Elks Run Designated Impaired by Fecal Coliform

[Willis]

Jefferson stream declared impaired by fecal bacteria

By John McVey|Journal staff writer

MARTINSBURG - Elks Run in Jefferson County has been designated an impaired stream for fecal coli, which means too much human and animal waste is getting into the approximately 8-mile-long waterway.


"Fecal coli comes from various sources - septic systems, agriculture, wildlife," Suzy Lucas, West Virginia Conservation Agency conservation specialist, said in a telephone interview Monday.


WVCA has received a U.S. Environmental Protection Grant to address the fecal coli coming from septic systems, she said. The grant helps homeowners upgrade or repair their septic systems to reduce the amount of fecal coli getting into Elks Run, which runs into the Potomac River and is the main water source for the towns of Bolivar and Harpers Ferry....

Read more HERE

[Tony]

Elks Run was declared impaired by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in 2008.

I don't see anything in the story indicating why this was recently printed. It's a 4 year old story with apparently no new news. Maybe the grant is new, but it doesn't say that. In fact it seems to imply that broken septic systems are a rarity, so even if they fixed all of them tomorrow it wouldn't lower the poop content a lot.

So people in Bolivar may have been using poopy water for a few years. It doesn't seem to have hurt them any. But it may explain that smell on their clothes!