Washed away

Certain portions of Henrico County were built on flood plains – that’s not old news, and there’s no tangible evidence that it happened by design.

But correcting the issues related to stormwater runoff in the county – specifically in residential areas – has proven to be an ongoing challenge for county officials. And for one Henrico family, it has been a heavyweight fight.

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Sylvia Wright, a fifth-generation county resident, lives on the Lakeview Farms land off Hungary Road in western Henrico that has been in her family for more than 180 years.

“A grandfather homesteaded the area in 1838,” Wright recently told the Citizen. “Four of five of my children reside in the community with me, including their children – they are the seventh generation.”

Since the 1980s, more than 200 acres of land have been developed surrounding the site, which contains a water retention pond known as the Hoehns Creek Reservoir. One of the byproducts of increased economic development was that the potential for more stormwater runoff increased in the area.

But no additional retention ponds were added during the new development, and that created an environmental imbalance for Wright’s property. As the years have passed, sand and other materials – some hazardous – have run into the water retention system, creating unnatural sandbars in the waterway. The imbalance also has created an increased potential for flooding during particularly damaging rainfall.

Wright estimated that the retention pond and its reservoir have diminished in size from 8 acres to 6 acres.

“The functionality of this reservoir is rapidly diminishing,” she explained.

Her concerns about environmental issues began to increase after each rainfall.

“We got all kinds of trash and debris,” she said.

In recent years, Wright has been exhausting a variety of efforts in an attempt to have the problem corrected. She’s contacted Henrico County and members of the Board of Supervisors; the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality; the Environmental Protection Agency, state senators and other legislative agencies, as well as former Seventh District Congressman Dave Brat and current Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, among others.

But navigating the trail of local, state and federal guidelines that relate to her problem – and determining which level of government might be responsible for fixing her retention pond – has been a constant pursuit. And for Wright, at times it seemed like a game of pass-the-buck.

To wit, the situation appears to fall under the umbrella of:

• the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (established in 1948, later expanded in 1972 and now known as the Clean Water Act), which makes it “unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters;”

• the Chesapeake Bay Program (a regional partnership established in 1983 to protect and preserve a 524-mile stretch of land between Cooperstown, New York and Norfolk that feeds into the massive waterway), which governs certain aspects of the streams, creeks, tributaries, ponds, and other bodies of water in the Richmond region, including Henrico County, that ultimately feed into the bay;

• the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (established in 2014 as a requirement for Virginia localities to regulate the discharge of pollutants; the program also provides guidelines for stormwater-runoff improvements, including stream restorations, stream cleanings and BMPs, or best management practices);

And, while many agencies had something to say, in Wright’s case, they all had nothing to do, as well.

“We need to view our rivers, streams and creeks just like our road systems,” she said. “You need drainage. Some people think, ‘Oh, that’s just her problem.’

“No, it’s not.”

'We expect to be working on this for years to come'
Prior to 1980, there were few rules to prevent home construction next to streams or wetlands, Henrico Deputy County Manager for Community Operations Steve Yob told the Citizen.

But since then, state and federal agencies such as the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have enacted strict rules to prevent building in wet areas. These rules have become increasingly stricter as new requirements are added every few years by the agencies.

But the standards came too late for a number of flood-prone properties and those with drainage concerns in Henrico – about 7,000 locations that include 1,200 homes built in floodplains (something no longer permitted), Yob said.

Correcting this problem is a significant effort that will take many years and significant investment, he said. To date, the county has restored or will restore floodplains on more than four miles or county streams, reducing pollution and erosion of 500 tons of soil from stream banks each year, Yob said. It also has increased the size of storm pipes and made strategic land purchases in flood-prone areas.

“These programs will continue, and we expect to be working on this for years to come,” Yob said.

Funding for more of those land purchases – originally planned through Henrico’s Department of Community Revitalization in the current Fiscal Year 2021 budget – would have helped transform properties within waterlogged neighborhoods into mitigation sites to alleviate flooding and runoff issues for the surrounding homes.

But that money was among the $99 million cut from the county’s proposed budget in March in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, just days before it was to be formally considered by the Henrico Board of Supervisors.

Some of the funding may return to the budget before the current fiscal year ends June 30, however, because officials are budgeting on a quarterly basis, and economic conditions never got as bad in the county as they had feared – meaning Henrico has retained more tax dollars than expected.

“What that means is that you will see the drainage money coming back,” Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas told the Citizen.

