THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9602020410
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
The James River, perhaps Virginia's most renowned and regal river, is a royal mess these days.
Closed Tuesday to shellfish harvesting due to a khaki-colored gush of sewage and flood water, the James will remain off-limits to watermen seeking clams and oysters until next week, and probably longer, state officials said Thursday.
``If the past is any indication, I'd expect things to stay closed for about one to three weeks, depending on the weather,'' said Robert Croonenberghs, director of shellfish sanitation at the Virginia Department of Health.
The last time the entire river was shut down was in 1989, when storms washed sediments, fertilizer, animal wastes and other pollutants from urban streets and farm fields into the Chesapeake Bay.
Called stormwater runoff, the bedeviling pollution source is hard to contain and occurs every time it rains. Controlled by filters in storm drains, holding ponds and by wetlands and forests, runoff often overwhelms these buffers during heavy storms.
Melting snow from central and western Virginia is the biggest culprit this time, carrying myriad pollutants from as far away as the Blue Ridge, officials said.
If that were not enough, flood waters then overwhelmed a Richmond sewage plant, causing more than 100 million gallons of untreated sewage to overflow into the James on Saturday and Sunday, Croonenberghs said.
Currently, the river is ``extremely turbid and contaminated'' from Williamsburg to Willoughby, according to a state health department notice released Wednesday night.
What little clamming is done on the James during winter months is done in these waters - where the river meets Hampton Roads and the Bay, watermen and state officials said.
``The closing will have a big impact on the people working in there,'' said Linda Crewe, a Newport News clammer and crabber, who also chairs the state's clam advisory subcommittee. ``That's about the only place you can find clams down there this time of year. There's not much else around there.''
Just what effect the storm waters will have on the Bay's ecosystem still is unclear. Scientists and environmentalists will be monitoring water quality, underwater grasses and sedimentation.
When the health department announced the closure Tuesday, about eight oyster boats and three clam boats were on the river, said Wilford Kale, a senior policy analyst for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
The boats were allowed to keep their catch, he and others said, but were told not to harvest any more until further notice.
The James is one of the few rivers still open to public oystering in Virginia. The lower half of the Bay and other tributaries are closed because a devastating decade of disease, pollution and overfishing has nearly vanquished native stocks.
Jim Wesson, the state's chief of oyster restoration, said few oysters are in the James this winter, as most were wiped out by another flood of rainwater last summer.
One longtime James River waterman, Sonny Gay, said he has not been on the water in several months. ``It's not worth it; there's not much out there,'' he said Thursday. ``There's a couple boats still working, I think, but I don't think they're catching much.''
With a rush of sewage and animal waste comes fecal coliform, a bacteria found in the feces of warm-blooded animals. In oyster harvest areas, fecal coliform counts have been as high as 1,100 colonies per 100 milliliters of water. The state pollution standard allows just 14 fecal colonies per 100 milliliters, Croonenberghs said.
Because levels are so high, health officials will wait until next week before checking the river again. Croonenberghs said the mouth of the James will likely be re-opened first because a natural flushing action is stronger near the Bay than in more staid waters in the upper James. by CNB