjacent wetlands, and planting native trees and plants as a buffer along the streambanks.
After the restoration, members of the New River Valley Master Naturalists (VMN) got involved to help manage invasive plants so the newly planted natives could thrive. One Master Naturalist, Carol Kauffman, wanted to get started as a VA SOS monitor and thought that Towne Branch would be a great site for monitoring. Colatosti, the Environmental Program Supervisor for Christiansburg, agreed, recognizing the opportunity to use volunteer-collected data to track the success of the stream restoration.
Unfortunately, data was not collected prior to the restoration to be able to compare with the post-restoration data. Colatosti explained, “Sometimes you have an opportunity, and the money, to solve a severe erosion problem, and you don’t have the time or resources to establish that baseline monitoring. You just have to go for it.” The restoration was completed in 2018, but monitoring did not begin until 2022. Patricia said that prior to 2022, “we did pick up rocks and look, but never found anything less pollution-tolerant than a common net-spinner. When the first monitoring report in spring 2022 had mayflies, we were really excited!”
More About Macroinvertebrates
Municipalities in Virginia are required by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to reduce E. coli and sediment in their streams to below a certain threshold – and, of course, they have to prove it. As proof, DEQ accepts data about macroinvertebrates, insects that live in fresh water and that are affected by the conditions in their home streams. Through the VA SOS program, the Izaak Walton League trains volunteers to find and identify macroinvertebrates. So, volunteers can observe the bugs living in Towne Branch, use those findings to draw conclusions about the water quality in the stream, and provide that data to environmental staff like Colatosti, who in turn send it to DEQ. Because the data originates from volunteer scientists trained and certified by a rigorous national program, it pulls a fair amount of weight with decision-makers. There is no other volunteer program in the area providing comparably trustworthy macroinvertebrate data.
The monitoring data has continued to prove helpful in linking stream health to things going on in the very urban watershed. In fall 2023, a decline in macroinvertebrate abundance and diversity turned out to be related to a potable water leak and an influx of mud into the stream. Now that those issues have been resolved, Colatosti is interested to see how life in the stream will be affected. And since it’s been demonstrated that sedimentation is bad for macroinvertebrates, the Town is continually working on getting sediment under control.
Overall, after implementing the more than half-a-million-dollar stream restoration, Colatosti is encouraged that monitoring results are indicating that the stream is doing pretty well. “I’d like to be able to compare our data to other stream restorations to see if design features can be correlated to macroinvertebrate data.”
The broader revitalization project has been a success as well. Depot Park is now heavily used and features an Aquatic Center, walking trails, a playground, sports fields and a skate park. The Town is also looking for ways to use the park to educate residents about their efforts, stream health and macroinvertebrates. Because the parkland along the stream is steep, they installed a split-rail fence to prevent kids from falling down the hill. There are several openings in the fence, however, through which kids frequently go down to the stream in order to play in it. At one of these access points right by a riffle, the Town installed an educational sign about macroinvertebrates, one of three educational signs throughout the park.
Colatosti would encourage anyone who is looking to have their data used at the municipal level to find and reach out to the person in their municipality who is in charge of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit, usually someone within the Stormwater Management Division. As an MS4 permit manager herself, she said, “they’ll probably be thrilled to hear from you.” It’s a win-win because you get to participate in something you enjoy, and the municipality gets help fulfilling their requirement to hold public participation events related to water quality.
Plus, Colatosti said, most MS4 managers are already looking at how they can use data collected from these events for another purpose. Moxley, the VA SOS monitor, said that the partnership has been great, noting that Colatosti has gone out of her way to direct the monitors to places around town she’d like to see monitored, and to help them gain access where they otherwise wouldn’t be allowed to go. “I jumped at the chance to help Carol’s team monitor the water quality [in Depot Park],” Moxley shared. “Seeing it improve over time has inspired me to work with Patricia and Carol and other Master Naturalists to get other streams into the SOS program. SOS and VMN give me a way to contribute to the health of my community.”
Moving forward, Colatosti and her colleagues are continuing to determine how to use macroinvertebrate and temperature data to inform decisions the Town makes on public land and are hoping to have pre-data collected at potential future restoration sites. She noted that environmental volunteerism in Christiansburg has increased over the past five or so years, which she is excited about because Christiansburg has a lot of public property but a small town staff. “Volunteers are our extra eyes in the parks and on town property. Our volunteers know they can call the Town and we will find the right person to respond. Their input is valued, and the data they collect is being used.”
Learn more about VA SOS