River Advocacy
The James River Association provides a voice for the river on important policy issues.
For 50 years, the James River Association has served as the guardian of America’s founding river, advocating for policies that ensure a healthy, resilient waterway for all communities across Virginia.
Our advocacy team works tirelessly to secure the funding and legislative protections necessary to keep the James River clean and accessible. By bridging the gap between science and policy, we empower residents from Lynchburg to Richmond and throughout Hampton Roads to lend their voices to the river, ensuring that clean water remains a top priority for our state’s leaders.
Make Your Voice Heard!
The actions of our government – at the local, state and federal levels – have an enormous impact on you and your family. Writing an email or a letter and making a follow-up phone call only takes a few minutes of your time, but it ensures that the people who make decisions on your behalf know how you want to be represented.
Elected officials at every level of government need to hear that their constituents care about clean water and a healthy James River. We’ve identified policy solutions that will help us reach a “Grade A” river. Take action now to share those solutions with your representatives.
Our Work
Top Advocacy Priorities
Protecting Clean Water Funding
To improve water quality through wastewater upgrades, farm conservation practices, and stormwater projects that reduce pollution and flooding.
Securing investments for Richmond’s Combined Sewer System Upgrades
Which would cut bacteria pollution by 70% from untreated sewage released into the James during heavy rain.
Restoring American shad
A once abundant fish and keystone species that has nearly disappeared from the James River.
Addressing Unpermitted Water Intakes
Which can trap and harm fish and other aquatic life. We are championing legislation to create a state workgroup to evaluate these impacts and recommend solutions that better protect the river and its wildlife.
We will be supporting conservation and resiliency legislation
Including bills that reduce harmful PFAS pollution (also known as forever chemicals), strengthen environmental literacy for Virginia’s students, expand access to public lands and rivers, and increase flood and climate resilience for communities and natural resources.
Spotlight issue: New Water Intake Proposal Puts Migratory Fish at Risk
In December of 2025, the James River Association and 16 other conservation organizations urged the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) to withdraw its proposed Surface Water Withdrawal Intake Design and Operation Standards. They warned that the changes would significantly weaken long-standing protections for fish and other aquatic life.
For more than two decades, DWR’s guidance has helped limit the number of fish eggs and larvae killed when water is withdrawn from rivers and streams for industrial, municipal, and other uses. The newly proposed guidance would allow larger screen openings and faster water flow. However, decades of research show this would increase harm to vulnerable early life stages of fish. DWR provided no new scientific evidence to justify this shift. In fact, contradicts its own cited studies and the recommendations of Virginia scientists.
The proposal also ignores the cumulative impacts of multiple water intakes clustered in critical spawning rivers. Even small individual losses can add up to serious population-level impacts for many of Virginia’s already at-risk native species. In the James River, American shad, river herring, and Atlantic sturgeon — once central to Virginia’s ecology, economy, and culture — are already at historic lows and cannot withstand additional losses.
At a time when Virginia’s rivers and fish need stronger safeguards, this proposal would instead make it easier for withdrawals to cause harm, prioritizing convenience for water users over public-trust resources. The proposed guidance is inconsistent with DWR’s mission and threatens to undermine decades of conservation progress. We urge the agency and the incoming administration to withdraw this proposal and commit to strengthening protections for Virginia’s river and wildlife.
Advocacy at Each Level
Local Advocacy
Many decisions that impact the James River are made at the local level. From stream buffer protections to political support for river restoration to emphasizing environmental education – it all starts at home. The James River Association works at the local level to ensure that the river is a priority in decision makers minds.
State Advocacy
At the state level, we ensure that public policies are in place to achieve a fully healthy James River. Our focus is two pronged: addressing long-term pollution concerns through river restoration plans and ensuring proper protections are in place to prevent future degradation. To accomplish these objectives, we work closely with state agencies as well as the Virginia General Assembly.
Federal Advocacy
As a part of its federal government outreach, we participate in the Choose Clean Water Coalition -- 200 organizations from throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed dedicated to protecting clean water for all. We focus on supporting federal funding for clean water programs, working with the EPA on the Chesapeake Bay Cleanup, as well as stormwater issues.
