Water quality in the Maury can be improved. We’re working with others to make it happen.

A series of meetings is underway to find common ground for the creation of a lake management plan that could take effect before the earliest summer campers arrive at Goshen Scout Reservation in 2025.

Success with such a plan would go a long way toward reducing the outflows of sediment from Lake Merriweather and upstream contributors that have steadily lowered the water quality in the Little Calfpasture and Maury rivers going back at least as far as 1996. 

Lower water quality threatens the survival of aquatic life. And it impairs the Maury River for recreational uses—fishing, swimming, boating and more—and what they mean to quality of life for Rockbridge residents and visitors.

Science says it can work

Development of the lake management plan now under discussion was recommended in 2018 and again in 2023 in scientific studies of Merriweather’s role in the sediment problem conducted for Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

Key goals for the plan are:

1. Shorten the length of time allowed for lake lowering each year.

2. Decrease the depth to which the lake is lowered.

If they will hit these two goals and add some erosion control it is believed that Merriweather’s owner—National Capital Area Council of Scouting America (formerly BSA)—can reduce sediment outflows from the lake to the amount called for in DEQ’s 2010 Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) calculation.

Collective effort is making it happen

DEQ organized the series of collaborative stakeholder meetings we are now participating in. A professional team from UVA’s Institute of Engagement & Negotiation facilitates the meetings.

The Scout Council and Maury River Alliance are each sending a three-person delegation. DEQ, Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR), the Rockbridge County government, Maury Service Authority, Trout Unlimited, and local residents are also represented.

The Scout Council is responsible to write the plan, incorporating consensus input from all participating stakeholders.

Your voice is more important than ever

We need more voices to keep this initiative moving forward.

• Please tell others about Maury River Alliance. Ask them to visit mauryriveralliance.org and add their voices too.

• Subscribe to our mailings if you haven’t done so already. (There’s a handy Subscribe form below.)

Please accept our thanks and appreciation for supporting MRA and Rockbridge Conservation.