Have questions about Totier Creek Watershed? This is a good place to start.
The Totier Creek is the lifeblood of Scottsville, or more precisely, it is its life water. The town of Scottsville pulls its water directly from the creek, where it then undergoes treatment before flowing into the homes and businesses of the historic town. But the creek is so much more than one town’s drinking water supply. It is a whole ecosystem that supports wildlife habitat and a thriving tourist economy. Anyone who has ever traveled to Scottsville for its epic 4th of July fireworks or filled up water bottles before a day of tubing the James has directly benefited from the abundance of Totier Creek.
At the Totier Creek Reservoir Park, visitors can launch their boats and cruise the 69-acre lake, or hike three miles of shade-lined trails. There they might spy river otters frolicking in the cascades where the creek tumbles over a rocky outcrop on its way to meet the James River, or glimpse kingfishers zooming across the reservoirs in search of a fishy supper. Downstream, Scottsville’s famous batteau-men occasionally nose up into the Totier Creek tailwaters for a quiet moment during their sunset cruises on the James.
Prior to TCWA’s creation, there was no advocacy devoted specifically to this beautiful water system, which encompasses 29 square miles of the southernmost tip of Albemarle County. While most of the County drains into the Rivanna River, and therefore benefits from the tremendous advocacy of the Rivanna Conservation Alliance, Totier Creek is its own watershed. With the arrival of a factory farm in the Totier Creek Water Supply Protection Area, concerned members of our community decided it was time to raise the profile of this small but mighty watershed.
Totier Creek Watershed is indeed a designated “Water Supply Protection Area” due to its role as the direct source of Scottsville’s drinking water. In theory, this area should enjoy special protections due to this status.
Unfortunately the moniker is misleading because all types of agriculture are exempt from complying with these protective measures. CAFO operators may open and operate factory farms within the drinking water supply area, biosolids or sewage sludge may be spread here on farm and timberland, and stream buffers may be entirely removed for crop farming and fertilizer spreading.
While the Water Supply Protection Area designation does protect riparian buffers when it comes to development — great news for other Albemarle water supplies characterized by more development — the Totier Creek Watershed is mostly zoned “rural” (i.e., not zoned for development or commercial uses) and is predominantly agricultural. This means that the sector with the biggest effect on water quality in our region, agriculture, is exempt from complying with special drinking water protections.
As a result, the Totier Creek “Water Supply Protection Area” is almost entirely without utility or teeth. Hence the need for a watershed association dedicated solely to Totier Creek — to draw attention to these gaps in our region’s clean water efforts.
A CAFO, or “confined animal feeding operation,” is a factory farm where tens of thousands of animals are confined without access to open air or pasture. There is currently one CAFO operating in Albemarle County, established in 2023. It is located within the Totier Creek Water Supply Protection Area.
Biosolids, also known as sewage sludge, are the treated byproducts from wastewater treatment plants used as inexpensive fertilizer on farmland across the United States. While many rural communities have long raised concerns about heavy metals and other contaminants found in biosolids, we are now learning about the presence of so-called “forever chemicals” in them as well. Forever chemicals, known formally as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, can contaminate soil, water, and air, and have been linked to various cancers and fertility issues in humans.
Thousands of acres have been spread with biosolids across Albemarle County, with the greatest concentration occurring in the southern part of the county. While the municipal drinking water in Scottsville is filtered to remove these harmful substances, private well water may be susceptible to PFAS-contamination from biosolids usage.
While cattle relieving themselves in surface water is a pollution issue, their impact pales in comparison to the sheer volume and toxicity of CAFO pollution, where the effluent of tens of thousands of animals can run off and contaminate surface water. They can oversaturate the soil and leach into ground water.
That said, there are several cost-share programs in our area that offer livestock exclusion fencing and alternative watering options. These programs are terrific for pastured livestock operations, but do not address the pollution from the vast amounts of waste generated by CAFOs.
