Potomac Watershed
General Information about the Potomac Watershed
Public Health Advisories and Aquatic Life Concerns
General Information about the Potomac Watershed (From September 2006 305(b) Report, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality)
The Potomac River Subbasin headwaters begin in Highland County. The drainage area is 323 square miles for the headwaters. The river then flows in a northeasterly direction through West Virginia and Maryland before joining the Shenandoah at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The Potomac continues as the border between Maryland and Virginia. These waters flow in a southeasterly direction through Loudoun and Fauquier Counties to eventually less than one mile in Westmoreland County. Approximately 2, 821 of the 14,700 square miles of the Potomac River Subbasin drainage area lie in Virginia. The rest covers four states and the District of Columbia. Gently sloping hills and valleys from Harpers Ferry to approximately 45 miles down river characterize the topography of the upper Piedmont region of the Potomac River Subbasin. In the central Piedmont area, the profile is rather flat until it nears the fall line at Great Falls, where the stream elevation rapidly descends from over 200 feet to sea level. Tributaries in the central Piedmont exhibit moderate and near constant profiles. Their flat slope largely characterizes streams in the Coastal Plain area.
Public Health Advisories and Aquatic Life Concerns (From September 2006 305(b) Report, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality)
| Potomac River | PCB | From Woodrow Wilson Bridge to Bent Point at the mouth of Aquia Creek | Health Advisory for Fish Consumption: Channel catfish larger than 18" caught in the tidal areas in several tributaries flowing into the Potomac near Quantico may pose a potential public health risk. Contact your local health department for more information |
| Potomac River tributaries | PCB |
tributaries to the Potomac River between the VA/MD state line near Rt. 340 downstream to the I395 bridge in Arlington: Goose Creek up to the Dulles Greenway Road bridge, Broad Run up to Rt. 625, Difficult Run up to Rt. 7, and Pimmit Run up to Rt. 309.
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The advisory applies to American eel and recommends eating no more than two meals a month. Pregnant women and children are advised not to eat any of these fish.
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Four Mile Run, Hunting Creek, Little Hunting Creek, Pohick Creek, Accotink Creek, Occoquan River, Neabsco Creek, Powell Creek, Quantico Creek, Chopawamsic Creek, Aquia Creek, and Potomac Creek |
PCB |
The advisory recommends no consumption of carp or channel catfish >18 inches and limiting consumption to no more then two meals a month of channel catfish <18 inches, American eel, bullhead catfish, largemouth bass, anadromous striped bass, sunfish species,smallmouth bass, white catfish, white perch, gizzard shad, or yellow perch. Pregnant women and children are advised not to eat any of these fish.
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Upper Machodoc Creek, Monroe Creek, and Coan River |
PCB |
The advisory recommends eating no more than two meals a month of gizzard shad, white perch, and channel catfish from these waters. Pregnant women and children are advised not to eat any of these fish. |
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| Indian Creek | PCB |
no more then two meals a month of creek chub. Pregnant women and children are advised not to eat any of these fish. |
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| Bull Run | PCB |
from the I66 bridge downstream to the Rt. 612 bridge |
not eating more than two meals a month of channel catfish or carp. Pregnant women and children are advised not to eat any of these fish. |
If your group is active in this watershed and you would like your information posted (contact person, activities, sites you monitor, stories, etc), please e-mail Stacey Brown at stacey at vasos.org or call (804) 615-5036.
Northern
Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District
contact:
Joanna
Cornell
(703) 324-1425
Goose Creek Assocation
contact:
Hazle Edens
Use the link above to take you to the VA SOS Monitoring Results Page.
For older data sets
or different data format (such as an excel spreadsheet) please contact Stacey Brown at stacey at vasos.org
or (804) 615-5036
If you collected data through 2001 and you can't find it here,
please contact Stacey Brown at stacey at vasos.org
or (804) 615-5036.