[Sound of water droplets] ♪ ["Bedroom" by The Abused River plays] ♪ JESS WIEGANDT: This trip means a lot to me because I grew up on this river, on the James, and I... always wanted to explore it from its headwaters all the way out to the Chesapeake Bay.

It has really kind of shaped who I am today, it raised me.

[Sound of water droplets] JESS: Something that I really was interested in is whether or not this river is being protected under the legislation that we currently have.

♪ ["Continent" by ANBR plays] [Rushing water] NEWS ANCHOR: The muddy waters of the James River peaked this afternoon, about 13 and a half feet above flood level.

The city sewage treatment plant is shut down and is dumping millions of gallons of untreated waste directly into the river.

[Sound of water running] NEWS ANCHOR 2: Billions of gallons of raw sewage and stormwater runoff flows into the James when it rains.

NEWS ANCHOR 3: The city still needs over 800 million dollars to fix the problem.

NEWS REPORTER: On the James River this weekend, if you jump in or expose yourself to the water, you may just get sick.

JESS: It's historic, it's beautiful, and it's all ours to protect.

[Birds chirping] [Feet crunching on gravel] BETH EBISCH: Jess, where are we going?

JESS: We're going to be on the James River for about 350 miles.

[Laughing] Until we reach the Chesapeake Bay.

BETH: Okay.

JESS: And that will be... [flips pages] BETH: Days from now.

JESS: In 21 days.

[Women laugh] BETH: Ok. JESS: I'm ready to start paddling.

BETH: Me too.

JESS: 21 days, 350 miles.

James River.

BETH: Let's go.

SEJAL KINKER: Woo-hoo!

JESS: Four women, two canoes, one river... BETH: One heart.

JESS: One tent.

BETH: [Laughs] One tent!

JESS: One tent!

[Canoe scrapes across ground] ♪ ["Banjo Dance" by SPEARFISH plays] ♪ JESS: This team of women that have joined me on this trip are really some incredible people.

Beth is our resident sound and camera operator and is also an environmental scientist.

So she'll be helping us take water samples as we paddle down the James to study its quality.

[Banjo music continues] JESS: Grace is our director of photography on this journey, so she'll be behind the camera most of the time.

She's never done a canoe trip like this, so I'm feeling really lucky that she's decided to join us.

[Women laughing] JESS: Sejal and I have known each other for ten years and have paddled all over and it's really special to be able to come and paddle this river with her.

We've always traveled to other places to paddle together when we live on this beautiful river and it's right in our backyards.

JESS: All right.

So right now, we are right here.

And it looks like... this in real life.

We have the Jackson coming in on the right and the Cowpasture's right in front of us.

And this is the start of the James.

BETH: So I figured we'd do some water testing along the way.

JESS: Awesome.

BETH: Just to kind of see what the water quality is and how it's changing as we go down the James River.

BETH: We're working with a school as well, right?

To try and get a better idea of what pollutants we're looking at.

JESS: Yeah.

So we're going to be sampling and sending them to a school that's along the James River.

So we'll be doing some basic testing right here, but then we're going to learn a lot more as we head downstream from the students that we're working with.

[Sound of water rushing] ♪ ["Moments in Time" by Tristan Barton quietly plays] ♪ BETH: So we tested today just to kind of get a baseline idea of what our numbers are.

And then as things change, as we see pollution and agricultural runoff and things like that, the numbers will change.

JESS: Spanning 348 miles, the James River is one of the longest contained within a single state and is known as America's Founding River.

Utilized by Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years, the river was known as the Powhatan and was renamed by English colonizers in 1607 when they founded Jamestown.

As the Industrial Revolution churned its wheels, the James River was abused with toxic chemicals entering its water unchecked.

By the 1970's, a once-pristine river was declared to be one of the most polluted in the nation.

JESS: Through decades of legislature and cleanups, the James is now the poster child for resiliency, used for drinking water and recreation for millions.

However, it is still threatened by pollution from agriculture, sewage overflow and a legacy of toxic chemicals.

Essentially, Virginia has a poop problem and it's affecting our waterways.

And that problem begins all the way upstream in just the first few miles on the river.

[Birds chirping] JESS: These cows just walk right down into the James River for a swim.

I mean, the water's nice and everything, but he's so far out there!

