Our Conservation Chair is Randy Inman - email conservation@pvflyfish.org

Conservation/restoration projects for our area are either on on the
Mid-Atlantic Conservation web site.
or the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation web site.

Potomac River on Federation of Fly Fishers Endangered Fisheries List
Press Release
FFF Potomac River Fact Sheet

Intersex (Testicular Oocytes) in Smallmouth Bass
from the Potomac River and Selected Nearby Drainages
Report in PDF format

If you see pollution in the Potomac or its tributaries:

First call one of the numbers below, and then call, Potomac Riverkeeper:
at 301-POTOMAC(768-6622), or email to keeper@potomacriverkeeper.org

Types of pollution; fish kills, algae blooms, hazardous materials and oil spills, public sewer breaks and over flows, sediment or dirt discharge, wetland impacts, etc.

Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE): All pollution - Call 1 800-633-6101

West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (DNR): All pollution - call 1 800-642-3074

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP): All Pollution call 1 866-255-5158

Virginia Department of Environmental Quality: All Pollution regular business hours call:
Northern Regional Office at 703-583-3800
Piedmont (Middle VA) Regional Office at 804-527-5020
Tidewater (Southern VA) Regional Office at 757-518-2000
After hours, holidays, weekends, call 804-897-6500 - Department of Emergency Management

District of Columbia: Sewer Leaks - WASA hot line at 202-612-3400 - have nearest street and cross street ready
Sediment/Dirt entering a storm drain from a construction site or a cement, truck washing into street or storm drain etc., call 202-535-2240- IDC Watershed protection and Compliance Branch Oil and hazardous Substances, call 202-724-9216 - DC Water Quality Division
After hours, weekends, and holidays, call the Mayor's hotline: 202-727-3636

Mercury pollution by Don Fine.
Please visit: Mid-Atlantic Conservation web site.

More Troubled Waters By Don Fine, VP Conservation(2005), MAC/FFF

Many people are aware of the fact that for the past several years the Chesapeake Bay is steadily declining as a great fishery, both in terms of its recreation and economic value. This is due in large part to the water pollution that enters tributaries at remote distances from the Bay itself. When one considers that the Chesapeake Bay Watershed encompasses nearly 64,000 square miles (beginning in New York state and including virtually all areas of Maryland and Virginia and major portions of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), it is easy to see that pollution hundreds of miles from the Bay, nevertheless ends up in the Bay. One of the long recognized, major contributors of Bay pollution is the Potomac River, considering the agricultural areas and growing populations that border its waters and tributaries. Not counting industrial and community contributions, 33% of the Bay’s pollution consists of run off from agricultural areas.

Add now “more troubled waters” to the list in the Mid-Atlantic region. Fish kills in 2004 on the North Fork of the Shenandoah and another this year in May on the South Fork of the Shenandoah have all but wiped out the smallmouth bass and sunfish populations. The fish kill that occurred early this spring, during the spawning period, wiped out as much as 80% of the adult smallmouth bass population. Both smallmouth bass and redbreast sunfish developed lesions on their skin. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality reports that more than 746 miles of rivers and streams in the Shenandoah watershed are impaired. State officials have blamed high nutrient, sediment and fecal coliform levels for impairing the river, contributing to added stress on the fish during times that they had reduced immunity.

The 2005 episode is not the first water quality problem to surface on the Shenandoah. For several years, river access points displayed warnings about the high levels of mercury and PCBs in the water resulting from industrial dumping. High nutrient waste from farms, golf courses, lawns and parking lots on property bordering the rivers, also contribute heavily to chemical pollution of the Shenandoah, like the Potomac. Scientists easily recognize increases in nitrogen and phosphorus in these waters with each passing year.

The Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers serve as major tributaries to the north end of the Chesapeake Bay. These are threatened waters as well in 2005. This year will not be a good year for smallmouth fishing in one of the East’s premier bass fisheries. Thousands of belly-up smallmouths have perished in the Susquehanna near Harrisburg, PA. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission have attributed the problem to a bacterial infection, but the source of the bacteria is unknown. Bob Clouser, well-known fly fishing guide on the Susquehanna, notes significant decreases in smallmouth catch productivity. Anglers used to catching 50 plus fish per day, are now catching 12 or less fish per day. Another problem is a fungus infection of young-of-the-year smallmouth, with substantial numbers dying.

Communities and citizenry across the country, particularly in the Mid-Atlantic region, need to recognize that each individual is a steward of our land and water resources that we need for much more than their recreational value. I hope these citizens will also adopt a different view of their responsibility for cleaning up the Chesapeake, when they realize that the problem emanates right in their own backyard (waters), hundreds of miles from the Bay.

More Trees For Maryland

If you own land or have friends or relatives that own land and would like to participate in projects that help improve water quaily from small streams all the way to the Chesapeake Bay continue to read. The University of Maryland (Maryland Cooperative Extension in Keedysville) has all the information about state supported projects to improve water quality for Maryland. Several programs are available to compensate land owners for the cost of trees, the cost of planting trees and even yearly reimbursement for the acreage used. Please take a minute to read the newsletter Branching Out.

University of MD in Keedysville.


Want to know what is going on around our country that affects our Rivers and streams?

American Rivers is a national non-profit conservation organization dedicated to protecting and restoring healthy natural rivers and the variety of life they sustain for people, fish, and wildlife.

They have a news letter that will alert you of things going on in government that affect our rivers ... please sign up for it!!!
American Rivers


The following article was written by Don Fine (MAC-FFF 2005 V.P. Conservation)for the MAC news letter:

Clean Water for Future Generations

Like many who read the MAC News, I have fished my whole life with family and friends. As I reflect back on life’s blessings, amongst the greatest times are those spent fishing. For the most part, these times were spent fishing mountain streams, lakes, ponds and rivers – clean water that held trout, pike, walleye, perch, bass, catfish, and salmon. Waters that start from mountain tops or underground springs, ultimately finding their way to bays and oceans, where too I have enjoyed many times on the water with rod and reel. I look to the future for more of the same, but realize and wonder whether my generation will be one of the last that have the opportunity to fish these clean waters; streams and rivers, that feed our bays and oceans.

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel outside the fifty states and couldn’t help but notice and compare water quality south of the border. I was reminded of the familiar phrase “don’t drink the water” for the sake of Montezuma’s revenge. It was then that I again remembered the blessing and privilege of living in the good ole USA. Now I wonder too, whether my generation will be able to protect these waters and successfully pass our heritage and conservation ethic to future generations. This is an effort that cannot be undertaken by a few, but requires the drive of many. But with that concerted effort and desire, our grandchildren and their children will have the same great times on the waters.

Toward this end, I would hope and encourage each club within the Mid–Atlantic Council family to “adopt a stream” or conservation project the result of which would be to create more habitat for wildlife (especially fish) and cleaner water feeding America’s bays and oceans.

P.S. Consider expressing your feelings to the EPA by asking them to withdraw their new policy that would allow partially treated sewage to be released directly into rivers and streams during heavy rains.