Report: Chesapeake Bay is ripe for breeding bacteria

NORFOLK

Joe Stover stood before TV cameras and reporters Tuesday and recalled that strange day last June when his right hand inexplicably "swelled up to the size of a catcher's mitt."

Stover, 68 and healthy, had been boating with his grandson on the Warwick River in Newport News. Unknown to him, a flesh-eating bacteria called Vibrio had snuck into a small cut on his thumb, causing an infection that changed his life.

Vibrio has led to nine deaths in Virginia in the past decade. It also can cause gangrene and amputation. But Stover got lucky. After 10 days in the hospital, surgery and three months of physical therapy, he recovered full use of his hand.

"Only when it happens to you do you realize how important it is to keep our waters clean," Stover said at a news conference called by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group.

The foundation asked Stover to tell his story to illustrate the main point of a study released Tuesday - that higher water temperatures and nutrient pollution are increasing the presence of bacteria and harmful algae in the Bay, which in turn is increasing health risks to humans, fish and shellfish.

Citing state statistics, the foundation determined that the number of reported cases of Vibrio infections in Virginia has more than doubled in the past decade - from 12 in 1999, to 20 in 2004, to 30 last year. Maryland, too, has seen a rise in Vibrio cases.

The foundation also noted how beach closures due mostly to excessive fecal bacteria, but sometimes related to harmful algae blooms, continue to bedevil the Bay each summer. Last year, Virginia issued 10 swimming advisories at six beaches, while Maryland totaled 44 advisories and closures at 31 beaches.

Despite all the scary images and numbers, foundation officials were careful to stress that the Bay in general is hardly an unsafe mess.

About 90 percent of shellfish waters remained opened for harvesting last year, and most swimming beaches were deemed safe by health inspectors.

However, "the fact is, there are times and there are places where it's risky," said Roy A. Hoagland, vice president of the foundation.

Hoagland said the "real tragedy" of the report is that in the 21st century, 25 years after regional leaders and governments committed to clean up the Bay, "we're still having to ask questions about whether it's safe enough to swim in this place or that place in the Bay."

The foundation called on local, state and federal governments to crack down on pollution sources of excessive nitrogen and phosphorus, such as sewage treatment plants, farm fields and urban storm drains.

The Virginia Health Department did not contest most of the data in the report but had trouble answering questions about whether human health risks are increasing.

Two spokesmen said staffers who could answer those questions were not in the office Tuesday.

One spokesman, Larry Hill, urged the public to view the department's Web site, which includes suggestions that people avoid swimming after heavy rainfalls, when pollutants are mostly likely to be flushed into tidal waters, and for those with immune deficiencies to avoid eating raw shellfish.

Hill said the number of recent bacteria-related incidents in coastal waters "is no more than usual," then added, "but I can't say what usual is."

The foundation's report cited statistics and research by scientists and health experts on the state of several bacteria, pathogens and toxic chemicals affecting the Bay. They included Vibrio, mercury, nitrates, blue green algae and cryptosporidium, a pathogen that local health departments do not test for at beaches.

The average temperature of the Bay is rising about half a degree Fahrenheit per decade, providing bacteria and harmful algae a more inviting environment to thrive, according to the report.

In summer, the report described, the Bay "is like a warm pond with a broth of nutrients at the right temperature to breed algae and bacteria."

No one is more sensitive to those conditions than Stover, a lifelong boater and outdoor enthusiast. Despite his ordeal with Vibrio, Stover said he continues to enjoy the rivers and creeks off the James River - but is more cautious.

Before he goes out, "I check to see if anyone has any cuts or mosquito bites," Stover said, "and we're more aware of where we boat."

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com