Agriculture is a main staple in Virginia, but cattle are a major contributor to river pollution.

Their access to waterways increases nutrient levels as the runoff of sediment, fertilizer, and manure mixes directly with the river.

This decreases oxygen in the water, making it more difficult for aquatic life to thrive.

ANNA KILLIUS: What we've done in Virginia up until now is asking farmers to take voluntary actions to keep their cows out of the streams and then allow the water to run off without that pollution in it.

JESS: National and statewide legislation has focused on point source pollutants, like pipes, for several decades, but non-point source pollutants, like agricultural fields, have been trickier to regulate.

ANNA: We do wonder whether the pace of these voluntary actions is going to be enough to reach our goals on time.

[Water splashing] ANNA: If we fail together, some of these practices will have to become mandatory because our waterways, the health of our rivers and the Chesapeake Bay are really going to require it.

♪ ["Motion" by Tristan Barton plays] ♪ JESS: The James River consistently scores a B-minus on its health report, meaning the watershed still struggles with pollutants that affect fish, algal levels, and the cost of water treatment.

The score means the river can be used for recreation and fishing, but there can be health risks from pollutants in the water.

BETH: Hopefully, the high school students that are looking at these under a microscope will find little organisms living on these bits of algae.

If there are, that's a good indicator that the water's pretty clear, which means that sunlight's getting through and that helps life exist in the river.

[Birds chirping] [Water dripping] [Eagle chittering] SEJAL KINKER: Just seeing all the wildlife has been really amazing.

Getting a chance to take time to actually look around instead of just running a rapid has been really nice.

[Birds chirping JESS: Guys, guess what!

We're about to pass 50 miles on the James River!

In 3, 2, 1!

50 miles down!

Woo!

Oh yeah.

[Laughs] [Water splashes] GRACE EGGLESTON: And how many to go?

JESS: Three hundred.

[Laughs] [Birds chirping] BETH: So we've been taking the samples along the way and we've been doing water, and then the algae.

EMMA ARENTS-QUAGLIANO: That's exactly what we need.

BETH: Okay, cool, cool.

EMMA: Because Jess and her team can't drag a lab along behind them, my students are helping to assess water quality through qualitative and quantitative measures in our classroom at Henrico High School.

[Students murmuring] EMMA: These kids have lived on the James River most of their life.

The most important piece about what we're doing with the sampling is our ability to make comparisons between areas such as this, where magically you can see the bottom [chuckles] versus places that are closer to where these students are living, where...you can't.

It's just brown.

[chuckles] JESS: So we started with our samples right at the top of the James where the Jackson and the Cowpasture come together.

So this is your surface.

EMMA: The kids aren't going to believe that this came from the same river that they live on.

[Jess chuckles] They're going to think I put bottled water in here.

This is crazy.

JESS: We'll keep taking samples while we head downstream.

EMMA: Yeah.

JESS: And we'll give you some more.

EMMA: I'm excited.

BETH: This is a repeat a after me song!

[Laughter] BETH: [singing] There once was a ship that put to sea.

SEJAL: [singing] There once was a ship that put to sea.

BETH: [singing] The name of the ship was a Billy-O'Tea.

SEJAL: [singing] The name of the ship was a Billy-O'Tea.

BETH: [singing] The wind dipped back, her bow dipped down.

SEJAL: [singing] The wind dipped back and the bow dipped down?

BETH: [singing] Blow that Billy o blow, huh!

SEJAL: [singing] Blow that billy o blow, huh!

JESS: I'm getting anxious as we move downstream.

So far, we've only paddled flat water and with over $20,000 of camera equipment, flipping the canoe isn't an option.

But tomorrow we arrive at Balcony Falls, which is the biggest whitewater we've seen so far.

It's where I learned how to paddle, but loaded canoes are much different than the kayaks Sejal and I are used to.

[Water rushing] JESS: This is our next to last day of being in an area where you can consistently see the bottom of the river.

BETH: Yeah, I mean, we've seen agricultural runoff and cows in the river and all that which obviously creates pollution, but it'll be interesting to see how it changes even more down river.

♪ ["Identify" by Or Chausha plays] ♪ [Birdsong] JESS: This morning we woke up and the river is low, so I'm nervous with how this is going to go with rocks.

If we hit something with these canoes, they're tipping.

