WV Dept. of Environmental Protection Watershed Film

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has produced a lovely short film about the hard-working watershed organizations in our state. Friends of the Cacapon River president Rachel D’Agostino was honored to be interviewed for the film to talk about her passion for the Cacapon River and its watershed.

Please take a few minutes to hear about the dedicated watershed-protection organizations that work hard for the beautiful rivers of West Virginia. 

Friends of Cacapon River Sponsors Child for Stream Scholars Summer Camp

As part of our goal to help educate the local community—especially our local youth—about the importance of the Cacapon River and it’s watershed, the Friends of the Cacapon River sponsored a child from Morgan County for the Cacapon Institute’s excellent Stream Scholars Summer Camp. 

The Cacapon Institute’s Stream Scholars Summer Camp is a hands-on exploration of stream ecology and conservation for middle and high school students. This year, the campers explored rivers in the Potomac Headwaters, traveled up the watershed to Spruce Knob, WV, and spent two nights camping and discovering the Chesapeake Bay’s highest peaks. They also enjoyed a sunshine-filled canoe float trip on the Cacapon River. 

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Machine Gun Fire Over Cacapon River in Hampshire County

 

In the Town of Yellow Spring in Hampshire County, there’s a machine gun range that is shooting machine guns across the Cacapon River, located off of Route 259 just above the Hampshire-Hardy County line. 

The range is called Lost River Shoot, and it has set up a large-scale machine-gun range on a 900 acre parcel of land on the Cacapon River—with nothing to stop the bullets from hitting trees along the riverbank and passing across the river to the other side.

We believe paddling on the Cacapon River in Yellow Spring near or passing this gun range is dangerous. The range is located on the Cacapon River between the CAPON LAKE and the YELLOW SPRING public river access points. Please avoid this float trip—or use extreme caution at the very least. 

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Cacapon River Polluted in Capon Bridge, WV

The Waste Water Treatment Plant in the Town of Capon Bridge, West Virginia, was malfunctioning and releasing pollution—in the form of alarming levels of fecal coliform, discolored effluent, excess chlorine, and floating solid waste—directly into the Cacapon River for almost two years. At one point, the levels of fecal coliform were 300 times the allowable limit, causing many to fear for the health of the Cacapon River and the safety of those who swim, fish, and kayak in the river.

Over the past two years, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued the Town of Capon Bridge eight violations for this pollution. In April, DEP filed a lawsuit against the town to force it to comply with its environmental regulations and improve the water treatment plant in a timely manner. 

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