Have I mentioned my short attention span?

I came across this Lynnhaven River restoration group's website and had to find out just how much they knew or were acknowledging about the system's history of environmental problems. I think what they're trying to do is just awesome (even if it may be futile). Here's the string of emails. Apologies for the corrupted formatting. I suppose I just wanted to share my opinion about what's really (or deeper) at the heart of the Lynnhaven's problems but didn't want to tell anyone what they already knew. Seems to me the devastation of the estuary occurred rapidly and didn't correspond to any particular stage of landscape development, indicating that the origin of the problems was neither the cummulative effects of development nor the effect of some particular landscape event (unless the massive oil slick that occurred one year originated on land) but rather, the cause for (what I saw as) the river's rapid decline was a series of water pollution events combined with dredging. And, while the inability of the ecosystem to recover is associated with the stresses of coastal development, it is founded moreso upon the extent of alteration of the physical habitat and biological communities of the Lynnhaven River pre~1982. Anyway, here's the string.

-----Original Message-----> From: > Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 8:34 AM> To: > Subject: Howdy?

>> Hello, Ms. X. I'm a VB Native who grew up on the upper> reaches of Thalia Creek, and I know a little bit about marine science.> I know there is no such simple answer, but could you as briefly as> possible (three or for points) tell me why the Lynnhaven River has> become an unhealthy estuary? This may seem a bit like a trick> question; I'm trying to get an idea about the understanding those at> LRNow have of the River and its history. I'll really appreciate it if> you'll humor me with a response.>> I applaud y'all for everything you're doing there and think you're> doing the right things (perhaps 20 years too late). I've been gone> from VB for some time and don't know the status of the watershed these> days, but I would have thought it was ready to be stocked with carp> just to have something living in it. I'd much rather it be stocked> with oysters.

>> Regards,

>> Me, Virginian in exile

- Hide quoted text -
On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:02 PM, Ms. X wrote:> Hello Me,>> Thank you for your interest in the Lynnhaven River and for your> compliments to our organization. I am attaching our 2007 State of the> River Report, which gives a really nice 4 page summary of the condition> of the river. We have tracked these indicators for the last 3 years so> we can see how they are changing.>> In 2 points though, I'd say that the Lynnhaven has become an unhealthy> river because:>> 1. The Lynnhaven's watershed is approximately 95% developed, we have> more than 35% impervious surface, and a huge population (220,000 people)> living in the Lynnhaven's watershed. When it rains, pollutants (such as> fertilizers, nutrients, pet waste, sediment, pesticides, oil, and> toxins, to name a few) wash off the watershed and are carried by the> rainwater to stormdrains that expel directly (and untreated) into the> Lynnhaven River. Once the pollutants are in the water, they cause a> variety of complications, including algal blooms, anoxia, turbidity,> toxic pollution, etc.>> 2. We have lost or destroyed thousands of acres of forest, riparian> buffers, and wetlands in the watershed. They are critical to the> river's health because they provide natural filtration systems that> intercept nutrients and sediment before they reach the water. We have> also lost approximately 99% of our historic oyster population. Oysters> are also critical to the river's health because they filter sediment and> algae from the water and they provide tremendous food and habitat in the> river.
I hope that is helpful,
Ms.X, Assistant Director & Marine Scientist> LYNNHAVEN River NOW> 1608 Pleasure House Road, Suite 108> Virginia Beach, VA 23455>> telephone: (757)-962-5398> visit our web site: www.LynnhavenRiverNow.org>>>


Hi, Ms.X. Good to hear back from you.

Coastal development is a huge problem and is certainly responsible fora great deal of estuarine health issues. But, I hope you'll consider an alternative explanation of what is wrong with the Lynnhaven.Fertilizer and sediment runoff among other things may be keeping the Lynnhaven from recovering, but what sent it down the path to its current state was dredging. Back in the 80s, the river was supposedly having eutrophication problems because of the volume of treated wastewater entering the watershed. This was before the consolidated wastewater system there is today, when several local (neighborhood scale) wastewater facilities operated within the watershed. I'll admit the effluent was bright green and there was a nice mat of periphyton lining the channel from the effluent pipe, but I never saw a red tide or any plankton bloom for that matter back in those days.But someone decided the Lynnhaven had gone eutrophic (there are some documents at the library written by the COE and Stokes Environmental Consultants that make this point) and argued that the solution was to increase the flushing rate by dredging. Anyone with a most basic understanding of estuarine ecology could see this was ridiculous: If you increase the flushing rate, you increase the salinity (because the fresh water inputs are too low to compensate) and totally alter the ecosystem. The whole scheme was in fact a transparent justification for dredging, which was a priority issue for waterfront property owners on the shallow Lynnhaven River.

Before the dredging the river transformed with the passing of every tide from a salt water bay full of blue crabs and white perch to afresh water stream with crayfish and catfish. Despite the claims of eutrophication I never ceased to be amazed at the diversity of critters I could catch or the textbook perfection of the whole ecosystem. Around the same time as the dredging (early '80s) there was an oil slick that was responsible for a huge fish kill, then major red tides in successive years, the second one of which was clearly related to the closure of the wastewater plant on Harton Rd. You see,they waited two years for the waste ponds to dry-up and when the sewage just wouldn't dry enough to be covered over, they cut a big notch in the East-facing side of the pond to let the sludge ooze out into Thalia Creek. That was the third punch and roughly coincided with the completion of dredging the upper reaches of the river. It came back a little each time at first, but after the last red tide,the water remained black and devoid of life. All of the fresh water fish we used to see were gone and we never saw any more salt waterfish either -- just that black water. Rather than expediting the release of effluent from the Lynnhaven into the mouth of the Chesapeake, the increased saltwater intrusion helped to wash polluted water deeper into the estuary, contaminating the headwaters and eliminating headwater populations that would be needed to repopulate the river after die-offs.

That's just what I saw from my point on the shoreline. What I am trying to illustrate is that it isn't as simple as restoration of riparian buffers and SAV. The Lynnhaven has been drastically altered-- not simply by expanded impervious surfaces or increased runoff.The very nature of the watershed -- it's morphology, salinity regime, freshwater inputs -- the set of physical characteristics that determine what kind of ecosystem it CAN be has been totally and perhaps irreversibly changed. The native species have probably been totally wiped out, leaving it with an entirely clean slate with respect to its wildlife community. So, restoration is simply out of the question. What's living there now I do not know. It is fantastic that new populations of oysters have been discovered, and I'm sure (at least I would guess) that some populations of something have established themselves since the days I recall. But, whatever ecosystem that has evolved or that will evolve in the Lynnhaven is not and will never be the one that once was. A revitalized Lynnhaven will be an entirely new ecosystem. Greater success might be found by actively trying to engineer that new ecosystem than by trying to passively facilitate any form of recovery.

Anyway, I apologize if I am perhaps too eager to share my opinion, but I wanted to use my personal, historical account to bring attention to some of the Lynnhaven's more elusive issues that usually get ignored or overlooked.
Regards,
Me