Regarding the May 25 front page article, “Boy Scouts love this beautiful river. Locals say they're ruining it”:
Reading the Washington Post article about the sedimentation of the Maury River brought back memories of spending a decade of summers on its banks in the 1940s, when I was a camper and later a counselor at Camp Virginia, a private, all-male institution run by Malcolm U. Pitt, then athletic director at the University of Richmond. Camp Virginia was an eight-week camp that began in June and ended in mid-August. Located just upstream from its confluence with Little Calf Pasture, the site of the current sedimentation crisis, the camp was a collection of rustic cabins on the north bank of the Maury River, in an area with shallow rapids on either side and wide, open, deep, calm waters.
There were many activities at camp, but the river was the centerpiece. There was no running water at camp. Every morning we sprinted to the beach, jumped naked into the cold water, soaped ourselves up, and washed down the day's fatigue. Twice a day, after playing tennis, baseball, horseback riding, or other activities, we returned to the Maury River to refresh, swim, canoe, or fly fish. Several times each summer, we held competitive swimming meets and had a spectacular (at least we thought so) aquacade, where we invited the neighboring girls' camp to dazzle the community with synchronized swimming routines. One of my fondest memories is a canoe ride down the river before dawn, reaching the banks of the Maury River, where we filleted and fried the sunperch we had caught along the way.
Unlike tranquil Lake Meriwether, the Maury River taught us its ways. We waited for the swollen, muddy river water to clear and settle enough to swim in after heavy rains. During droughts, when the mountain stream that feeds the river slowed to a trickle, the river level dropped and we could see our diving rafts approaching. We also got to know our friends in the river: dragonflies darting about, bass and trout breaking the water's surface to hunt for insects, and a variety of snakes and small animals that lived in and around the river's current. The Maury River was more than just a neighbor; it was our friend.
I don’t begrudge the Boy Scouts their belief that a calm lake is the root cause of the silt problem, but I do regret that in that stability they cannot learn the ways of a living river and depend on its conditions for education and recreation.
I live on the Maury River just downstream from the dam featured in a recent Post article. The Scouts' actions have damaged the flow and water quality of the Maury River, negatively impacting the aquatic life that is the base of the river's food chain and essential to keeping the water clean. It is noteworthy that while the purpose of the dam is to create a lake that is closed to the public and used only by the Scout community in the summer, it impacts local people and wildlife communities year-round. While the article limited its discussion to how dam management could be improved, frankly, a better solution for our community would be to remove the dam altogether.
Matthew Keck, director of support services for the Boy Scouts' National Capital Area Council, says they are committed to protecting the local environment. But our experience has shown that's not the case. In addition to the amount of sediment the Boy Scouts dump into the river, their failure to manage the land has resulted in deep, dense infestations of invasive plants in adjacent natural areas, including Goshen Pass Nature Preserve, which contains biological treasures worthy of protection.
I have spent nearly a decade improving the riparian areas on my property with the twin goals of increasing wildlife habitat and reducing flood risk to my neighbors and myself, including spending countless hours removing invasive plants. Unfortunately, a constant influx of seeds from the Scout Reserve has rendered such efforts in vain.
I lived in Alexandria for over 20 years before I fell in love with the beauty of the area and bought an old, dilapidated home on the Maury River. Just up the road is Goshen Pass, one of the most amazing places in Virginia, and I encourage readers to visit and see why the people of this region treasure the Maury River so much.
Susan McLaughlin, Rockbridge, Virginia
Regarding the May 24th front page article in the Washington Post titled “Hidden Danger.”
A recent report in the Washington Post describes how rising sea levels will soon cause septic systems along the Southeast coast to fail, increasing the likelihood of human disease outbreaks, but this will be exacerbated by another unaddressed problem: the introduction of new waterborne diseases through ship ballast water discharges.
When ships take on water as ballast, including in ports contaminated with untreated human sewage, the water can become contaminated with pathogens and viruses. When these ships arrive at U.S. ports, they release these pathogens into coastal and freshwater bodies through ballast discharge.
Until recently, the country was expected to have public and private wastewater treatment systems that would prevent general outbreaks of boat-borne diseases. But as 180 environmental and public health groups wrote to President Biden in 2022, poor and minority communities with inadequate water treatment systems may still be at risk. Widespread expected septic failures in coastal states pose risks to a much wider range of communities.
We have already seen what happens when we fail to prevent the introduction of waterborne diseases through ballast discharge and fail to implement or maintain proper wastewater treatment. In 1991, a pandemic strain of cholera that originated in Asia traveled across the Pacific Ocean in ships' ballast water and emerged off the coast of Peru. In the absence of effective wastewater treatment, the disease spread throughout South America. Over one million people became ill and over 10,000 died.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 requires that ballast discharge be treated with the best available technology to prevent the release of human diseases into the waters of the U.S. Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency has steadfastly refused to set effluent standards that comply with this act.
In 1973, the EPA exempted ballast water discharges from regulation. After environmental groups sued, a federal district court ruled that the exemption was illegal.
By court order, the EPA set ballast discharge standards, but in 2015 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled those standards insufficient and illegal and ordered the EPA to enact new standards. After years of delays and further litigation, the EPA finally agreed to enact new standards later this year, but in apparent defiance of the court order, it is proposing to enact the same standards that the court rejected in 2015.
The threat posed by the spread of human diseases through ballast water is clear, the technology to prevent it exists, laws mandating its use have long existed and have been upheld by courts — all that is needed is for the responsible agencies to stop refusing to do their jobs.
Andrew Cohen, Richmond, California
Now that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has removed the very phrase “climate change” from many of the state's laws, perhaps the only solution to the proliferation of sewage fields made worse by rising sea levels is to borrow King Knut's best phrase and tell the oceans to stop rising. Failing that, Governor DeSantis may blame the rising water and sludge on woke people. Floridians deserve better than this.
Richard G. Little, Troy, New York
Larry Hogan is not a credible candidate for the U.S. Senate. The Republican says he wants to fix broken politics and fight for Maryland. But he says he won't vote for either Donald Trump or Biden, and he's not showing leadership. The source of the breakdown Hogan points to is Trump. Opposing both presidential candidates and their allies undermines his ability to fight for Maryland.
Hogan appears to be aligned with Biden on this issue, saying he decided to run because Republican senators followed Trump's lead and killed a bipartisan border bill, and he has quickly taken a strong pro-abortion stance, saying he supports Ukraine and not those who would deny the election results.
All of this puts Hogan on the side of Biden and the Senate Democrats. There is no future for anti-MAGA Republicans in the Senate — just look at the parade of such senators who have recently left the government — but he could align himself with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has said she's cut ties with Trump and might consider becoming an independent.
To demonstrate credibility and a higher level of integrity, Hogan should run as an Independent Republican, supporting President Biden, declaring independence and vowing to meet with Senate Democrats until the Republican Party finds new leadership that is in line with his traditional Republican values.
Democrat Angela D. Alsobrooks is a very strong candidate and Hogan lacks real leadership and credibility, so he will likely lose anyway, but if Hogan takes steps to gain credibility he will have a better chance and be able to hold his own.
Pete Crosland, Takoma Park
