"More than 16,000 miles of Virginia rivers are polluted, a new report shows. That’s up nearly 3,000 miles from the previous report two years ago.

State Department of Environmental Quality officials, however, say they don’t think rivers are getting more polluted. Rather, they say they are looking at lots of new stretches and finding that many of them are tainted, too.

'DEQ doesn’t believe the waters are getting dirtier,' said agency spokesman Bill Hayden. 'We are finding pollution in areas we had not looked before. So it’s really a much more sophisticated look at statewide water quality each time we do this report.'"

Rex Springston reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch November 16, 2014. [2]