THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190603
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAWRENCE MADDRY
LENGTH: 125 lines
IT IS LIKELY that Capt. John Smith and twelve Jamestown colonists were the first white men to see what is now called the Elizabeth River.
In the summer of 1608 they boarded an open boat equipped with sails and oars and made their way down the James River eventually reaching Point Comfort, and finally exploring our river, entering through Chesapeake Bay.
The shores of the river, it was reported, were ``overgrownne with the greatest Pyne and Firre trees we ever saw in the Country.''
The river - a tidal estuary - teemed with fish and shellfish, its bottom visible in the shallows.
A writer in 1679 described the Elizabeth River as pristine and filled with many species of fish. And it was noted that oyster reefs in the river were so large that at low tide they were a foot above the water and easily harvested.
No more.
The Elizabeth River - named for Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of James I - extends from the Dismal Swamp to Chesapeake Bay. Pittsylvania-Henry County line. It is a symbol of South Hampton Roads, linking, with its branches, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
But the symbol has become a watery wasteland - the liquid equivalent of a desert filled with hazardous waste.
The river's deterioration has been accelerated since the end of the age of sail. As early as 1925 pollutants had made it necessary to declare the harvesting of any clams or oysters in the river illegal, because of the threat to health.
A review of newspaper headlines over the past 30 years is a sickening experience itself.
``Dirty, abused Elizabeth River needs help'' - Sept. 1, 1977.
``Carcinogens pollute Elizabeth River'' - May 19, 1983.
``Elizabeth River awash in sewage'' - April 15, 1984.
``EPA has identified 18 potential contamination sources at Norfolk Naval Base'' - June 15, 1996.
Comparing our river with others when he was governor, Charles Robb called the Elizabeth's pollution ``clearly the worst of the worst.''
Fish in the river have tumors and cataracts caused by pollutants. A State Water Control Board survey released in 1985 found that concentrations of toxic metals found in the Elizabeth River were 97 times the amount considered hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency.
By the mid-1980s citizens of Hampton Road knew something should be done - had to be done - to clean up the river. Speeches were made. But folks just seemed to look at each other wondering if it were really possible. The scope of such a project seemed so large, no one seemed to know where to start.
But a beginning was made in November 1991.
And the beginning was not with a governor, or a blue-ribbon committee. Just a bunch of rather ordinary folks sitting around a kitchen table drinking coffee at the home of Sharon Adams in Virginia Beach.
The foursome, which began the Elizabeth River Project, included Adams, executive director of the Virginia Beach SPCA; Marjorie Mayfield, a journalist who lived on a branch of the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth; Mike Kensler, a staffer for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; and Robert Dean, who had founded the Clean the Bay Day in Hampton Roads.
``We didn't know what we wanted to do,'' Adams recalled. ``We just knew we had to do something.''
Their first step was to interview 65 community leaders asking each what the river meant to them, how they viewed the river's problems and what should be done.
``We took our direction from them,'' recalled Mayfield, now the ERP's executive director. ``They told us the river was the lifeblood of our local economy and pledged support but only if there was going to be no finger pointing with blame and an approach which brought everyone together.''
By March 1993 - with a grant from the EPA - they had assembled a team of scientists, government officials and business people who were to identify the river's most important environmental problems.
The report of their findings was published in August 1995.
Thursday, The Elizabeth River Project, headed by Rear Adm. Ray E. Moses, will release its action plan for cleaning up the river. The plan is a remarkable work, undertaken by 200 of our neighbors, each bringing special expertise to the river's problems. The contributors live in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, and the many occupations represented include businessmen, naval personnel and schoolteachers.
The plan is so broad that all of us in Hampton Roads will have to roll up our sleeves to make it work. And who better than former CBS News luminary Charles Kuralt - author of ``Charles Kuralt's America'' - to lead the way?
Kuralt once wrote of rivers: ``We fish them, sail them, paddle them. We camp beside them. We want never to lose them.''
And he's invested his own energy toward that end.
He's a board member of American Rivers, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., devoted to river preservation. Kuralt will give a kickoff address in Norfolk in the Nauticus auditorium at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The public is invited to the Kuralt talk, a light supper, music by the Dramtreeo band, and a photographic ``Tribute to the River, the People, The Plan,'' given by ERPs Susan and Bill Cofer. Admission is $30.
On Friday, the action plan for river cleanup will be presented in more detail, and interested folks can receive committee assignments. The public is invited to the daylong series of programs about the plan to be presented in the Norfolk Ballroom of Norfolk Waterside Marriott. The keynote speech will be given by William McDonough, winner of the 1996 Presidential Award for Sustainable Development. Admission is $55 for the Friday session and includes lunch.
To register for either or both events, or learn how you can help, phone 625-3648. ILLUSTRATION: File color photo
Graphic
ELIZABETH RIVER PROJECT PLAN
What: A public conference launching a dynamic watershed action
plan to restore the Elizabeth River, presented by The Elizabeth
River Project.
When: Thursday and Friday.
Where: At Nauticus on Thursday. At the Norfolk Waterside Marriott
on Friday.
THURSDAY EVENTS:
5 p.m.: Riverfront celebration with music by Dramtreeo band,
light dinner, cash bar.
6 p.m.: 1996 Charter Membership Meeting.
7 p.m.: ``Elizabeth River Restoration: A Tribute to the River,
the People, the Plan.'' A multimedia presentation by Susan and Bill
Cofer.
7:15 p.m.: Kickoff address by best-selling author and CBS newsman
Charles Kuralt, winner of more than a dozen Emmy Awards.
FRIDAY EVENTS:
Daylong sessions exploring the river cleanup plan in detail.
Prominent speakers include Dr. Robert J. Huggett, assistant
administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency; William
McDonough, winner of the 1996 Presidential Award for Sustainable
Development; Joyce M. Kelly, president and founder of the Wildlife
Habitat Council. by CNB