Talk of unique features of Warm Springs Run & Watershed

Robert K. Denton Jr. will talk about some of the unique features of the Warm Springs Run and watershed on Thursday, April 26 at 7 p.m.. The presentation, which is open to the public, will take place in the Board Room at the Morgan County Board of Education headquarters, located at 247 Harrison Avenue in the Town of Bath.

Denton, senior geologist with GeoConcepts Engineering, has been hired by the Warm Springs Watershed Association (WSWA) to create a watershed-based management plan. The unique geology, hydrology, and geomorphology of this area present distinct challenges in developing such a plan.

The Warm Springs Run and its 7,178 acre watershed are currently under evaluation by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) for the development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), in compliance with the requirements of the Chesapeake Bay Initiative.

TMDLs are part of a strategy to ensure that pollution control measures needed to fully restore the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers are in place by 2025. By 2017, 60 percent of the necessary pollution reductions must be completed.

West Virginia has a mandate from the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, bacterial contamination, and sediment transported to the Bay by the rivers and streams of our region. The WVDEP has identified sediment and bacterial contamination as the two most critical sources of pollution that need to be managed in the Warm Springs Run Watershed.

In putting together an effective stream management strategy, Denton is assisted by Kate Lehman, president of the WSWA and Alana Hartmann of the WVDEP. Denton is a certified professional geologist and a West Virginia-licensed environmental remediation specialist, with over 35 years of professional scientific experience. He has worked in the Eastern Panhandle and Lower Shenandoah Valley regions for the past 16 years, and has acted as a hydrogeological consultant to the Morgan County Commission. He is a resident of Winchester, Va.