Dear Supporters of the Great Valley Karst Forum and Interested Parties:
I would like to invite you to a Great Valley Karst Forum meeting to be hosted by the Shenandoah University at Winchester, Virginia on December 12, 2002. The meeting will be held at the Aikens Athletic Center in conference room 228 from 10:00am to 2:00 pm. To reach the Aikens Athletic Center take exit 313 (route 50) off I-81 to Winchester. Shenandoah University is on the west side of I-81 and on the north side of Route 50. Turn right off Route 50 to enter the University and proceed past the guardhouse to the top of the hill. Turn left at the stop sign and proceed down the hill to the Aikens Athletic center, located on the right next to the chapel. Please mark this date on your calendars. We will be putting an agenda together for this meeting that I will send to you after Thanksgiving. I would appreciate any of your ideas on agenda topics. Please feel free to distribute this invitation to others that you think might be interested in attending.
Since our initial meeting at the Karst Interest Group Workshop on August 21 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia those of us affiliated with the U.S. Geological Survey have been advocating that USGS begin an interdisciplinary Karst Initiative in the Great Valley region. On September 12, Hugh Bevans (District Chief) and Mark Kozar (Ground Water Specialist) of the West Virginia District of the USGS Water Resources Division, Randy Orndorff (karst Geologist with the USGS Geologic Division Earth Surface Processes Team), and Bill Palmisano (Director of the USGS Biological Resources Division Leetown Science Center at Kearnysville, West Virginia) discussed ongoing and planned interdisciplinary USGS studies in the Shenandoah Valley karst region with Dr. Charles “Chip” Groat, Director of the USGS. Director Groat has emphasized that USGS Divisions work together on interdisciplinary studies. He had been informed of our planned karst hydrogeology investigation of the Leetown Science Center area and requested that we brief him. As part of the briefing, also attended by Bill Burton of the USGS Geologic Division Bedrock Regional Aquifer Systematics study (BRASS), we informed Director Groat about ongoing karst hydrogeology studies in the Shenandoah and Potomac River basins of Virginia and West Virginia. He was very interested and supportive of our efforts to promote a USGS Great Valley Karst Initiative.
To further our efforts to develop a USGS Great Valley Karst Initiative, Randy Orndorff set up a meeting for representatives of the Virginia District (Ward Staubitz, District Chief; Dave Nelms, Ground Water Specialist; and George Harlow, Hydrologist) and West Virginia District (Hugh Bevans; Mark Kozar; and Kurt McCoy, Hydrologist) to present their case for the Initiative to USGS Geologic Division managers (Dave Russ; Eastern Region Executive for Geology; Bruce Hemingway, Associate Eastern Region Executive for Geology; and Jim Quick, Chief of the Eastern Earth Surface Processes Team), representatives of the USGS Water Program (Al Shapiro, Chief of Eastern Region Ground Water Hydrology Programs on transport phenomena in fractured rock; and Al Rutledge, Ground Water Specialist for the Northeast Region Water Programs), and Tim Kochis of the USGS National Mapping Division Mid-Continent Mapping Center. Attendees supported the effort to develop the Karst Initiative. Two principal decisions were made: (1) the Karst Initiative should focus on the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia and West Virginia and adjacent areas where USGS interdisciplinary studies are underway and (2) an action plan needs to be developed to document the goals and approach for the initiative. Randy Orndorff is taking the lead on this. Presently Ward Staubitz, Dave Nelms and George Harlow are developing a briefing paper for USGS stating our position and plans for developing a Shenandoah Valley Area Karst Initiative. This briefing paper will be presented to USGS Eastern Region managers in early November and will be available, along with a draft of the action plan, for members of the Great Valley Karst Forum to review at our December 12 meeting at Shenandoah University. Hope to see you there.
Following is a revised listing of Forum members:
Lavonne Paden Berkeley Co., WV
Planning Comm. Lavonne33@aol.com
Bill Alexander Berkeley
Co., WV Public Service Dist. tennesseebill2001@yahoo.com
Bill Toomey West
Virginia Bureau for Public Health wtoomey@wvdhhr.org
Lew Baker West
Virginia Rural Water Association lbaker@newwave.net
Al Hooper Jefferson
Co., WV Planning Comm. tuscawilla@juno.com
W.H. Jones Frederick
Co. VA Sanitarian whjones@fcsd-water.com
Randall Orndorff USGS,
Reston, VA rorndorf@usgs.gov
Kent Schreiber USGS,
Leetown Science Center, WV kent_Schreiber@usgs.gov
Hugh Bevans USGS,
Charleston, WV hbevans@usgs.gov
Joey Fagan VA
Dept. Cons.& Rec., Karst Program jfagan@dcr.state.va.us
George Harlow USGS,
Richmond, VA geharlow@usgs.gov
Ward Staubitz USGS,
Richmond, VA staubitz@usgs.gov
Kevin Breen USGS,
PA kjbreen@usgs.gov
Bill Palmisano USGS,
Leetown Science Center, WV bill_palmisano@usgs.gov
David Nelms USGS,
Richmond, VA dlnelms@usgs.gov
Alison Teetor Clark
Co. Planning, Berryville, VA ateetor@co.clarke.va.us
Rebecca MacLeod USDA,
NRCS, Martinsburg, WV rebecca.macleod@wv.usda.gov
Roger Boyer Potomac
Headwaters RC&D roger.boyer@wv.usda.gov
Melvin Mathes USGS,
Charleston, WV mvmathes@usgs.gov
Mark Kozar USGS,
Charleston, WV mdkozar@usgs.gov
Darwin Braden FCSA,
Winchester, VA polardan@adelphia.net
Jon Campbell USGS,
Reston, VA joncampbell@usgs.gov
Doug Stanley Warren
County Administrator, VA dstanley@warrencountyva.net
George Sylvester Shenandoah
Co. Water Advis. Comm., VA gsylvest@shentel.net
Jim Lawrence Potomac
Conservancy lawrence@potomac.org