Invitation to a Public Meeting Notice From Friends of Lake Anna
Subject: Louisa Meeting – public speak – Tues 21 Feb 6 p.m. Lake Anna Sewage Effluent Increase

Why – Louisa Supervisors will discuss Sewage Effluent going into Lake Anna and a possible Resolution and Ordinance to limit any sewage effluent discharges to the current level.

What & When: Louisa Board of Supervisors Meeting Tuesday 21 Feb 2012 at 6 P.M.

Public Speaking Time: Starts at 6:30 p.m. (limited to 3 minutes each)

Where: Louisa County Administration Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, Va. 23093

Directions: From Mineral on Route 22 go to Town of Louisa to Kip Kilman Ford (on Right)
Turn left directly across the street onto Rosewood St and go 1 block to intersection
Turn left onto Woolfolk Ave – go 2 blocks to bottom of hill to the Administration Bldg.

DRESS: Please wear a white shirt or blouse to demonstrate solidarity and we want clean lake water to swim

What can you do: Show up with friends to demonstrate your concern and also speak from your heart.

Current issues to discuss with the supervisors, because it appears much misinformation is being disseminated by the Louisa County staff and also the independent Louisa Water Authority Corporation (which is not part of Louisa County government). The staff and water authority believe that discharged sewage into Lake Anna is fine and that the only opposition is that it would reduce water quality into Lake Anna.

We need the supervisors to pass a resolution immediately, followed by an ordinance that would insure no additional sewage effluent is added to Lake Anna. All sewage processing plants would be capped at the December 2011 discharge permit levels. The resolution and ordinance should also address the requirement for:

a. Statement of Need that describes What, When, Where and Why an applicant wants to construct a sewage processing facility and how it is in conformance with Louisa’s Comprehensive Plan

b. Posting of a bond that will provide adequate funds to close or transfer ownership of the facility in the event that the plant owner becomes insolvent and also compensate adjacent land owners or businesses for any damages that the sewage plant could cause due to lack of proper operation.

c. Notification of any sewage treatment violations to the county by the applicant, within 15 days of the violation or immediately if discharge limits of pollutants or raw sewage are exceeded.

It appears that some of the supervisors:
1. Are unaware that Va. Dept of Health processes all sewage permits that occur with a discharge into land (i.e. mass drain fields, alternative systems, etc.) and are focusing only on Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that permits discharge into waters. Va. Dept of Health regulations allow wells for drinking water that are grouted to 50 feet can be within 50 feet of a septic drain field because the ground safely filters out the effluent that is put into the drain field.

2. Are not exploring all the alternatives that would alleviate discharging any additional effluent into the lake.

3. Believe that all sewage processing will always be perfect and will never have any problems. But are unaware of what happens when there is a mechanical malfunction or a human error that causes raw sewage or other pollutants to enter the Lake. It happens at many locations, i.e. Fairfax County and Fredericksburg recently got fined for discharging raw sewage and other pollutants into their discharge streams. Zion Crossroads in Louisa County exceeded their discharge limitations of total suspended solids and E. Coli and other levels for over 6 years (2004 to 2010). Louisa Regional Sewage processing exceeded their zinc discharge limitation for 20 months and did not take certain samples or didn’t report the results which both Louisa facilities caused huge $600,000 fines to Louisa County. To say human or mechanical error cannot occur in a sewage processing facility is ignoring what just happened at Fairfax, Fredericksburg and Louisa County.

4. Not aware, the permit is not requiring anything close to drinkable water being discharged into the lake, where thousands of people swim during the summer close to the discharge point. In the past, the discharge pipe floated to the surface because of inadequate anchoring on the lake bottom. The psychological impact of swimming in sewage effluent or raw sewage is unimaginable. No one wants to do it or have their children inadvertently swallow any of the water. In 2010, the lake entertained about 3 million user recreation days that brought many dollars into Louisa County

5. Are unaware that when the Louisa Wastewater Committee asked the senior DEQ representative in Nov 2011, what would he recommend to do with the sewage effluent discharges at Lake Anna. He said “I can only process what the applicant has requested, but if asked what his professional opinion was he would say “that the sewage effluent should be put into the land, so it does not introduce any nutrients from the sewage effluent into the water that will accumulate over years and that it would also replenish the ground water supplies”. Note that the additional nutrients– nitrates can produce algae blooms that produce fish kills and encourage plant growth such as hydrilla that can choke entire bays. The wastewater committee also discussed the many unknowns from the accumulations of drugs, etc. that folks flush down their toilets and are not filtered out as part of any sewage treatment processing.

