When the temperature hit the mid-70s the other day, James Wilbur and his two sons headed straight to the James River. They body surfed in the rapids until the October water chilled them.

Government ministers in scuba gear prepared Friday to hold an underwater meeting of the Maldives’ Cabinet to highlight the threat global warming poses to the lowest-lying nation on earth.

Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Pickett and the Defense Supply Center Richmond are the first winners of the new Virginia Department of Defense Eagle Awards. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced the winners yesterday. Among other things, Fort A.P. Hill was cited for establishing stream buffers, using innovative stormwater management techniques and protecting more than 2,900 acres through conservation easements, according to state officials.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced today the winners of the first Virginia Eagle Awards for environmental stewardship among defense installations. The winners were Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Pickett and Defense Supply Center Richmond.

The coal-burning power plant proposed for Surry County would release significant, and illegal, amounts of mercury and other pollutants, according to a new report. The report, to be released today, was commissioned by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group. Officials at the Henrico County-based Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, which is proposing the plant, said yesterday that they were reviewing the report and could not comment in detail.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced today a new regulation to protect clam and oyster production in seaside waters of the Eastern Shore.

Virginia took a big step yesterday to reduce the amount of pollution that washes off subdivisions, office parks and other new developments. The Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board adopted, by a 7-1 vote, the first major revision of state stormwater rules in two decades. The rules would require developers to do more things, such as building ponds or low-lying gardens, to decrease runoff pollution.

Federal officials said yesterday that they could impose severe punishments if Virginia and other states don’t do enough to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Those punishments could include withholding federal grants from bay-region states and placing new limits on sewage-treatment plant discharges—a potential hindrance to growth. “We think the accountability system we have here has teeth in it,“ said Robert A. Koroncai, a manager with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Virginians enjoyed air so clean in 2009 that it set a record. With the season for ozone—the main pollutant in smog—virtually over, the state has suffered just three high-ozone days. All three smoggy days occurred in Northern Virginia, which has a long reputation for cars and air pollution. In the Richmond area, ozone never exceeded the federal limit.

Global-warming skeptics frequently argue that the computer models used to predict climate change cannot begin to account for the complexity of the real world. Yet when it comes to the economic consequences of cap-and-trade legislation supported by liberals who want to mitigate climate change, conservative skeptics can be very precise indeed.

The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Virginia League of Conservation Voters today announced their endorsement of state Sen. Creigh Deeds for governor. 

The James River Association, a Richmond-based conservation group, is getting a $100,000 grant to help build awareness of the river’s problems and to protect the James from polluted runoff. The RBC Blue Water Project Leadership Grant, from the Royal Bank of Canada, is scheduled to be presented today in Richmond. RBC’s Blue Water Project is awarding grants totaling $4.1 million to 31 organizations throughout Canada, the British Isles and the United States. The grants support programs that help protect watersheds and improve access to clean drinking water.

You couldn’t see water from Robbie Newcomb’s cornfield in Caroline County, just lots of corn and Robbie’s 14-year-old son, J.R., harvesting it behind the wheel of a red combine. But what happens on farms like Newcomb’s and thousands of others in the Chesapeake Bay watershed will play a huge role in determining the bay’s fate. A lot of farm activities are not regulated. For example, there is no requirement to keep cattle out of streams, where they erode banks and drop pollution pies. In many areas, farmers aren’t required to leave grassy strips along streams to catch polluted runoff.

The Chesapeake Bay is too beautiful for its own good. If its waters caught fire, as the oil-slick Cuyahoga River famously did in Cleveland in 1969, or if stinky waste coated its surface, an outraged public would demand fast action. But the pollutants strangling the bay—nitrogen, phosphorus and old-fashioned dirt—are not sexy. They do their damage slowly, out of sight, below the surface.

If you walk onto the Mayo Bridge by Shockoe Slip and drop a line on the downstream side, you essentially are fishing in the Chesapeake Bay. If you dump pollution in the Shenandoah River, beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains, you can hurt the bay. As we try to restore the Chesapeake, it helps to ask: Where is the bay, and what are we trying to restore?