About the Potomac Watershed Roundtable

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The Potomac Watershed Roundtable is a regional government-citizen forum whose purpose is to promote collaboration and cooperation on environmental concerns, especially water quality issues, among the various local governments and stakeholder interest groups residing within the Virginia side of the middle and lower Potomac River watershed.

Topics on which the Roundtable has shared information and collaborated on responses and solutions have included the Potomac Tributary Strategies, nonpoint source pollution, water quantity and quality, nutrients, and stormwater management. A committee of the Roundtable, assisted by staff from member jurisdictions, prepared a white paper on recommendations for improvements in state erosion and sediment control and stormwater management programs, and presented it to the General Assembly's Commission on the Future of Virginia's Environment. The Nutrients Committee organized a conference and tour on the pelletization and application of biosolids. The Roundtable has made recommendations to the state on nutrient cap strategies for improving impaired waterways in the region and to the EPA on Total Maximum Daily Load plans for the Chesapeake Bay. Prior to the current session of the General Assembly, the Roundtable adopted the Legislative Committee’s recommendations and sent letters to state legislators regarding the use of the Water Quality Improvement Fund, wetlands preservation and protection laws, and improvements in fertilizer labeling.

Information sharing is an important component of the Roundtable meetings. Members learn about local strategies and programs throughout the region that address water quality issues. At each Roundtable meeting, members are encouraged to bring to the table issues of local and regional importance. The Roundtable has been a partner in three successful Potomac Forums, which brought together people from throughout the region to focus on problems and solutions for improved water quality and natural resource management. A fourth Forum is planned for August 2005: Working Together to Protect Water Quality—Tools and Techniques.

The approximately 40 members of the Roundtable include elected officials from counties, cities, towns and soil and water conservation districts in the middle and lower Potomac Basin, as well as representatives from regional planning commissions and water utilities, and agricultural, environmental, boating and fishing, and business interests. (The region includes the counties of Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax, Arlington, Stafford, King George, Westmoreland, and Northumberland.) Members and their alternates are chosen by their respective jurisdictions and organizations to serve for three-year terms. Those jurisdictions and organizations that appointed representatives for the initial term beginning in January 2001, appointed, or reappoint, their members and alternates for the term that began in January 2004.

The Roundtable was launched in the fall of 2000, at the conclusion of Potomac Forum I, by the six soil and water conservation districts in the region. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation provided initial funding and assistance. Ten state and federal agencies assist the Roundtable as non-voting members.

The Roundtable meets four times a year at sites throughout the region. The current Chair is Fairfax County Supervisor Penny Gross. Prince William County Supervisor Marty Nohe is 1nd Vice Chair and Fauquier County Supervisor Harry Atherton is the 2nd Vice Chair. The Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District (703-324-1460) provides financial management and administrative support for the Roundtable.

-- January 2005