A River Under Siege

An old kitchen sink is washed up on the bank of the Shenandoah River in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

Although the recent fish kills are disturbing, activists say the river is hardly as polluted as more urban ones.

"It's a river with a future," said Katherine Baer of American Rivers. "And it's important to restore it to full health."

To that end, activists say that local officials should pass ordinances aimed at controlling development, such as ones that encourage clustering houses and leaving open space that can absorb and filter rain that makes its way to creeks that feed the river. They should pass legislation protecting areas around creeks -- there isn't any right now -- and encouraging homeowners and farmers there to leave trees and other natural buffers.

And many small, cheap, uncontroversial steps could be taken as well, such as building "rain gardens" -- natural rain collection areas -- in lieu of concrete ditches to channel water, things that don't necessarily result in an epic struggle between government and developers, they say.

"We said to the developer, 'There's something else that we can do here,' " said Heather Richards of the Potomac Conservancy, referring to a rain garden built in Warren County recently. "And they said, 'Okay.' "

For now, the counties around the Shenandoah River remain rural, and officials have worked with farmers in recent years to curb pollution, although some officials concede they could do more on that front.

Down in Page County, Chris Anderson, the county environmental coordinator, pointed to a federal program that encourages cattle farmers to fence off streams on their property and plant 100-foot-wide buffers of trees.

"Unfortunately, in Page County, it has not been implemented as much as in other areas," she said, because farmers are worried that if the river washes the fences away, they will have to pay to replace them.

And when it comes to curbing development, she said, locals often raise the banner of property rights.

"We have to be aware of property rights. . . . There are fantastic ways to build using low-impact development principles, and we're at the point where we know these things exist," she said. "It's just making them happen."