6. Are unaware that DEQ only inspects private sewage treatment facilities on the average of once each 5 years and they rely on self reporting of problems. How many folks turn themselves into authorities and identified they have a problem or do they cover it up? Va. Dept of Health laws require that there are at least a once a year inspection of alternative mass drain fields or other alternative septic systems, together with self reporting of immediate problems.

7. Are unaware there are other viable alternatives for not putting any additional sewage effluent into the lake, such as the mass drain fields at the Food Lion Shopping Center and the spraying of effluent onto the planned Cut-A-Long golf course at Lake Anna.

8. Are unaware the land on top of the mass drain fields can be used for community activities (i.e. soccer, baseball, football, etc.) making it a win-win for both the developer and the nearby community.

9. Are unaware the county receives about 61% of its income from the lake and any scare of sewage entering the lake could cause both a decrease in home values and also a major decrease in income to the all of the 100 plus businesses that depend on the perception that the lake is safe. This would then result in a decrease in Louisa’s income.

10. Believe that that sewage plant processing with discharging into Lake Anna produce treated effluent of very high quality at levels that cannot be achieved through septic systems.” This statement is completely untrue as the Louisa Wastewater meetings, commissioned by the Board of Supervisors, with both DEQ and VDH representatives found out.

11. Believe from a technical environmental perspective it should be observed that treated effluent is preferable to septic systems that already undoubtedly leach into Lake Anna”. This statement is also completely untrue as indicated by Va. Dept of Health, with the extremely low rate of problems with septic systems around Lake Anna. Both DEQ and VDH indicate that both discharges into land and into water provide adequate safety for the public. In the case of Lake Anna, adding additional nutrients to the water raises concern as indicated above.
If you care about Lake Anna, regardless of where you live, and the future with your kids, grandkids, friends and neighbors swimming and recreating in the Lake, please come and voice your concerns and the need for a resolution and ordinance from the Louisa Board. For any questions, do not hesitate to email or call. Hope to see you at the Board of Supervisors meeting next Tuesday Feb 21, at 6 p.m.

Sincerely,

Harry Ruth
For the Friends of Lake Anna
Phone 540-872-3632

Gazebo Reservations
Have you ever wanted to check the availability of the big gazebo on the date of your event? Look at the calendar on the right hand side of this page. You will notice that the current date is highlighted in red. If necessary, scroll through the months find the date you are interested in by clicking on the arrow to the right of the month and year on the calendar. If the date is highlighted green, then place your mouse on that date to see what event is scheduled. To reserve a date, send an email to the web committee members with “Gazebo Request” as the subject. Ali Forrest can be reached at aliforrest1@gmail.com and Jane Martinache at redcarom@aol.com.

Get Your Tall Pines Yacht Club T-Shirt!
Many people have asked me to post the link to the website where you can purchase the Tall Pines Yacht Club and other Lake Anna t-shirts, so here it is ZAZZLE. Be sure to check out all the custom t-shirts available!

Web Content, Calendar Entries and Gazebo Reservations
Do you have information to share with your neighbors? Do you have an event you want to put on the community calendar? Do you want to reserve the gazebo for a function? Contact Ali Forrest at aliforrest1@gmail.com.Do you have photos of Tall Pines events that you would like to share? I have an area on the site that I can now upload pictures to. Please send good quality jpg files to the address listed above. Try to keep the files under 2MB, I will attempt to post larger files, but they may take too long to display.

Permit Info for Proposed Third Reactor
As John Grandfield mentioned at the fall membership meeting, Although the final decision to build a third reactor has not yet been made, Dominion Power has begun the permit process with the Commonwealth of Virginia. You can view the documents here, and the maps here.

