VIRGINIA BEACH
The Lynnhaven River is having a great environmental year, right?
After all, because of healthier conditions, 112 more acres of the Virginia Beach waterway have been opened to shellfish harvesting, bucking a statewide trend and adding to the promise of cleaner water and a resurgent Lynnhaven oyster industry.
But a report released Thursday night by Lynnhaven River Now, an environmental group, concludes that the city's largest river system slightly worsened ecologically in 2008.
Nutrient pollution - excessive nitrogen and phosphorus, which can rob oxygen from the river and put aquatic life at risk - increased significantly this year, the report said. Further, the river showed a net loss of wetlands and open space, according to the group's annual "State of the River" report.
"While we're obviously excited about the continued oyster success, we've had our fair share of downsides too," said Karen Forget, executive director of the grassroots group leading river cleanup efforts.
"It tells us that we still have a lot of work to do," she added, "that restoration is a long and slow fight."
In compiling its report, the group measured 16 factors and assigned each a letter grade, from A to F. The scores were added to reach an overall grade reflecting the river's environment health and the cleanup's progress.
Last year, the Lynnhaven scored a B. This year, it slipped to a B-.
Still, there were smiles and cheers Thursday night at an oyster-stuffed event at Steinhilber's restaurant, on the Lynnhaven River, where the scorecard was released.
A roomful of donors, staff members and local officials raised champagne flutes to toast this year's success with oysters and in other areas over the past five years.
"We're getting attention from groups across the Chesapeake Bay region, asking 'What are you doing so
right?' " Forget told the crowd. "A lot of groups are seeing things getting worse, and we're seeing things getting better."
A no-discharge zone for boats, greater awareness of living green, sewage system improvements and construction of nearly 60 acres of artificial oyster reefs have been cited as reasons for the turnaround the past five years.
Laurie Carroll Sorabella, a marine scientist and assistant director of Lynnhaven River Now, said a remaining culprit is emerging: fertilizer.
Rich in nutrients, fertilizer is good for lawns and gardens. But in excess, it can be ruinous for water quality. And with so much waterfront property in the Lynnhaven watershed, the need for reducing fertilizer is becoming paramount, Sorabella said.
She said the group will focus on educating residents about proper us e and about buying brands with low-nitrogen content.
"So your lawn is not perfectly green all year," she said. "So what?"
The Lynnhaven had been closed to shellfish harvesting for decades because of too much bacteria in the water, ending a fishery that once put Lynnhaven oysters in fine restaurants around the world.
That changed last year, when 1,400 acres, or about 29 percent of the river, was deemed clean enough to support the taking - and eating - of oysters and clams.
Late Thursday, roasted and raw Lynnhaven oysters, grown on an aquaculture farm in Broad Bay, were the talk of the meeting.
Hap Chalmers, whose son Cam raised the oysters being served at the event, said he always knew this day would come.
"Never a doubt, not for one minute," Chalmers said. "We just needed to put our minds to it and get after it. And we have."
Chalmers pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket showing all the restaurants buying Lynnhaven oysters from his son - in New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Washington, D.C.
"We're back!" he said with a smile.
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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Oysters Taste Good: Wetlands and Open Space More Important.
Greetings. As long as the Lynnhaven estuary continues to lose wetlands and open space buffers, stormwater runoff and fertilizer leachates will cause the short-term gains made in recent years to disappear. The submerged aquatic vegetation will not re-establish and the Lynnhaven oyster will again be but a sweet memory. Now is the time to acquire properties like Indigo Dunes (Pleasure House Point)so that the Lynnhaven may, indeed, be rrestored, rather than continue its slow decline after a brief, partial recovery after a dry summer of 2007. Now is the time to restrict meaningfully the alteration and development of adjoining wetlands so that the natural systems of the estuary may once again function.
N-P-K - Three Little Letters, Long Lasting Problems
It is not at all suprising that nutrients continue to plague the Lynnhaven. From the air, properties along the River glow bright green from all of the manicured lawns and properties. Between the chemical company trucks blowing their tanked lawn care products across the communities with appointment driven haste, and homeowners filling their SUVs with bags upon bags of N-P-K fertilizers, it is a wonder one cannot walk across the algae mats in the River. Not every lawn needs such extensive dosing every season of every year. Unless the soils at the properties are tested, it is only a wild guess if anything applied is enough, in excess, or an entire waste of time, money, and labor. One could say to educate the public, teach them the error of their ways. What a load. Most with properties surrounding the Lynnhaven could care less, they got theirs - everyone else go float. On floating, are the sanitary pump-out stations available during the winter? Are they fully functional through out the year and at convenient locations - where?