ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996              TAG: 9602190068
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS 

LOWER JAMES IS REOPENED TO SHELLFISHING

The Virginia Department of Health opened the lower James River to shellfishing Friday, more than two weeks after floodwaters washed sewage and other contaminants into the river.

Oystering and clamming are permitted again below the James River Bridge at Newport News.

But bacteria levels upriver are still too high to allow shellfishing, Robert Croonenberghs, the department's director of shellfish sanitation, said Thursday.

Water samples taken Monday and Feb. 9 showed bacteria had returned to acceptable levels below the bridge, Croonenberghs said. The same set of tests showed bacteria levels were still too high upriver. That area will remain closed to shellfishing for at least another few days, Croonenberghs said.

The Health Department banned shellfishing in the James and its tributaries Jan. 30 after tests showed fecal coliform bacteria in the water were three to 78 times above acceptable levels.

Much of the fecal coliform in the river probably was washed from farm land, Croonenberghs said, but another concern was raw sewage from the city of Richmond. It was overwhelmed with floodwaters, allowing sewage to flow untreated into the river from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22.

``We are very concerned about the pathogens that come out of raw sewage - viruses and other pathogenic bacteria,'' Croonenberghs said.

The Health Department took more water samples Thursday from above the bridge. It needs two consecutive sets of tests that indicate bacteria levels are back to normal before it can reopen the river to shellfishing, Croonenberghs said. If Thursday's tests come out clean, he said, a second set of samples will be taken early next week.

The shellfishing ban extended to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. It included some of the last productive oyster grounds in the state - a five-mile stretch of river near Fort Eustis - as well as clamming grounds between the James River Bridge and the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

- Associated Press

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