River program in Norfolk aims to reduce pollutants

NORFOLK

Changing human behavior is never easy, but the Elizabeth River Project thinks it has hit upon something that does just that.

The local environmental group this spring launched its River Star Homes program, which asks residents to follow seven simple rules around their house and yard, each designed to reduce everyday pollutants that foul the Elizabeth River and one of its big branches, the Lafayette River.

Without basic lifestyle changes among coastal residents, scientists and environmentalists say that restoring waterways, including the Chesapeake Bay, will be nearly impossible, regardless of how much money government spends.

"We need to take hold of this problem ourselves, do what we can do in our own small way, in our own space," said Dave McDonald, president of the Colonial Place-Riverview Civic League in Norfolk, who joined the Elizabeth River program earlier this year, along with dozens of his neighbors.

More than 550 homeowners have signed up so far in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, twice what organizers had predicted. They hope to reach 1,000 households by April.

Participants receive a blue flag they can stake in their front lawn proclaiming in big white letters that they are a "River Star Home."

This week, in a major boost to the program, the Elizabeth River Project won a $301,900 federal grant, one of several gifts announced in Virginia as part of a larger effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

Now, residents in the Lafayette River watershed, on the west side of Norfolk, can obtain financial aid to build rain barrels and rain gardens and to plant green buffers on their properties to soak up pollutants and sediments. Experts also will be able to visit homes and analyze lawns and soils so residents can reduce fertilizers and chemicals.

With the money from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the local group will be able to hire an educator to help spread the word about the program and can cover fees for a renowned behavior specialist, Doug McKenzie-Mohr, of Canada, to advise how best to motivate more people to sign up and get involved.

"This grant is a huge step in the right direction toward our goal to make the Lafayette branch safe for swimming and fishing by 2014," said Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project.

The program builds on a similar one, called River Stars, that has been in place for years. It asks businesses, schools and industries within the Elizabeth River watershed to complete environmental projects and maintain them in exchange for public recognition of their good deeds.

With the River Star Homes initiative, participants pledge to scoop up their pet wastes, reduce lawn fertilizers, stop dumping grass clippings and debris down storm drains, keep grease out of their sinks, not feed migratory geese, pump out boat sewage at proper facilities instead of releasing it directly into the water, and stop flushing old medicines down the toilet.

The program also is helping to bring neighborhoods together. Michael Berg, who lives in Colonial Place in Norfolk and is an active participant, said he often stops to chat with neighbors also flying a blue flag.

"Just this morning," Berg said, "I was at the local hardware store and I saw a man reading a brochure on our oyster-gardening project. I talked to him about it."

In addition to the grant for the River Star Homes effort, the federal government Wednesday announced more than $1 million for other environmental initiatives. They include $600,000 to Water Stewardship Inc. to reduce nutrient pollution on farms on the Eastern Shore, Middle Peninsula and Shenandoah Valley, and $150,000 to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to improve water quality in Upham Brook, an urbanized stream in Henrico County near Richmond.

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