The ability to play music beautifully is a gift—a gift that Jim Lyon freely gives.
Lyon, a resident of the Tall Pines subdivision at Lake Anna, is one of those pianists who can play just about anything, with or without music in front of him. That ability is hard to explain.
Lyon shares his talent and love of music on Monday afternoons with the residents of the Louisa Healthcare Center. He plays old favorites for an hour in the dining room for 10 to 30 listeners. He has also donated his time to playing background music at community fund-raisers, such as Habitat, at Early House and the Rotary Club, and is available to play at private parties or social events.
His hands effortlessly find chords, arpeggios and melodies on a new Roland electric keyboard as he talks about his music. New at Christmas, the Roland keyboard has features he hasn’t figured out yet. Lyon pushes buttons and the songs seem to be played by strings, or a honky-tonk piano. With the honky-tonk setting, Lyon smiles and breaks into a Joplin rag.
He plays by ear, and also reads “fake books.” The fake books are frequently used by musicians who improvise in clubs or piano bars. In them the melody is written out and the chords are noted by name. Lyon plays the melody with his right hand, and breaks up the chords into arpeggios played all over the keyboard to add “texture” to the piece. “All I need is melody and chord changes,” he says, as he demonstrates with “I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady.”
He tries to explain the process, but words fail and he thinks with his fingers—demonstrating with song after song on the keyboard.
Lyon didn’t start his musical career with the piano, although keyboard has been his primary instrument for more than 40 years.
His accountant father recognized that Lyon at age 8 might have musical ability and paid for accordion lessons for eight years. When Lyon went to high school, he became involved with bands, and taught himself piano at his grandmother’s house next door.
In 1960, he married Ann, his high school sweetheart, and the couple has three sons and four grandchildren. Lyon worked for a phone company and music took up many evening and weekend hours. He has played with a variety of groups and in many styles—jazz, Dixieland, popular standards, soft rock, and often provided background music in lounges. His favorite composers are Rodgers and Hart (Think “Blue Moon,” “My Funny Valentine,” This Can’t be Love”) but has no favorite among their compositions.
One he played with was comprised of Lyon on the piana, tuba and three banjos. The musicians wore barbershop-style outfits, with garters on their sleeves, and played WWII-era songs in a sing-along establishment that served peanuts and beer. The audience was familiar with the songs that were listed by number on sheets. “Number 29, someone would holler,” said Lyon and the band would play it while the audience sang. “The work was demanding because the tempos were really quick.”
He recalls a startling performance with another group. The musicians were on a low stage and during the course of a vigorous Dixieland set, his piano inched closer and closer to the edge. Near the end of the piece, the piano crashed to the floor, scaring Lyon and everyone else.
In 1974, Lyon and his family moved from Chicago, where he had grown up, to Gillette, Wyoming. “I decided I wanted to leave the big city,” he says. “I was tired of the traffic.”
Gillette opened up new musical opportunities for him. He played on weekends at a Holiday Inn with a small group, and discovered that “strangely, Gillette had a 20-piece big band that played Glenn Miller music.” Most of the members were music teachers, and the band was so popular that “trombone players were waiting in line to play in it.”
He also played in a nursing home in Gillette—duets with another musician. “It was kind of a ministry,” Lyon said. Because of that experience, he looked for an opportunity to play at a nursing home when he and his wife moved to Virginia in 2004.
The big sky still beckons. The Lyons return to Wyoming to visit family, and Jim Lyon and his purebred yellow Lab, Max, still enjoy hunting game birds each year in Wyoming and North Dakota. He has shared his pheasant bounty with friends at dinner.
He also enjoys fishing, boating and working with his hands on various projects around the house. With grandchildren nearby, and his father and stepmother in a nursing facility in Charlottesville, the Lyons are busy with their family. He also sings in the Presbyterian choir in Louisa.
When he has the time, he is at the keyboard—maybe for a three-hours stretch. It’s not practicing so much as it is just playing for the love of it.
Lyon has composed a Christmas song that has all the characteristics of a holiday hit. It’s lush in its chords and melody, and has lyrics that capture both the secular and sacred aspects of the holiday season. Coaxed into playing it, Lyon sings on the second time through.
Lyon still experiments with chords, creating his own style of artistry to avoid being in a rut. And, like many creative people, he can’t explain how he does any of it.
His hands ripple into another ballad. “I don’t know how you can define me,” he says modestly. “I just like to sit and play.”
(To reach Jim Lyon, call 894-0589.)