I'm an open water swimmer who will jump into the upper James in a heartbeat and have done individual swims that have gone from Watkins Landing down to Bosher's Dam and other's where I've gone from Hugenot Flatwater down to the Z Dam and back. Yet I won't touch the lower James and none of the crew of open water swimmers I know and train with will either and that avoidance is solely due to the CSO. It's bad enough that we have to monitor ecoli levels in the upper James due to runoff from farms, but at least those drop off a day or two after a rain event. The lower James the ecoli levels just fester for days and days. But apparently you know more about swimming in the James than I do so good on you for that one.

I also never said all of the silt in the lower James is from the CSO, but the silt that is dropped there via the natural flow of the river is not all just harmless dirt and debris. I helped out during the Ignite SwimRun series when they held a race here in RVA for a few years. The race had an exit point from the James at Shiplock Park and if you don't think there feces down in that mud then you haven't been knee deep in it before.