Since 1984, Fairfax County, with assistance from George Mason University, has been monitoring water quality and aquatic life in the Gunston Cove area. As a major discharger of treated wastewater into the tidal Potomac River from the Noman M. Cole Jr., Pollution Control Plant, Fairfax County has been proactive in decreasing nutrients, a major cause of water quality impairment, since the late 1970s.