ACCOMACK COUNTY SUPERVISORS NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR THEIR HYPOCRITICAL REMARKS REGARDING OUR DRINKING WATER SUPPLIES.
This Letter is special to the Mirror by Ken Dufty
During a recent meeting of the Accomack-Northampton Groundwater Committee (GWC), former Chairman and current Accomack County Supervisor Paul Muhly demanded a retraction from CBES regarding a recent article in CBES Shoreline Newsletter that concluded that the groundwater reserves in the Yorktown Aquifer (where 90% of our drinking water comes from on the Eastern Shore of Virginia) were not “sustainable”. This demand was echoed the following night by Accomack Supervisor Grayson Chesser at that board’s monthly meeting.
The refrain was broadcast by our esteemed local FM radio station WESR, fueling the fire that CBES had misinformed the public and must “set the record straight”. Note that at the very same GWC meeting, the Committee unanimously voted to give a groundwater excellence award to Senator Lewis and Delegate Bloxom (deservedly so) for promoting legislation that would encourage increased use of the shallow Columbia Aquifer due to fears that the Yorktown reserves were threatened.
To wit, the record reflects that all of the information that is in the files and on the table and being actively discussed at the monthly meetings of the GWC fully supports the author of the CBES monthly newsletter article. The very reason that this Groundwater Committee has been working on getting increased use of the surficial Columbia Aquifer is because they appear to believe that the Yorktown Aquifer which recharges at only a fraction of the rate of the shallower reserves is threatened by salt water intrusion from rising sea levels and over-pumping by the 250+ industrial poultry houses planned for Accomack County.
Indeed, because of declining reserves of fresh water both in Chincoteague and Cape Charles, those municipalities are reportedly considering expensive desalinization plants. It has been pointed out numerous times that the same warnings being made by CBES and others about the sustainability of groundwater reserves were similarly disparaged by elected leaders in Virginia Beach in the late ’70’s.
That smoke and mirror condemnation of the prevailing data resulted in that area running out of water just years later, triggering a half-billion dollar project to pump water from Lake Gaston (75 miles away) before economic development could resume.
Note we do not have a Lake Gaston to tap, as we are a sole-source aquifer recharged only by rain water-the vast majority of which bleeds to the Bay and Seaside before it can seep into the three lower Yorktown supplies.
The facts remain that CURRENT studies show that we use about 9 million gallons of drinking water from the Yorktown Aquifer daily and recharge from rain water is about equal to that number. But the projections are that once all of the Industrial Poultry houses come on line in our chicken-saturated county on the northern Virginia’s Eastern Shore, these facilities could suck anywhere from 1.1 to 3 million extra gallons each day from our Yorktown Aquifer. This tips the scale of sustainability, no matter how much fact-twisting is perpetrated upon us by elected officials who should know better.
So it is clearly Supervisors Muhly and Chesser who owe the Eastern Shore citizens an apology for spreading misinformation in an apparent attempt to appease the poultry industry (in my opinion) and for encouraging us all to “whistle past the graveyard” as we turn on our taps. Their statements on the sustainability of our lower groundwater reserves stand in direct contradiction to their near hysterical praise for legislation that will encourage more use of the Columbia and less on our limited Yorkton supplies, and contrast shaply with the committee’s flagship work for over a decade, causing us to ask “if there is no problem with the sustainability of the Yorktown Aquifer, why the drool over getting people off it?”.
4 thoughts on “Letter: Accomack Supervisors Need to Apologize for Remarks about Water Supplies”
Good Luck with this idea. These guys have harder heads than blocks of granite. They don’t open their minds to relevant information. They get 10% of the info they need and then decide, and gleefully lead us on their rudderless ship. We all need to learn that they simply know better than us. That’s how they’ve come across to me.
They model groundwater use based on permitted withdrawals, but most of the chicken houses have not yet obtained their permit so how can they claim to know water use is austainable?
All comments expressed above are exactly on point. Accomack County’s Supervisors are a rather narrow, loutish bunch. Apparently, their idea of the components of a prosperous county is a combination of (1) two large chicken plants (Robert Crockett calls them “anchor tenants”)., (2) numerous CAFOs owned primarily by non-residents and maintained by low-skilled workers, and (3) county government jobs, doled out as the Supervisors see fit. Somehow, this combination does not seem to be working. “For Sale” signs abound throughout the county. One impending consolation exists: After the next election, county residents won’t be plagued by Mr. Crockett’s yapping lapdog, Grayson Chesser, champion of an expanded poultry industry and thin-skinned opponent of all who question CAFO proliferation. Bye-bye, Mr. Chesser!
Good Luck with this idea. These guys have harder heads than blocks of granite. They don’t open their minds to relevant information. They get 10% of the info they need and then decide, and gleefully lead us on their rudderless ship. We all need to learn that they simply know better than us. That’s how they’ve come across to me.
The “supervisors” are the minions of the poultry industry. Bought and paid for…
They model groundwater use based on permitted withdrawals, but most of the chicken houses have not yet obtained their permit so how can they claim to know water use is austainable?
All comments expressed above are exactly on point. Accomack County’s Supervisors are a rather narrow, loutish bunch. Apparently, their idea of the components of a prosperous county is a combination of (1) two large chicken plants (Robert Crockett calls them “anchor tenants”)., (2) numerous CAFOs owned primarily by non-residents and maintained by low-skilled workers, and (3) county government jobs, doled out as the Supervisors see fit. Somehow, this combination does not seem to be working. “For Sale” signs abound throughout the county. One impending consolation exists: After the next election, county residents won’t be plagued by Mr. Crockett’s yapping lapdog, Grayson Chesser, champion of an expanded poultry industry and thin-skinned opponent of all who question CAFO proliferation. Bye-bye, Mr. Chesser!