Although you might not guess it by looking at the beautiful, rolling farms in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, agricultural runoff is the largest source of water pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. Virginia promised EPA that it would protect 95 percent of streams through pastures with livestock fences by 2025. But EIP’s aerial study of Virginia’s two largest agricultural counties found that only 19 percent of farms with livestock are actually fencing their animals out of waterways, contributing to bacteria, nutrient pollution, and algae blooms in the Shenandoah River. (Photo Shenandoah Riverkeeper)
