Virginia, Army Corps pick an oyster plan

NEWPORT NEWS

Instead of spending nothing and doing little this year, Virginia and the Army Corps of Engineers have reached a compromise of sorts over how to help restore oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, state officials said Tuesday.

The deal, reached after a lengthy meeting Monday in Norfolk, will allow about $1.6 million in federal funds to finance oyster research and repairs to man-made oyster reefs in the Great Wicomico River, a Bay tributary in northeastern Virginia.

Left unspent, however, is about $900,000 approved earlier by Congress, said Jack Travelstead, state fisheries director. Travelstead said the state will likely ask the Army Corps to hold the money until they can resolve a larger dispute over how best to revive oyster populations ravaged by disease, pollution and lost habitat.

"The news is good," Travelstead told the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, which unanimously adopted the compromise plan Tuesday at its monthly meeting in Newport News.

To help guide future projects and avoid showdowns like the one this year, Travelstead said, the state and corps also agreed to form a joint policy committee, which will include environmentalists, oyster growers, merchants, scientists and regulators.

"In the long term, we believe this is a major step forward," he said.

Virginia has insisted for months that it no longer will accept federal money if the corps and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration only build new oyster reefs that are off-limits to commercial harvesting.

The state believes in a strategy in which reefs are built not only to help the environment - oysters filter pollutants and purify water quality - but also provide some products for watermen to collect and merchants to sell.

But without any of its own money - state oyster funding has been cut to zero in the last two budgets - Virginia has had to rely on federal agencies that say they are only authorized to build oyster sanctuaries.

To cover its required share of the costs, the state has been providing mountains of oyster shells for restoration projects. The shells are shaped into rounded mounds in rivers and creeks that feed the Bay. But those shells are running scarce and officials worry they may soon run out.

The compromise plan will include money to study just how many shells are left in Virginia. Most, ancient shells that are mined from the muddy depths, are buried beneath the James River.

Old Dominion University and Rutgers University also will research the ecological benefits of Virginia's dual-purpose reefs, according to the plan. If shown to be positive, this system of environmental and economic gain might be adopted in future oyster projects, Travelstead said.

Another $600,000 will be spent to add new shells and revamp older reefs already in place in the Great Wicomico River. It was there that the corps wanted to spend much of its $2.5 million this year to construct 30 acres of new reefs.

But the state objected, citing the federal sanctuary-only policy. Officials also argued that the corps wanted to set the new reefs in muddy spots that likely will sink, as well as in river depths greater than 12 feet.

Water often goes anoxic at such depths, state officials say, and Virginia was worried any oysters that grew on the reefs would die for lack of oxygen.

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