[Mysterious music builds] JESS: Sejal, it's got a curler coming from the left side, so just, be careful with that.

JESS: Ok. SEJAL: Dig, dig, dig, dig!

Wooo...Nice job!

Woohoo...We're not done yet.

[Chuckles] JESS: All right, Grace.

You ready?

GRACE: Yeah.

JESS: Woo!

Give me a draw!

All right, give me that cross draw.

Forward, forward, forward!

Forward, forward.

Nice!

JESS: Alright SEJAL: All right.

Grab my paddle, we've got this!

JESS: Okay!

SEJAL: It happened so fast.

We started to fill up, and before we could even do anything, we were over.

BETH: It was horrible.

And there was a great panic.

I feel like I blacked out.

I just imagined everything going everywhere and having to swim to shore and put it all back together.

And when we flipped it back over, it turns out that tying everything into your canoe actually works and everything was in there.

We got back in there pretty quick.

BETH: I got an amazing shoulder workout, from bailing so much water.

[Group laughing] JESS: We're leaving the rural James River region and entering more populated areas.

The cities along the James are historic and their infrastructure has definitely aged.

Not only does the James suffer from agricultural runoff upstream, but downriver it faces a battle involving human waste.

Lynchburg and Richmond were both built with systems where pipes funnel sewage and stormwater together to reach a wastewater treatment facility.

In dry weather those systems work well, keeping pollution out of the river, but when heavy rain falls, the systems are overwhelmed, and raw sewage is dumped straight into the river.

[Pitter patter of raindrops] While billions of dollars have been poured into updating these systems, the James River still sees hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage enter its waters each year.

ANNA: So if you think back 50 years, I think we had a completely different mindset about our rivers and waterways.

I think we saw them as just sewer ways that would flush anything that you put in it out to sea and it wouldn't be a problem for your community anymore.

ANNA: We don't want to repeat that.

We don't want to go back to where we were and have to do that work again.

We just want to keep getting better.

GRACE LEROSE: I just wanted to point out over there a bunch of rafters getting ready to come in down here at this entry point to the river.

And on a day like today, when it rained a lot, when those facilities are full, there's no discharge out here, that's why we do what we do.

So people can get in the river and feel safe.

JESS: So tomorrow, when we're rafting, we should come down and check this out if we get any more rain?

GRACE: If we get a little bit of rain, if it rains steady and soft, we can take that.

If there's a big gullywasher and a lot of volume comes really quickly... That could be a problem.

JESS: Today is Richmond day, which is really exciting.

This is the last whitewater section that we're going to see.

It's also the biggest whitewater we're going to see.

We had some rain that came in last night and so it lifted the water levels for us.

It's a little chilly out, so we're wearing all of our essential layers.

Can't forget the most essential part, which is our tu-tu's to celebrate this wonderful, wonderful day.

JESS: So we'll be rafting through Richmond and meeting up with the kids that are studying our water samples on Belle Isle today.

It's great to meet you guys.

Thanks for coming out today.

EMMA: We also brought some samples of our own to show you.

JESS: Oh, cool.

STUDENT: It like, It solidifies it moves, it congeals.

It solidifies.

JESS: Where is that from?

STUDENT: It's from our school.

From the tap.

JESS: It's from your school?

STUDENT: Tap, yeah.

[Gasps] JESS: So this is right when they turn their tap water on, and this is after 10 minutes of running.

Where's the water coming from?

EMMA: We are not sure.

And I've asked the school, and they are not sure either.

JESS: Wow.

EMMA: The kids will have the opportunity to take samples directly with Jess, seeing how she collected all of the samples that she's been giving us throughout the course of this project.

And, they get to see how that data gets to us.

They're building their confidence with this project, and you can see it in their faces.

Without this piece of ecology learning, they wouldn't have exposure to these kinds of concepts.

And I think it's really important for them to realize you're part of a bigger community, you're part of a bigger world.

[Students murmuring] HUNTER: I was honestly surprised to see just how contaminated some of this... water was that we have from, like, across the area.

JESS: Meeting the students in person allowed us to hear what they found in the water samples.

Some of the more interesting results were that they detected chlorine in the water from just above Balcony all the way through Richmond.

Chlorine is typically added to public water supplies as part of the disinfection process.

