LANDS and WATERS
  A not-for-profit organization devoted to watershed protection and education

 

Flooding At Accotink Creek

By Jeanette Stewart

Photographs by Kris Unger

I think everyone would agree that Saturday, September 6, was a pretty wet day (over 8 inches of rain recorded).  As part of LANDS and WATERS work tracking events that impact our local watersheds, I visited Accotink Creek at two locations shortly after the storm ended to assess the condition of the creek and surrounding areas. 

I found the usual meandering Daniels Run Stream anything but meandering.  Both the volume and velocity of the stream had increased  but at Daniels Run School (located at the headwaters) the stream had not reached the top of the banks.

My next stop further down the creek was an entirely different story.  As the water made its way to Accotink Lake, it continued to collect water from surface flow and from the storm drain system along its route. The storm drain system was directing an enormous amount of stormwater into the stream from Accotink's highly developed watershed.  Stormwater poured from roads, rooftops, parking lots, from every impervious surface in the Accotink watershed.  By the time the stream had reached the Camelot neighborhood it had become a raging, dangerous river, flooding homes, uprooting trees, and tearing out railings along the bridges of the county's Accotink trail.

There is no doubt this was an intense storm but when I heard a citizen remark that the storm demonstrated the power of nature, I countered that his statement was only partially true.  The intensity of the flooding, the amount and velocity of the water in Accotink was the result of human development in the Accotink Watershed.  If the lands around the creek had been forested, the ability of the land to absorb the rainwater would have been much greater.  Instead, much of the rain water fell on impervious surfaces, ran off these surfaces, was channeled into storm drains and directed into Accotink, creating an unnatural and impossible situation for the creek.  Nature has safeguards and buffers in place for many if not most extreme weather conditions.  We in our development process are repeatedly removing them.  Katrina bore this out all too plainly.  This is not the first or last time intense storms have or will hit our area.  The challenge before us is to recognize the role we play in how these  storms play out. 

The Day After the Storm revealed the damage done more clearly.  Kris Unger, a local photographer, is partnering with LANDS and WATERS to document activities within the Accotink Creek Watershed.  We visited the Camelot area early Sunday morning. 

The condition of the railings on the trail's bridges was disappointing but what we discovered next was much more damaging. 

Large areas of forest have been removed as part of the  HOT Lane Project.  Accotink had lost a large portion of its last line of defense against stormwater runoff.  It was more vulnerable than ever.  The sediment control measures taken by the construction company to buffer the stream again erosion failed and a stream of sediment was directed into Accotink Creek. 

The repercussions of this failure are enormous.   Sediment is a major pollutant to our local streams and the Chesapeake Bay.  In addition, another major pollutant, phosphorus, hitches a ride on sediment.    That day a valuable resource soil was turned into a pollutant.  It is irresponsible to allow construction to occur without adequate environmental controls in place.  Fluor Lane and VDOT sediment controls were not adequate.

I don't think the creek or the wildlife that depend on the creek for habitat care whether the letter of the law was obeyed.  They only have to live with the consequences - as we all do.  Our quality of life here in Northern Virginia should not be measured simply by the number of malls we build, the number of highway lanes we cram along the beltway, or the number of up-scale town centers we build.  Our quality of life also depends on a healthy environment that includes clean air, unpolluted waterways, and natural environments in our neighborhoods and along our streams that demonstrate the rich diversity and vitality characteristic of Northern Virginia.