Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District
What is VCAP?
The Virginia Conservation Assistance Program (VCAP) is an urban cost-share program that provides financial incentives and technical/educational assistance to Loudoun County homeowners and businesses who install Best Management Practices (BMP’s) in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed to create more watershed-friendly landscapes.
Why do Loudoun County’s waters need improving?
Non-point source pollution (from roads, parking lots, sidewalks, homes, lawns and offices) is the leading cause of water quality problems. Rainfall or snowmelt from suburban lawns, golf courses, and paved surfaces picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground waters. Common pollutants found in our waterways from stormwater runoff include fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, oil and greases, litter, pet waste, soil/sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and heavy metals. This can be harmful to aquatic life, cause detrimental algal blooms, and contaminate local waters used for drinking water, swimming, fishing and boating. Loudoun County is part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. This means these pollutants in our local waterways eventually drain to the Chesapeake Bay.
Want to help make a difference?
Participation in the VCAP program can help you to restore problem areas in your yard or community by controlling and minimizing erosion, improving riparian buffer areas, promoting wildlife habitat, re-vegetating bare spots, stabilizing drainage ways and treating stormwater runoff. Some of the methods we help you do this are to:
- Allow stormwater run-off to infiltrate through rain gardens and dry wells
- Remove impervious (paved or concrete) surfaces
- Install permeable pavement or pavers
- Convert turfgrass or areas of bare soil to native plantings
Please contact Chris Van Vlack at chris.vanvlack@lswcd.org or (571) 918-4530, ext. 107 to find out how you can participate in this conservation program.
Loudoun SWCD website: http://www.loudounsoilandwater.com/vcap/