Another find was that there were elevated levels of bromides near a power station upstream of Richmond, which could indicate the coal ash holding ponds located next to the river may be allowing contaminants to enter the water.

The students are continuing to test for the afternoon, but we have some major whitewater we need to paddle before we lose daylight.

♪ ["Exceptional" by TURPAK plays] ♪ JESS: At Balcony, one of our canoes flipped, but here the rapids have a higher consequence if we swim, so picking the right line is essential.

SEJAL KINKER: All right... this is Hollywood.

Ready?

Brace in!

All forward!

[Screams] Oh [deleted].

Stay in!

[Cheering] SEJAL: Good job, good job!

All forward.

Brace!

Back paddle!

Ready?

Back on the left!

All forward!

[Cheering] Dig!

Back on the left!

All forward!

[Screaming and cheering] SEJAL: All right, that was the last rapid, now we just gotta get through all this technical stuff.

JESS: Good job, Sejal.

BETH: Yeah, Sejal!

GRACE: Sejal!

[Cheering] JESS: The steps for the paddlers that are paddling the whitewater section through Richmond are about 25 feet upstream.

Whenever it rains and the Shockoe Retention Basin and the wastewater treatment plant systems are totally filled up, this is where the rest of the water comes out.

So it's storm water and sewer systems that dump straight into the James River, right here in the 14th Street take out.

What is really great is that Richmond has passed some legislation where they need to update those sewer systems by 2035.

And so right now they can capture about 90 percent of their outflows.

And by 2035, that goal is to be mandated for them to capture 100 percent and be able to retain all of their combined sewer systems so that they don't flow out into the James River.

BETH: It was so fun today, we hit some crazy rapids.

And then the second one we were like, [imitates crashing noise] I looked at Grace and she's like, and her contact rolled back in her eye.

GRACE: It took a solid minute for my contact to roll back into place, so I was like going down the rapid like this.

BETH: We both got face fulls of Richmond James River water.

[Chuckles] [Crickets chirping] [Waves breaking] [Osprey calling] SEJAL: The river is getting really wide and I feel like the smallest little person inside this, like, vast river.

[Osprey calling] JESS: Yesterday we left the James River proper and arrived into the James River estuary.

Pretty soon it's going to become a river that is like four miles wide in some places.

It's been really heartwarming to be able to see all of the people that are so passionate about this river and then just get to experience firsthand why.

This river is beautiful, this river is resilient.

It's pretty cool.

[Birds chirping] [Osprey calling] BETH: Woke up in a puddle, it's 5:45 in the morning.

GRACE: Going to puddle into the Bay today.

[Laughter] BETH: We're trying to beat the storm.

JESS: Looks like we're clear, until around 1:40 and then it starts to get pretty bad.

So by 2:30 we definitely need to be off the water... and stay off the water.

The tide's against us, so that's the only thing that's a little bit concerning.

We're going to be pretty exposed as we come around that spit, it's going to be windy, it's probably going to get choppy.

[Industrial clanging noises] [Water splashing] ♪ ["Oceanside Drive" by Chris Mason plays] ♪ JESS: My heart's pounding so fast right now.

That's the Chesapeake Bay right there.

[Cheers] Oh, my God.

BETH: We made it!

[Cheering] JESS: I am- I am full of a lot of emotions.

I'm so glad that I've gotten to know my river from its headwaters all the way out to the Bay.

[More cheering] JESS: It was really cool for us to be able to kind of follow the journey that water makes across the state of Virginia and be able to think of that in a wider sense of our river systems here in the United States.

[Cheering continues] JESS: These waterways need constant protection and advocacy.

BETH: Human connection has been a big thing, which is kind of surprising because it's a river.

♪ ["Skipping" by Ian Post plays] ♪ BETH: I mean, water is essential.

[Laughs] But to have it kind of flowing in a way where you can play on it and hang out around it and all this wildlife is there.

Yeah, pretty cool.

[Sound of water trickling] SEJAL: All living things need to be respected.

And when you pollute into the rivers, when you don't take care of what has been given to us, you're doing it a disservice.

JESS: Our waterways need people who care about them.

And the people who care about them are going to be the people who are living right there in that watershed and are connected to the rivers, the creeks, the streams, and everything that surrounds them in the environment.

[Waves hit shore] ♪ ["Malibu" by Maya Pacziga plays] ♪