Your Public Comments Needed

SAMPLE COMMENT LETTER (Word doc) - due 12/18/09 before midnight

The Maury is formed by the Little Calfpasture River and the Calfpasture River. Just above the confluence, the Little Calfpasture has been dammed [Lake Merriweather Dam] since the mid-1960s. Because of the way the dam was constructed and how it has been operated, pollution plagues the river between the dam & the confluence. Pollution flows into the Maury and has caused major problems periodically over the years.
The Clean Water Act requires that states designate sections of streams and rivers that are too polluted to meet minimum standards - and come up with a plan to clean them up. This process is known as TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load). The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is nearing the end of the TMDL process for the section of the Little Calfpasture River that immediately flows into the Maury at the upper end of Goshen Pass. DEQ is accepting comments from the public ONLY UNTIL DECEMBER 18th.

Those of us who have followed the process have grave concerns about the method of developing and content of the TMDL. The DEQ has made assumptions and changed the rules in order to accommodate a defective dam. While we understand that they think this approach is necessary, we believe that it is a violation of the Clean Water Act.

Our primary concerns with the TMDL development process are:

• There is insufficient real data used to “fuel” the model
• The combination of models types is inappropriate
• The decision to seek a change of water quality standard for the degraded stream section is an inappropriate use of the Use Attainability Analysis process under the Clean Water Act.
• The TMDL document significantly understates the role of Lake Merriweather and its current management in the continuing problem of sediment pollution in the Little Calfpasture and the Maury Rivers.
  Please Review Important Documents in post immediately below this one

Take the time to submit comments to the Virginia DEQ asking them to substantially revise the TMDL in order to provide for improved and the required level of clean water in Goshen Pass. Your comments do not need to be long or technical - the number of comments will make a big difference. Comments should be emailed (or mailed) to:

Tara Sieber, Department of Environmental Quality, 4411 Early Road, PO Box 3000, Harrisonburg, VA 22801, telephone (540) 574-7870, fax (540) 574-7878,

or e-mail tara.sieber@deq.virginia.gov

If you are willing to, please send a copy of your comments to us at maurygoshen@gmail.com