WATERSHED MANAGEMENT: COOPERATION AND COMPROMISE

Watershed management activities in Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville in the Piedmont Region of Virginia have been examined. In recent years these two localities have exhibited an unusual spirit of cooperation and compromise in protecting the area's water supplies. Creation of a unique position of Watershed Management Official, funded equally by both localities, was one of the first steps taken locally in recognizing that watershed management was a continuing process that required the coordination and integration of many diverse activities and recognizing that proper watershed management requires more than best management practices manuals and ordinances; it requires constant site investigations and surveillance of all watershed activities. Protection of existing water supplies is the major goal of watershed management; however, planning for additional and future needs has not been forgotten. Charlottesville and Albemarle County have again taken that necessary first step in planning for the future by providing the mechanism whereby land for a supplemental water supply impoundment and associated buffer area protection zone will be acquired in the near future even though the actual impoundment will not be needed for 20 or 30 years. The aspects and the degree of the cooperation and compromise needed for a successful watershed management program are examined.