Similar land-purchasing efforts have worked in the Crestview area, but they’re not cheap, he said.

“The homes in Crestview could not be developed due to EPA regulations now,” he explained. “Water knows no boundaries.”

One project near the top of the county’s list will remove silt from a Woodman Road lake. Though he classified stormwater runoff as a statewide issue to the Citizen, Vithoulkas vowed that the county would continue to address the issue of flooding in a significant way in the coming years.

Wright’s campaign to save her retention pond and reservoir put her in contact with many area legislators. As her problem grew, so did her own personal political Rolodex. She said state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant (R-12th District) helped by getting more drainage pipes put into the area near her neighborhood.

She felt she found an ally at the federal level in Brat, who surveyed her land with her and agreed that there was an environmental issue at hand. But, she said Spanberger has not shown the same attention since defeating Brat two years ago.

“She had zero interest in it,” Wright said.

A spokesperson from Spanberger’s office told the Citizen that while the issue was significant, it is a local one, not a federal one.

In a statement, Spanberger’s office wrote: “The ongoing stormwater and runoff events in the area are no doubt an issue. Rep. Spanberger’s district office has worked directly with constituents in attempts to rectify this issue — including through communications with federal, state, and local agencies to bring attention to their concerns. Just as the agency had previously said to the prior congressional office, the EPA directed concerns back to the county level, as this drainage issue falls under its jurisdiction. As far as specific constituent cases, our office does not publicly discuss details due to privacy concerns.”

Locally, Wright credited Brookland Supervisor Dan Schmitt for being an early and consistent ally, but lamented that he needed more help.

“He’s only one person,” she explained. “There are four other (supervisors) to convince. They should all be involved.”

Finding a solution
Those who live in places like Sandston, Tuckahoe and Northern Henrico (near the Richmond Raceway) may be in the same boat as Wright. Many neighborhoods in those areas were built on floodplains, too.

Sandston is particularly flat; Tuckahoe has more streams and creeks than anywhere else in the county; and Northern Henrico is affected by the wetlands associated with the Chickahominy River.

As Vithoulkas pointed out, federal development regulations have become more strict. And, he predicts that that trend will continue. Successful projects like the widening of waterways at Hungary Creek Middle School serve as the model of what he hopes the county can accomplish in the coming years.

Recently, at Schmitt’s request, Vithoulkas surveyed the Hoehns Creek Reservoir in person.

“This county is so well run and managed that sometimes it is super easy to serve as that conduit for residents,” Schmitt said. “Some projects, however, like this particular one, have multiple complexities and involve more time, energy and people.

“The real proof is in the response I got from the manager when I brought the issue [and a similar one] to his attention. He stood up from the table and said, ‘Let's go see them.’ I said ‘Sure, when?’ He said ‘Now.’”

Afterwards, Vithoulkas said changes will be forthcoming.

“Funding has not been approved [for her property], but my hope is that it will within six months,” he said.

Wright remains cautiously optimistic and thankful for her political allies.

“Dan and I thought the only way anyone was going to grasp the fact an eco-crisis is occurring was to see it firsthand.”

Wright had asked Virginia DEQ officials to visit her property, but said one official refused to do so, since the DEQ had previously concluded that the area was bypassed by county stormwater and was not regulated.

In fact, Wright said, the affected land actually is a Chesapeake Bay preservation area and subject to the federal Clean Water Act.

“I give full credit to Senator Dunnavant and my representative Dan Schmitt for finally breaking through the barrier of a governmental denial. Simply put, the area is what it is, an eco-crisis is occurring, and every storm event is downstream depositing excessive soil and water. So, I am hopeful the focus will now be an analysis of this situation, identification of viable solutions and implementation of such strategies to provide relief for all affected properties.”

For Schmitt, situations like Wright’s are what prompted him to seek office.

“The fact is, that's exactly why I ran for this position to begin with,” he explained.  “It's the job of the district representative to advocate for his/her residents.  I work for them and, quite frankly, it's the best part of this role to talk with/hear from residents and then work hard to try to help them solve issues they face on a daily basis, across all county departments.”

In an email to the Citizen, Dunnavant said she was pleased by the county’s plans for Wright’s property.

“It's promising to hear that Sylvia is finally experiencing some relief in her ongoing troubles with Hoehns Creek Reservoir,” she wrote. “After months of seeking clarification from the federal EPA and state DEQ, I'm excited to see that the problem may be solved by those right here in Henrico County.”