It's another good year for the Lynnhaven River

Last year was supposed to be a fluke. About 30 percent of the Lynnhaven River was found to be clean enough to harvest shellfish - a phenomenon Virginia Beach hadn't seen in more than 20 years.

Many credited the cleanliness to a near-record drought, which kept animal waste, fertilizer and other chemicals from washing into the river during storms.

It's apparently not a fluke.

Last week, the Virginia Department of Health announced that the same areas of the Lynnhaven, 1,462 acres, continued to meet the rigorous standards for edible oysters - and that bacteria levels have fallen enough to open another 112 acres to shellfishing.

As Robert Croonenberghs, state health director of shellfish sanitation, told The Pilot's Scott Harper: "There's really something unusual and remarkable going on in the Lynnhaven."

Indeed. Despite having more than 220,000 people, some 60,000 dogs and hundreds of businesses in the watershed, the Lynnhaven shows how much traction can be exerted against a daunting issue when an entire community gets in gear.

Six years ago, a group of environmentalists began working to revive Virginia Beach's biggest river system. The city has gone to great lengths, as well, spending about $180 million to extend public sewage lines to tens of thousands of homes and businesses and imposing a no-discharge rule for boat sewage.

Residents have been encouraged to use less fertilizer on their lawns and gardens and to pick up after their pets. More artificial oyster reefs are being built, and wetlands have been restored or preserved. Now the city is considering better ways to filter stormwater off streets and parking lots and through storm drains.

Years earlier than anticipated, these coordinated efforts are restoring the health of the Lynnhaven and bringing delicious oysters back to its dinner tables.

Thirty-one percent of the river will be open to shellfish harvesting later this month, allowing those who hold leases to the river bottom to sell or slurp the shellfish.

The work on the river, parts of it polluted since 1930, should serve as an example and inspiration for cleaning up Chesapeake Bay and bringing back that telltale sign of clean, healthy water: the oyster.