Work begins to remove toxic muck from Elizabeth River

CHESAPEAKE

For the past decade, environmentalists trying to restore the polluted Elizabeth River have chanted a curious, catchy slogan: "The goo must go!"

The goo is acres and acres of highly toxic contaminants, black and tarry and decades old, that have settled in the muddy bottom of the river, creating a poisonous slurry in hot spots where fish contract cancer and human skin burns after contact.

On Wednesday, environmentalists shouted a new phrase - "The goo is going!" - as heavy equipment scooped up and removed the first batch of toxic muck from the river, a move that officials and dignitaries called a historic step toward a healthier and cleaner Elizabeth.

"At last!" said a beaming Joe Thomas, president of the board of the Elizabeth River Project, an environmental group that had waited years for this day.

Dozens of politicians, scientists, engineers, activists, government officials and others intent on reviving the Elizabeth gathered under a tent to celebrate the event near the work site off Money Point, an industrial section of Chesapeake.

Much of the goo stemmed from a devastating fire in Money Point in the 1960s, when thousands of gallons of raw creosote - a tarlike wood preservative loaded with toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - spilled directly into the river.

After more than three years of planning and designing an appropriate cleanup, officials working with the Elizabeth River Project delighted in showing that construction had finally begun on their $1.2 million remedy.

About 500 tons of toxic goo have been removed from the Money Point site over the past two weeks, said Joe Rieger, a senior scientist and project manager for the Elizabeth River Project.

All the wastes were barged up the James River, unloaded there and carried to one of two final destinations, Rieger said - a landfill in Charles City County or a nearby incinerator, where the toxics are burned off and the purged mud underneath can be reused.

Tons of clean sand, about two feet deep, will be poured into the scar left at Money Point. On top of it, workers will plant a new tidal marsh. And next to the new marsh, about 3.3 acres of artificial oyster reefs will be shaped in a long, protective curve.

The system was described by Rieger and others as one of the first "living caps" engineered and built in U.S. waters.

"We are creating history here today," said Walter Priest, a wetlands expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who helped design the cap. "This is a voluntary cleanup, no one is making anyone do this."

The work is the first phase of a larger restoration effort in Money Point. Starting next summer, crews will dredge up 100 times as much goo, which is even more toxic, from river shallows just to the north, near where the old Eppinger & Russell creosote plant once stood.

That project is expected to cost roughly $11 million, Rieger said, though the environmental group only has about $5 million in hand today.

The current owner of the Eppinger & Russell site, Hess Corp., is designing a near-shore retaining wall that will be sunk into the ground. It will act as a barrier against any contaminants on land migrating into the river.

But the focus Wednesday was all about getting the cleanup started. Speakers recalled childhood memories of Money Point as a frightening wasteland.

Bill Cofer, an Elizabeth River Project officer, talked about sailing past the industrial waterfront as a kid growing up in the region and "seeing nothing living anywhere."

"It looked like someone had put concrete down, but actually it was dirt, packed down, with no vegetation," Cofer said. Still, he added, people often could be seen wading in the shallows, preparing to be baptized.

After learning about the formation of the Elizabeth River Project in the 1990s, Cofer knew he wanted to get involved. "I figured if we can make Money Point alive again, that would be something really special," he said.

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