Friends is celebrating a wonderful Fish Fry

that will help our organization continue to

monitor, educate and advocate for the protection

of the North Fork!

s to our bench crafters and

artists; our sponsors;

auction donors; to Joe Foltz- our amazing

auctioneer; Shaffers for wonderful food; great music by Sweet T,

and all Fish Fry committee members.

Sp s • Pat Koch at PJ Designs, • King Street Art Group, • The Art Group in ! Mt. Jackson and• Ft. Valley Nursery for

displaying the beautifully decorated benches.

O s A s:

Bench Crafters and Artists Bench Crafters: John Coleman & Dennis Fowler. Artists: Linda Anderson, Donna Bean,

Beth Carmain, Paula Dailey and Terry Fogle, Diane Gould and Steve Sober, Dotty Dengler, Ellen Halsey, Kary Dengler Haun, Wolfgang Neudorfer, Sansara Murphy, Cary Sober,  Laurel Vaughn, Sally and Tori Veach, Bobbi Walker, Susie Wilburn

Corporate Gold: Shentel Corporate Silver:!

• Carlson Plumbing, Inc.• Virginia Savings Bank"

Business Silver:!• F D Neal Construction, • PJ Designs • Shenandoah Animal Hospital• Doug Veach at State Farm

Insurance • Woodstock Cafe"

Business Sponsors:"•  C. E. Thompson and Sons•  Wightman Insurance

Friends’ 2010 Fish Fry Fundraiser is a Grand Success!

Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River

NOVEMBER 2010 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 3

Thank You to ALL who came and supported our Fish Fry Fundraiser on

October 9th!

Please Don’t Flush the

River!

North Fork Exploration For Teachers 2011Friends is planning another teacher workshop session!

DRINKING WATER

I N F O

C L I C K H E R E

Our mission is to protect and enhance the purity, beauty and natural flow of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River

Board MembersRon Falyar, President

Kim Uhl, Vice PresidentApril Moore, SecretaryGary Proctor, Treasurer

Mary Gessner, Barbara Halvorson, John Holmes, Margaret Lorenz, Gayle Shaffer

C &Bs Sp

A s 2010 Sp

River OttersLinda Murphy & Russ AdamsDon AlbrightBill & Judy BuechnerJack & Joan ChapmanJoan Comanor & Tony DorrellDavid! EvansJames & Annette FitzsimmonsLeslie & Alan WatsonBill HamiltonDiane & George GouldWarren & Barbara HalvorsonPotomac ConservancySean & Melissa LankardMelissa NelsonBruce !HattonLee & Toni JetteSuzie & Ed KollerSusan & Bill LaneMary & John McKennaDiane! McReeJerry & Susan MitchellJohn & Mary ModoloSuzanne MontgomeryBrenda RawlingBabette SmithJan & Roy SommerfeldtDave & Karen TimerSara Garland & Kim UhlJan & Kevin WhalenHerb & Susie WilburnTim & Karen CarterWendy & Steve PieperDavid Davis & JoAnn Mills

Great Blue HeronsBill & Judy BeaversAnn Warshauer & Frank ChilarBob & Elaine ClineBill GrilloMary Gessner & Bud GriswoldJay Eiche & Tanya HarveyLynne Crumpacker & Ted MillerGeorge OhrstromJeanne Teller & Robert ZimmermanBobbie & Bob Kranich

Smallmouth BassJohn HolmesBeverly & Charles Veatch

Largemouth BassPaula & Brian Dailey

North Fork Exploration for Teachers planned for 2011

Summer Rain Barrel Workshops had a

Great Turnout in New Market

We had 14 participants in our

rain barrel workshop on

September 8th in New Market. A

special thanks to Mick Ritchie, New

Marketʼs Public Works Director and

Ron Falyar for drilling all of the

holes and helping everyone learn how

to install the hardware at our last rain barrel

workshop for the year. This workshop was

another great partnership opportunity for Friends. We worked

closely with Mike to bring a workshop to the

southern end of the watershed.

The excitement surrounding our 2010 North Fork

Exploration was palpable so Friends is planning and seeking funding to run a second 4 day teacher ʼs workshop in 2011.

After a highly successful event this summer, we want to again provide an opportunity for local teachers to learn about our river and how we affect it. They can ten take the i r know ledge back to the classroom and integrate this with their classroom needs. We also hope to fund a week long student oriented watershed experience. Watch for more information, or contact the office at 540-459-8550 for an application

A New Education Model to be built by Local Students at PMMS

Mike Ritchie, New Market Public Works Director helping with rain barrel duties.

the Shenandoah County Association for Family and Community Education donated the funding needed to build a new education model for Friends of the North Fork. The model will show how septic systems work and how to properly maintain them to protect rivers and groundwater from pollution. Derek Ritenour, agriculture teacher at Peter Muhlenburg Middle School and his students will build the model. Mr. Ritenourʼs students also built 29 rain barrels for Friends last spring as part of the Big Give Community Service Day. These barrels are being sold as a fundraiser for Friends at Natural Art Garden Center in Toms Brook. s L Pps!

