By Wafir Salih | wsalih@alextimes.com
Phase III of Alexandria’s Chesapeake Bay Action Plan is set to reach City Manager Jim Parajon’s desk on Oct. 22. It will include the removal of contentious, previously planned stream restoration projects for Taylor Run and Strawberry Run.
The revisions reflect City Council’s unanimous June 2023 vote for a scaled-back sewer line repair project instead, which is estimated to cost $2 million, and is viewed by many as a success story for collaboration between resident experts and the city.
Jesse Maines, division chief in charge of the city’s stormwater management in the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services, said the change aligns with Council’s decision.
“All we’re doing is just catching up the paperwork because the Phase II plan included [the stream restoration projects],” Maines said. “Since you only submit your plan every five years, we’re kind of catching up with the narrative that those are no longer in the plan.”
The controversy surrounding Taylor Run, which is adjacent to the Chinquapin Recreation Center on King Street, comes to a close after years of back-and-forth between environmentalists and the city.
In 2019, the city secured two grants from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality aimed at addressing pollution runoff into the Chesapeake Bay. The VDEQ provided up to $2.26 million for improvements at Taylor Run and an additional $800,000 for Strawberry Run through the Stormwater Local Assistance program.
The city’s plan to alter Taylor Run by cutting down more than 261 trees and implementing a natural channel design in a 1,900-foot section of the stream sparked opposition from residents and the local environmental community.
Rod Simmons, who was the city’s natural resources manager for 27 years before retiring in 2023, was also critical of the restoration plan. The city, at the time, argued that there were high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen entering the stream that needed to be addressed. According to a previous report from the Times, the city was operating under methodology based on metrics from streams near farmland in Pennsylvania.
Russell Bailey, a local environmental advocate, said he and other environmentalists took issue with the plan.
“We said, ‘Wait a minute, this thing is going to take out the wetlands [and] it’s going to take out all these trees. Are you really getting the pollution reduction that you think you are?’” Bailey said.
He said the current plan that’s in place, which will be aimed at repairing the sewer line in the stream, is expected to be more limited, with the work occurring in a 300-foot section instead of the previously planned 1,900. He also estimated that about 40 trees will be cut down now, instead of the previous 261.
Bailey said the environmentalists pushed to get their own testing done, and Simmons, who was serving as natural resources manager at the time, conducted those tests.
“[Simmons] did the soil samples and he sent them off to a registered lab … and it turned out the city numbers were 300% too high,” Bailey said.
Bailey said they then did water sampling in the area for nine months and found the stream did not contribute any additional phosphorus or nitrogen.
“It turned out that the stream wasn’t contributing any phosphorus or nitrogen,” Bailey said. “Basically, the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen that came out of the culvert up here was the same as the phosphorus and nitrogen level that was at the bottom culvert.”
The city paused the stream restoration plan for Taylor Run in 2021 after reviewing Simmons’ findings and opted to have their own studies done. Soil samples results done by the city matched what Simmons uncovered, according to Bailey.
The city continued the pause and looked at alternatives, and the extended process led to them losing access to the VDEQ grant in April 2023. City staff and local environmental advocates then forged a path forward together on how to best restore Taylor Run.
“We got right to work. We looked at a whole bunch of different proposals. They brought in their outside consultants; they gave us different options, we gave input [and] they responded – they were really responsive,” Bailey said.
Bailey praised the collaboration process between residents and city staff as an example of how people can come together and find resolutions.
“It was really, sort of a model, of how things can work in a challenging situation,” Bailey said. “[As] William Shakespeare [said], ‘All’s well that ends well.’”
Andrew Macdonald, former vice mayor and founder of the Environmental Council of Alexandria, said he’s happy with the outcome but still has doubts about the city’s relationship with nature preservation.
“This was a pretty good community process in the end,” Macdonald said. “But, the fact of the matter is, I think, the city simply does not value nature. … It doesn’t value preserving what little bit of natural resources the city has.
“I’m happy with what happened, but it still came at a cost of Lucky Run. It was probably one of the more important [ones]. It had some of the nicest bit of nature biodiversity left in the city. … Unfortunately, [it] was sacrificed because none of us had the energy, time and the ability clearly to stop that project,” Macdonald said.
Maines said the community around Lucky Run was largely in favor of the measure.
“The community surrounding Lucky Run was generally supportive of us moving forward,” Maines said.
Mayor Justin Wilson declined to provide comment, stating he would like to review the draft plan first, and pointed to his past comments on the dais and in his monthly newsletter, The Council Connection. The Times also reached out to Councilor John Taylor Chapman for comment, but did not hear back by the Times’ print deadline.
Bailey estimated that although 40 trees will be cut down for the sewer repair on Taylor Run, none of the city champions – which are large and historically significant trees – would be affected.
And, regarding the Chesapeake Bay, Maines said the city has made significant progress in addressing pollution over the past few years.
“We’re four years ahead of schedule on meeting the phosphorus target, and we only have about 20% remaining on nitrogen that we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to meet that through the measures identified in the plan,” Maines said.