I suspect many folks were as shocked and dismayed as I was to learn about the dangerously high levels of fecal contamination that showed up in recent testing of the Hawksbill Creek. How did it come to pass that the jewel of our little town’s greenway is nothing short of a toxic brew of mainly cow feces?
Sadly, this is not a new situation. Even sadder is that families, children, and pets have been wading, splashing, recreating in the creek for some time now, never being alerted to its plethora of pathogens. The good news is this can be fixed.
While we can never completely remove fecal material deposited by wildlife, we can certainly remove cows from the equation and then make sure our sewer pipes and septic fields aren’t leaking into the creek. Dedicated state and federal programs are available to help farmers move their cows out of and away from steams and rivers, and provide them with other cleaner water sources. I know this because I am using these programs myself to fence off and protect my half-mile frontage on the Shenandoah River and my two-acre pond.
The town and other entities have done a marvelous job creating a beautiful greenway that we all love and cherish. How is it that we are allowing two or three sources of contamination to ruin it for us all? The town deserves better. Our children deserve better.
Let’s cleanup the Hawksbill!
Susan Corbett ~ Stanley, Va.
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Thank you Friends of the Shenandoah River for testing the safety of our waterways.
Without them we would never know how unhealthy the Hawksbill is for children.
But this volunteer group is always just scraping for money.
They almost had to stop testing this year because their lab equipment was so old it was unrepairable.
Our County and Towns should come together to give them reliable funding.
Public health is a proper government function.
Ken- The Town of Luray paid for the Hawksbill testing. Good thing since that’s why we know what is going on
Good government in action.
Has the Hawksbill been tested before? If not, then why was it suddenly decided to test the water now? DEQ requirement, accident? Livestock has been near and in the creek and river for hundreds of years.
We also used to let private companies dump pollution into the river. Remember Avtex in Front Royal? It’s now a Superfund site. It’s why you shouldnt eat fish out of the river: https://www.whatismissing.org/content/avtex-pollution_memory-3513
Private companies profit and taxpayers have to clean up the disaster.
But I forgot you have worms in your brain, Robert. I’m praying for you
Charlie. Hahahahahahahaha.
Page county doesn’t care about clean water. Remenber when they eliminated the person overseeing our water. I spoke about removing this position but they did it anyway. That person was chris anderson. Our water is one of our most valuable assets here but is taken fot granted. Also the avtex plant is in front royal. River runs north. Our problem was from dupont in Waynesboro. Ive eaten fish all my life from the river and.dont plan on stopping. A can of tuna fron the store shelves has more mercury than shenadoah river fish!
Ken Johnson. What it looks like could be called Munchausen At Hawksbill Creek. Create or exaggerate some problem, then go about fixing it. Will we have lockdowns? Methane gas produced by “farting” cows hit a snag creating fear, so now this.
I believe contaminates are higher when there is no rain in any waterway. I would think if you took some samples this week it would be a lot cleaner.