Clean Water

Virginia is among a coalition of states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed working to help cut the pollution entering this national treasure.

We have made progress since 2010 when the Environmental Protection Agency implemented a “Total Maximum Daily Load,” also known as a “pollution diet,” for the Bay, but after missing many of our benchmarks in 2025, there’s clearly more work ahead to see this cleanup through.

Virginia LCV advocates for strong policies and funding mechanisms throughout the Bay watershed that help reduce pollution while also pushing forward protections for the threatened species that call the Bay home.

We’re closer than ever to seeing this restoration through, and Virginia LCV will continue to lean on lawmakers to follow through on the protections we need to secure a healthy, thriving Chesapeake Bay.

Virginia’s water resources remain at risk from a variety of toxic contaminants including per and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as PFAS. These industrial chemicals are found in common, everyday household items – everything from cookware and food packaging to clothing and cosmetics. In high concentrations, PFAS can lead to a number of harmful health outcomes including increased cholesterol, liver enzyme changes, decreased vaccine response, thyroid disease, reduced fertility, pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia, developmental delays in children, and increased risk of certain cancers.

The high prevalence of microplastics in our waterways also comes with destructive impacts on human health, as well as wildlife, water infrastructure, and agricultural land. Recent studies indicate that we ingest up to 5 grams of plastic every week. Microplastics are in our food, our water, our air and many of the goods we come into contact with everyday. 

Addressing these sources of toxic water pollution will take years of concerted effort in Virginia, and we are committed to working with our clean water champions at the General Assembly to see the job through.

Virginia’s diverse geology contains a variety of sought-after minerals, including heavy metals like copper, gold and uranium. Mining these minerals comes with very real threats to water quality. Our above average rainfall, becoming more intense each year due to climate change, also means there’s a higher risk of heavy metals pollution leaching into adjoining waterways and groundwater supplies, putting us all at risk.

Virginia LCV has been a leader in the fight to maintain the Commonwealth’s ban on uranium mining – a perennial issue that continues to emerge from time to time as outside interests seek to mine a large deposit of uranium that exists in Southside Virginia’s Pittsylvania County.

Most recently, following a Canadian company’s proposal to site a gold mining operation in Buckingham County on the James River, we worked with on-the-ground partners and lawmakers, to pass laws that ban the use of cyanide in the mining process, helping stop this project while protecting our water resources. 

We will continue to elect conservation leaders committed to protecting our waters from industrial mining and hold corporate polluters accountable when they seek to exploit our resources.