As more development comes to Loudoun, a few things are being lost that are outlined in the Loudoun Environmental Indicators Project (LEIP) 2002 report.
"I was a little surprised at the rapid rate of consumption of open land," said Dorn McGrath Jr., principal investigator for the five-year project, a partnership between George Washington University (GWU) and the county established in 1999. "It's slowed down a little bit during the economic recession. Much of the land had been exposed, but the building had not gone forward because of the recession."
The county lost 11 acres a day of forest cover in 2001 and now is losing about five to 10 acres a day, said McGrath, director of the Institute for Urban Environmental Research at GWU.
LEIP team members collected, analyzed and interpreted data regarding the environmental changes to the county's forests and to water and air quality brought about by urbanization. The county's mapping office provided LEIP with a base of information on the county's streams, roads, soils, topography and geology.
"What I'm hoping we can do is bring some of that science back into the county for county use," said Larry Stipek, director of the mapping office. "Those are things we know we need to be doing, and LEIP has basically set perimeters and showed us how we can go about doing these things."
LEIP MONITORED and interpreted several key environmental indicators, including water and air quality and the amount of forest cover and impervious surfaces, to determine the potential effects of development on the county's natural resources.
"There has been an environmental cost to the rapid growth we've been experiencing," said Loudoun Supervisor James Burton (I-Mercer) "Rapidly disappearing forests, more pavement and less vegetation certainly has had negative impacts on the environment. It definitely has had an impact on air and water quality."
In 1999, LEIP established a baseline of data and each year used charts, maps and aerial images to show the environmental changes over time and to point to any trends. One of the changes is in the amount of forest cover, which decreased in the county as more impervious surface was added through new building and road development.
"As you clear the forest, you reduce the habitat for a lot of animals and birds," McGrath said. "As you eliminate forest, you get a lot more edge land. The forest has become fragmented."
Small animals are forced to range more widely to find food and shelter, sometimes encountering vehicular traffic on the way. LEIP recommended that large areas of the county's forest land be protected as wildlife habitats. As of now, 60 percent of the county's 521 square miles is covered in forest, most of it west of Route 15 and including more than 20 tree farms.
MCGRATH NOTED the disappearance of several ridge lines with the lost of forest cover, a trade of a view of trees for that of residential development. "The houses are coming over the hills. Along Route 7, the ridge lines have given away to more housing," he said. "Visually, the county has changed a lot in several sectors, mostly in eastern Loudoun spreading west along Route 7 to Purcellville and Round Hill."
The impervious surfaces brought about by residential, commercial and county development end up creating an urban heat island, which absorbs the sun's heat and radiates at night, possibly raising temperatures by two to three degrees.
"The more black asphalt we put down, the more roofs, houses and businesses we put up, the hotter our average temperature will be, especially in the summer as we take down trees that provide shade," said Supervisor Charles Harris (D-Broad Run).
The increase in impervious surfaces affects water quality, since water flows off manmade surfaces faster than it does off natural surfaces. If the water runoff is not managed, it can erode river banks and carry pollution and silt with it.
The county's drainage systems are not adequate to handle the runoff, McGrath said. LEIP recommended the county establish a functional plan for stormwater drainage and coordinate the various drainage systems that have been established in the county on a project-by-project basis for residential subdivisions, shopping centers and public facilities.
"Everything is done in a hurry development by development," McGrath said. "Development doesn't coordinate water quality systems. ... You need consistency among all the people who develop land to make sure you have control of that."
LEIP FOUND that the county's monitoring of surface water quality in streams and the Potomac River to be "disappointing," as stated in the report. The monitoring conducted by various volunteer groups was not coordinated and the water-quality information gathered often was not shared among the groups and had little effect on development decisions, the report said.
Alternatively, LEIP used the Ashburn Air Quality Monitoring Station to monitor the county's air quality. The monitor showed that the county exceeded the Environmental Protections Agency's (EPA) standard 23 times in 2002.
"We found that air quality is getting worse. It's a misconception Loudoun is above the big city and not susceptible to air quality problems, but it is," McGrath said, adding that suburban vehicles, truck traffic and air pollution from the industrial belt in West Virginia and beyond are bringing pollution to the county. "It's not a place where you can hide upwind, which a lot of people thought."
McGrath pointed to the county's lack of a countywide policy on environmental controls. When LEIP was initiated, the county did not have a department to address environmental concerns nor a way to monitor changes in the environment. Since then, the county adopted a Revised Comprehensive Plan in July 2001 and a zoning amendment earlier this year with the aim to slow down rapid growth in the county.
"It does not have a strong environmental thrust, but it has a land thrust," McGrath said about the county's plan, adding that counties generally face difficulties in trying to restrict development in the context of state legislation. "Slowing growth in a county is like trying to stop a train. It takes distance and time. It's going to take awhile for our policies to take effect."
THE LEIP REPORT confirmed "what many of us believed was the case," Burton said. "It helps to add empirical data to the environmental conditions we have imposed. It helps strengthen the arguments we have for imposing some of the environmental restrictions we did [with] the zoning ordinance."
After LEIP was initiated, the county established an Environmental and Historic Resources Program, which LEIP said could continue the studies it started.
"We want to give them all of the data we have and see if they can use it," McGrath said. "It's been a very good project. It's injected an element of scientific analysis not normally found ... and that scientific analysis provides data the county can use. ... I earnestly hope the county will continue to maintain records at this level and use it, which is not conventional."