Fairfax County supervisors may bring a handful of streams under an expansive protection ordinance that prevents development and pollution. Nearly 3,000 feet of streams in the Dranesville and Lee districts would be designated as “resource protection areas” under a motion the Board of Supervisors will weigh next week. The waterways would be brought under protections already in place for 975 miles of streams in Fairfax County, which stem from the state’s Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, said John Friedman, an engineer with the county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services.
“In a very real sense, [the ordinance is] a requirement of state law and regulations,” Friedman said. “The underlying purpose of it is to protect the Chesapeake Bay and local waters, as well.”
The protection areas prevent the encroachment of new development, typically within 100 feet of either side of the stream. Under the proposed motion, protections will be expanded for one stream off Overbrook Street in the Dranesville District. Four streams off Wickford Drive in the Lee District will receive new protections.
More construction means more hard surfaces that speed up runoff into a waterway. Creating a development-free buffer zone around streams can slow and filter runoff before it hits the water, said Suzanne Ankrum, program coordinator for the Virginia Conservation Network.
“Especially in Northern Virginia where you have a lot of development and a lot of impervious surfaces, it’s important to have areas that are not paved over,” she said.
And with recent development in Fairfax County, protecting the county’s streams has become more necessary, said Mason District Supervisor Penelope A. Gross. She pointed to the need to “control stormwater, erosion and sediment, and make sure our waterways are more protected than they are right now.”
At a glance
The Commonwealth of Virginia enacted the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act in 1988, mandating that 84 communities bordering rivers that drain into the bay — including Fairfax County — enact water quality protection measures.
Ten years ago, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors put in place a local ordinance establishing “resource protection areas” that regulate development along streams that drain into the Potomac River.
