THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060518
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 94 lines
The stinky water ruins boat paint and kills fish.
The water becomes still, thick, lifeless. It stinks of rotten eggs and sewage. Crabs gasp for air and many die. So do minnows and juvenile fish that wander into the oxygen-depleted headwaters of Knitting Mill Creek.
Tests indicate that this narrow tributary of the Lafayette River, just east of Old Dominion University, can contain so much sulfur in late summer that it chemically alters boat paint, turning the paint black and useless against barnacles.
``I've had it; I moved my boat out last week,'' laments A.E. ``Buddy'' Krise, who grew up on the creek off Colley Avenue a generation ago. Krise said the sulfur-laden water has caused an estimated $5,000 worth of damage to his pleasure boat, which he now docks in Hampton until conditions change.
Oddly, Knitting Mill Creek turns nasty for just a week or so, usually around Labor Day. It has performed this Jekyll-and-Hyde turnabout for three straight summers, puzzling scientists and government officials.
Tired of a seasonal onslaught of odors, fish kills and expensive boat repairs, and also fearing possible health risks, waterfront residents and boaters want something done.
``I've been out here for 25 years and I've never seen a problem until now,'' said K.N. Oulie, who also is preparing to move his boat to escape the mess. ``Sometimes it stinks so bad in here you can't even stand it.''
In response to such complaints, a contingent of city, state and federal experts has pledged to sit down and brainstorm over what may be causing the rot and what remedies might be prescribed.
``It's not just a question of this being a stinky marsh, as we have elsewhere in the hot summer months,'' said Keith Cannady, an environmental engineer for Norfolk. ``We just haven't found the smoking gun yet.''
Theories abound: illegal sewage discharges, leaking outdoor toilets, sewage line cleaning, natural decomposition of leaves and other debris under summer heat. But the one theory with perhaps the most promise is a flawed dredging of the creek, conducted three summers ago.
Boaters and residents say they noticed no serious smells or major fish kills until after September 1993, when the Army Corps of Engineers and the city completed a $220,000 dredging project in Knitting Mill Creek.
The main channel was deepened to 6 feet in most places, according to corps records, except near the headwaters, where an 8-foot depth was carved. The idea was to create a holding basin for mud and sediments, which otherwise would wash downstream and fill up the channel again.
There is some belief, among experts and locals, that the basin also is catching waste, rotten bait, dead leaves and other organic material that decomposes in the summer. The resulting gas, hydrogen sulfide, would account for the foul odor and high amounts of sulfur, the theory goes.
There also is a question of the dredging project not going far enough. Workers stopped dredging before reaching a storm drain at the dead end of the creek, near O'Sullivan's Wharf restaurant.
The city wanted to remove debris in this last area but was told the activity could harm worms and microscopic creatures living in the bottom there, said Steve Snyder, a city public works employee who oversees dredging projects, including the one in Knitting Mill Creek.
This leftover debris, combined with new wastes arriving via the storm drain, could be the source feeding the natural reaction of decomposition, which robs oxygen from water, several officials theorized.
At O'Sullivan's, which features a deck overlooking the creek, some customers have been forced indoors by the smell, but on other nights recently, conditions have been fine and no one complained, said owner Victoriano Caramillo. ``It's definitely adverse, that's for sure.''
While some sampling has revealed excessive amounts of fecal coliform, a bacteria associated with sewage, the city health department considers the creek safe for swimming, fishing and crabbing, said Karen Gulley, an environmental health supervisor.
Because the creek is so narrow and small, it has never naturally flushed well - meaning that sediments and pollutants don't wash downstream easily with the tides. But still, old-time boaters attest that the creek flushed fine before the dredging, even as far back as World War II, when a mill used to discharge wastes into these same headwaters.
M.E. Kelley, who has docked along the creek for at least 15 years, said he just had the bottom of his boat repainted because the rot had ruined his previous coating.
Kelley noted how zinc fixtures on his boat have turned black because of exposure to sulfur.
He and other boat owners lamented Thursday how insurance companies, tired of paying claims for such damage, are asking them to seek policies for their boats elsewhere.
``This is becoming real expensive,'' said Tom Minamyer, who has docked on Knitting Mill Creek for 12 years and also just had his hull repainted. ``I'm thinking about getting out, too. I love it here, but it's just not worth it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Sulfuric creek water damaged the paint on the bottom of M.E.
Kelley's boat.
Color Graphic
Area shown: Knitting Mill Creek
KEYWORDS: KNITTING MILL CREEK SULFER by CNB