THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606090056
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KIA MORGAN ALLEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 99 lines
Dennis Goolsby yanked a soiled cardboard box from the mucky bank of the Elizabeth River, and a dozen tiny black crabs scuttled away.
Goolsby didn't even flinch. The Navy petty officer second class was happy to get down and dirty to pull garbage from the river, one of dozens of sites selected for the eighth annual ``Clean the Bay Day'' on Saturday.
``I just wanted to help clean the environment,'' Goolsby said as sweat dripped from his brow.
Clean the Bay Day, which began in 1989, garnered nearly 4,000 volunteers this year to help pick up trash from the shorelines in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and the Peninsula.
Some 183 tons of garbage were plucked from about 200 miles of shoreline, event organizer Julie McCollum said.
Traditionally, the shoreline along the Elizabeth River has been one of the best places to collect hundreds of pounds of garbage, said Clean the Bay Day founder Robert Dean.
But the site took a back seat on Saturday to Tangier Island - which offered a remarkable collection of refrigerators, automobiles, car batteries and golf carts.
``It's beyond imagination,'' Dean said.
About 14 schoolchildren, a half-dozen volunteers from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and 15 Telephone Pioneers of America volunteers - a group of retired telecommunications workers - flew to the island, a fishing hamlet in the middle of the bay, to help sort through the junk.
Because Tangier Island, which is inundated with landfills, is so polluted, bay cleaners hope to schedule another cleanup effort for September, Dean said.
``We are trying to get funding in place to begin the monstrous project to clean up the island,'' he said.
In various locations throughout the region, organizers said hundreds of unusual items were found.
There were couches, televisions, blankets, a sofa, doorknobs, vacuum cleaners and water heaters. Ruby Arredondo, cleaning coordinator for Virginia Beach, said even a chandelier, a fence post, a marble countertop and a burned bed were found.
``They are trying to furnish a house - not literally,'' Arredondo joked.
Several crews around the region did a lot of heavy lifting to reach the day's totals.
In False Cape, 45 volunteers collected 15,200 pounds of garbage from the Virginia Beach shoreline. From Breakers Court to the Lynnhaven Inlet, 36 other volunteers gathered 1,500 pounds of trash. At Stumpy Lake, 62 volunteers combed 3.5 miles of land and collected 3,250 pounds.
Volunteers also scoured areas around Buckroe Beach, Langley Air Force Base and Fort Monroe in Hampton, among other sites.
Back at the Elizabeth River site near the Campostella Bridge, the Navy crew and members of the Norfolk Marine Institute - a group for at-risk children - plugged away in the mud and grime. About a dozen volunteers combed through acres of uncut grass and retrieved car parts, toys, inner tubes, lumber and glass.
``As polluted as it seems, I still think it has a lot of good ecological value,'' said Kevin DuBois, an environmental specialist who helped coordinate the river's cleanup effort.
``We need to recognize that the wildlife habitat already exists. Through efforts like this, we can help to restore it.''
As soiled and tainted as the surroundings remain, a heron was spotted eating fish and prospering within its habitat.
Nearby, rusted derelict vessels were perched in the dirty water. Metal ropes, bottles, clothing and cigarette butts, brought in by the tide, lay on rocks.
Navy volunteer Ray Chappell even pulled up a hole-riddled, white jumpsuit.
The volunteers, armed with potato sacks, stumbled over fallen trees to collect canisters, paper and other oddities that had washed ashore.
Brehon Hinton, 15, one of five juveniles who was volunteering through the Norfolk Marine Institute, didn't mind spending the day gathering garbage. It beat getting into trouble.
``It's nice doing something good for a change, instead of . . . being negative,'' he said.
Brehon and his fellow volunteers worked bare-handed, picking up contaminated articles in the grassy terrain. Volunteer divers at the mouth of Little Creek gathered trash underwater.
This year, volunteers from the Campostella community, Oceana, Stumpy Lakes, Willoughby and almost every military base contributed to helping various areas.
The Army Corps of Engineers set up a barge and crane in the Elizabeth River. The group will dispose of garbage found by the cleanup crews.
Because the event only happens once a year, Clean the Bay Day relies heavily on T-shirt sales and the diligent efforts of volunteers, said T-shirt representative Charlie Johnson.
``All the credit goes to volunteers,'' Johnson said. ``They do this strictly on their own.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
GARY C. KNAPP
Rudy Calvillo, left, keeps tabs on the debris Stan Brinkley collects
as the Norfolk men work near the Campostella Bridge.
Photo
GARY C. KNAPP
Derek Hunt, left, a coordinator with the Norfolk Marine Institute, a
group for at-risk children, and Derron Williams, a student in the
program, were among those scouring the Campostella Bridge area on
Saturday. by CNB