As a centerpiece for a clean-water treatment plant’s community outreach, it’s hard to beat the 24-acre bird-watcher’s paradise created by five lagoons at the Roanoke (Virginia) Water Pollution Control Plant.
“We get bird-watchers from all over the country,” says Scott Shirley, director of wastewater operations for Western Virginia Water Authority, which owns the 55 mgd tertiary treatment facility. The plant is home to many local species and is a stopping point for thousands of migrating birds, especially shorebirds and ducks.
More than 60 percent of bird species documented in Virginia have been seen at the site. Birds rarely seen in the