I O,

Drug Take Back Day Huge Success

A deputy and a participant at the Friends display on the Drug Take Back Day

North Fork News

STATE BOARD APPROVES USE OF SEWAGE SLUDGE AS

FERTILIZER IN NORTH FORK WATERSHED DESPITE

CONTINUED AND UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

! The Virginia Water Control Board recently approved!the first ever permit to apply ! out of state! sewage sludge in Shenandoah County. Sewage sludge can now be applied to 640 acres of farmland near the North Fork of the Shenandoah River in Shenandoah County. Although they are called “biosolids”, these materials are what remains after municipal sewage is treated to control pathogens, odor and a few! heavy metals. Because they are not tested for most common pollutants, we really have!no idea how many contaminants these materials contain. What we do know is that! many household contaminants end up in! the river, presumably after!passing through conventional sewage treatment plants untreated.!   !Continued on back page...

Friends Partners with Shenandoah County Sheriff ’s Office for

Hugely Successful Drug Take Back Day!

Friends Partnered with Sheriff Tim Carterʼs office and representatives for the Drug Enforcement Agency in order to bring a National Drug Take Back opportunity to Shenandoah County and t h e F o r t h F o r k w a t e r s h e d o n September 25, 2010. This was an opportunity to dispose of old and unused pharmaceuticals of any type in an anonymous, no q u e s t i o n s a s k e d , atmosphere. More than 60 people participated and more than 70 lbs of drugs were collected.We are extremely excited to have participated in this effort and hope to work with the Sheriffʼs office to make these take back opportunities a regular and much more frequent occurrence. We are also pleased to report that a number of local pharmacies in the watershed have take back programs as well, however,

p l e a s e r e m e m b e r t h a t t h e s e pharmacies can only take back non-controlled substances.

Historically, the public has been urged to dispose of unused or expired drugs down the toilet.

Please Do Not Do This! Drugs flushed down the toilet end up in our drinking water, especially for those of us drinking municipal water in many towns throughout the watershed. We do not know at this point how these drugs (including hormones, anti-

depressants, caffein, etc.) alone or in combination ( syne rg i s t i ca l l y ) , a re affecting fish, other aquatic life or humans, but we are seeing the results of water pollution in fish kills and fish displaying intersex traits. Friends recent ly completed a drinking water campaign a l e r t i n g w a t e r s h e d

residents to our concerns and we are partnering with Potomac Conservancy in an effort to encourage legislation to better understand the human effects of the substances and to develop strategies for keeping them out of our rivers and streams.

P l e a s e D o n ’ t F l u s h

t h e R i v e r !

STATE BOARD APPROVES USE OF SEWAGE SLUDGE AS FERTILIZER IN NORTH FORK WATERSHED DESPITE

CONTINUED AND UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

From page 3

Help Friends Continue to Protect the North Fork

Please remember Friends of the North Fork and our River Protection Efforts with a tax deductible end of the year

donation. Your contribution will help us do the following:

$250 - canoe trip for 18 teacher participants in our 2011 North

Fork Exploration!

$150 - supports 15 E. Coli (bacteria) analyses

$50 - funds one monitoring kit for a new volunteer water

monitor.

Executive Director Leslie Watson and several of our members joined

a delegation including the Shenandoah County Administrator, the Chair of the Shenandoah County Water Resources A d v i s o r y C o m m i t t e e a n d t h e Shenandoah Riverkeeper that traveled to Richmond to testify against this p e r m i t . D e s p i t e c o n s i d e r a b l e uncertainty regarding the safety of these materials and much local opposition to their use, The Water Control Board approved the permit.

Thanks to all our members who sent their comments or spoke at the public hearing in Woodstock on July 6, 2010. Although it seems they were ignored by theState Water Control Board, those comments are in the

public record and may be useful in future efforts to limit the use of sewage sludge in our porous karst geology and on the floodplains of the North Fork.

Our next challenge is to push for the revision of state regulations controlling the use of biosolids so that future permit requests are held to a higher standard regarding protection of our valuable water resources and human health.

Thanks to everyone who took the time, multiple times, to submit written

or oral comments on this issue. We will NEED YOUR SUPPORT AGAIN as

we address the revised regulations currently sitting on Governor

McDonnell’s desk.

FNFSRPO Box 746 Woodstock, VA 22664

Friends of the North Fork Membership Formname:__________________________________________________ Address:_______________________________________________ City:________________________State:________Zip__________ Phone____________-_____________-_________________ Email__________________________________________________

z Please contact me aboutvolunteering for Friends

Checks may be made out to FNFSR Our Address is PO BOX 746,Woodstock, VA 22664

Join Us!zStudent: $20zBasic Annual Membership: $35zSupporter: $60zAlly: $100zAdvocate: $250zOther:

Visit us at our website www.FNFSR.org Call us at 540-459-8550 or Email us at friends@shentel.net

  !  ! !   StaffLeslie Mitchell-Watson,! Executive Director leslie.watson@fnfsr.org

Cindy Frenzel, Education CoordinatorCindy.frenzel@fnfsr.org