Lynnhaven's friends mark progress, dig in for more

VIRGINIA BEACH

When environmentalists published their first report on conditions in the Lynnhaven River, 1 percent of the waterway met state health standards. The rest was closed to shellfish harvests due to unsafe bacteria levels.

That was in 2005.

Thursday night, the same advocates celebrated that 42 percent of the Lynnhaven is clean enough to meet those standards and again allow oyster and clam fishing.

Karen Forget, executive director of the environmental group Lynnhaven River Now, read a quote from a fisherman in a 1986 story in The Virginian-Pilot about the fate of the river: "I think the hope of the Lynnhaven is almost gone."

Forget then looked up at the crowd assembled before her at Steinhilber's restaurant and grinned, "Boy, am I glad he was wrong."

In its latest report on ecological conditions in 2011, the group gave the river an overall grade of B, the same as the year before. But much has changed, and yet other things remain the same.

That 1986 story listed two of the same big problems that plague the Lynnhaven today: too many lawn fertilizers and chemicals washing into the river, and too much contaminated stormwater hurting water quality.

Other pollutants have been corrected or at least addressed, including sewage from boats (the Lynnhaven now is a no-discharge zone), leaking septic tanks (the city has spent more than $70 million since 2003 to upgrade sewage systems and do away with septic tanks), and sediment and erosion from construction sites (not much development is going on today compared with the 1980s, and inspection programs have helped reduce such dirty runoff).

Lynnhaven River Now has been active for 10 years and has forged partnerships with the city, other environmental groups and the Army Corps of Engineers, which is helping to rebuild oyster reefs and is committed to doing more to restore the Lynnhaven.

One of the group's organizers, Harry Lester, raised a glass of red wine Thursday night and thanked those in attendance for helping turn the tide.

"Big news, folks," Lester said, "the Lynnhaven River is cleaner than it's ever been, and we've been at this for 10 years."

Afterward, Forget conceded that the group had "picked the lowest hanging fruit" over the past decade and now must dig into the bigger, vexing problems if full restoration is to be achieved.

She noted how Virginia Beach has spent more than $60 million to better control stormwater runoff but only 19 percent of the watershed receives some form of stormwater management.

"We're just scratching the surface," she said.

Water quality still is too cloudy to let underwater grasses grow. The grasses breathe oxygen into the water and provide habitat for fish and crabs. Just 6 acres of grass beds could be found in the Lynnhaven in 2011, and the group's goal is 175 acres.

But as the party continued and attendees slurped plate after plate of raw oysters pulled from the river, few were thinking about the slog ahead.

Instead, it was a night to remember how far they had come.

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