THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994 TAG: 9406130065
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940613 LENGTH: EASTVILLE
These days, grandma's philosophy has a fancy name. It's called sustainable development, and defined as economic growth that doesn't damage the environment. In Northampton County, on the Eastern Shore, the term is more than just another piece of jargon.
{REST} Backed by a $700,000 federal grant, locals have put together a plan to create jobs by capitalizing on - and conserving - the county's lush natural resources.
``It's not jobs versus the environment, but jobs based on protecting the environment,'' County Administrator Tom Harris said.
The sustainable development action strategy, which was written by dozens of volunteers after months of effort, will be presented to the county Board of Supervisors today. The board is expected to vote on the plan.
Some recommendations may be controversial. The plan says Northampton should build an industrial park for sustainable businesses around Cape Charles harbor. It recommends zoning changes to limit residential sprawl and protect bird habitats. And it says that no new discharges should be allowed in some county creeks.
Supporters of the plan insist that these conservation measures are an economic necessity. Northampton's best assets are its pristine creeks, barrier islands, bay beaches and marshes, they say. The trick is to make money off the natural resources without destroying them.
The action plan recommends that Northampton focus on nature and history-based tourism, tap the bird-watching market and attract researchers to the county. Sell local crafts, it says, and come up with ways to add value to things that already are being produced on the Eastern Shore, like crabs and tomatoes. People in urban markets will pay top dollar for food produced in a super-clean environment.
Northampton's sustainable development initiative has gotten a lot of support from deep-pocket players. The Nature Conservancy, which claims to be the world's largest conservation group, has created a company to market these types of products. Old Dominion University in Norfolk has started a research center near Nassawadox to help solve the problems that locals could run into when developing sustainable industries. And the feds fund Northampton's Office of Sustainable Development. Tim Hayes, director of the program, has worked tirelessly to bring traditional antagonists like ecologists and businessmen to common ground.
But some people in Northampton remain skeptical about these ideas. They worry that the plan's focus on seafood and agriculture may be nothing more than the latest push by affluent whites to maintain the status quo.
``We need new types of industries started here,'' said John Nottingham, co-chair of one sustainable development task force. Work on farms and the water means low-paying seasonal jobs with no benefits - the types of work that blacks here have had for generations, he said.
``These types of jobs don't serve the needs of our people,'' said Nottingham. His task force asks that Northampton officials work with the town of Cape Charles on a whole list of initiatives that would revitalize the once booming port.
Northampton could use a little growth. Nearly 27 percent of its residents live below the federal poverty level. The unemployment rate in April was 7.5 percent, almost 3 points higher than the state rate of 4.6 percent.
For years, county officials have been chasing the elusive industry that would save the local economy. But no major company plans to locate on the Eastern Shore this year. And the few businesses that were feasible - a maximum security prison, some developers and toxic-waste processors - have gotten a cold welcome.
What many saw as a bleak situation, Laura McKay saw as an opportunity. McKay is coastal projects coordinator for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in Richmond. She knew there was money available from the feds for the right conservation project.
Northampton fit the bill. Not only does the county have one of the world's last undeveloped barrier island systems, but it is an important stop for songbirds migrating to and from Central America and the Caribbean.
McKay and the county asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for $600,000. With that, she hoped to develop a conservation plan for land south of Cherrystone Creek.
The money would also be used to pull together maps and data about Northampton, and to gather data about the economic value of sustainable industries.
NOAA liked the idea so much that it gave Northampton more than it asked for - $700,000. In return, the feds want county officials to draft ordinances that will enforce coastal protection measures.
``They want to put more teeth into coastal resource management,'' McKay said. The county was given two years to write its new conservation policies.
Last month, members of the county's Sustainable Development Task Force voted unanimously to ask the board to include all of Northampton in the conservation plan.
Many of the recommendations in the sustainable development action plan are actually conditions of the grant. For example, at least some of Northampton's creeks must be nominated as ``exceptional waters,'' although the feds can't require that the nomination be approved.
No new discharges that require a permit, and no expansion of a currently permitted discharge, are allowed into ``exceptional waters.''
If it were up to Seth Rux, of Franktown, all of Northampton's creeks and marshes would be ``exceptional waters.'' Rux is secretary of the Eastern Shore Working Watermen's Association and chairman of the sustainable development task force on seafood and aquaculture.
Rux, 35, runs a small soft-crab operation with his parents. He said most of the talk about sustainable development sounds like a bunch of hot air to watermen. But one thing they know for certain: Something has to be done to save the county's seafood industry.
``We always thought as watermen that the crabs would be the last to go. They're tough rascals and they had endured a lot of pollution,'' said Rux. ``Then suddenly, in 1989, every damn one of them on the seaside died. It's like a desert out there. You can't make a living on the seaside.''
To Rux and other watermen - not to mention the high-tech clam and oyster growers - sustainable development means anything that will keep the creeks clean.
Farmers back any plans that will boost the profitability of agriculture. In the past, those goals were mutually exclusive, because farm chemicals polluted the creeks. Tim Hayes hopes that both problems can be solved.
By 1995, funding for Northampton's Office of Sustainable Development runs out. And, more immediately, no one knows if the Board of Supervisors will vote to approve the action strategy, much less any subsequent changes to county ordinances.
Although the board supported McKay in her efforts to get the grant, and appointed members of the Sustainable Development Task Force, there is no guarantee that it will line up with the action strategy's recommendations.
``Grant money can't promise political will,'' McKay said.
{KEYWORDS} ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION ECONOMY ECOLOGY
by CNB