Tom Botkins, the owner of land on both sides of Cedar Creek, presented his concerns about pollution to the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors at its regular meeting on Tues., Feb. 7.
Botkins was in charge of everything environmental at WestRock during his career with the paper mill, and he served on many boards concerning environmental issues prior to his retirement.
His concern is that the “Jackson River Trail Project 5” construction work is not being completed with the proper modern technologies for which the original construction plan included.
Due to the construction company deviating from the technologies in the original plan, Botkins questions the validity of the 100-year-flood-plan-study that found that the project would not exceed the rise of one foot of water (the peak for what is permitted to allow a project to be approved).
Following his presentation to the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors, Botkins shared a letter from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) located in Roanoke that warned the construction company that it was not in compliance after a DEQ inspection took place in Jan.
The DEQ gave the construction company a timeframe to make corrections prior to another visit.
On Feb. 7, County Administrator Reid Walters issued the following statement concerning the “Cedar Creek: Jackson River Trail Phase 5” project: “Alleghany County has a contracted engineering firm with over 50 years of experience working within the Commonwealth of Virginia leading the project, a licensed contractor who has built trails throughout the region, and proper permitting from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of the trail. The build-out of the trail is being conducted professionally and properly.”
In a letter from the DEQ to Alleghany County dated Feb. 14, 2023, the DEQ directed Alleghany County to conduct its own oversight of the project in order to bring into compliance three items that the DEQ identified during its most recent visit to the site at Cedar Creek.
One of the three items cited was that the project lacks a plan to prevent pollution.
The DEQ has directed Alleghany County to bring the project into compliance and report back to the DEQ after the corrections are made.
When asked about the DEQ directive for Alleghany County “…to bring the project into compliance,” Walters declined to comment beyond his official report released on Feb. 7.
He did reveal that because only about a quarter of a mile of the trailhead in question lies in Alleghany County while the greater length of it is located in Bath County that the DEQ in Harrisonburg is addressing the situation rather than the DEQ in Roanoke and that Alleghany County is now in complete compliance.
The Jackson River Scenic Trial Phase 5 recently experienced a mild setback when high water-covered sandbags being used at the job site.
Botkins said that the project got shut down in the beginning for several months by the DEQ out of Roanoke due to Alleghany County not having the appropriate permits.
After Botkins alerted Chad Williams, head of Alleghany County Parks and Recreation, that the permits that Alleghany County had in place at the time were not sufficient, Williams “respectfully disagreed.”
Botkins contacted the DEQ in Roanoke, and after several weeks of reviewing the situation, the DEQ management and the Attorney General’s office decided to shutdown the project until appropriate permitting was in place.
The old railroad bed that is being converted into the Jackson River Scenic Trial continues to present a number of problems concerning pollution, creosote in railroad ties, coal ash and cinders potentially containing lead, mercury and arsenic.
Additionally, Cedar Creek is a trout stream, and there are restrictions concerning trout stream waters in Virginia.
Botkins questions whether or not the construction company hired to compete the project has enough experience in “stream bank restoration.”
Concerning project changes, Botkins concluded, “They put something in that they didn’t model.”
Walters believes that the construction company hired is doing a good job and that the project will benefit Alleghany County and Bath County greatly.
