Elizabeth River Project Flotilla

The Elizabeth River Project will hold a press conference on Sept. 15 to announce a new action plan on river clean up, aimed at removing the contaminated goo on the river bottom.

This will be on the waters edge in Portsmouth, from 10:30-11:30 on Sept. 15, at High Street Ferry Landing, located at the corner of High and Water Streets in Downtown Portsmouth.

Mayors and state officials from VMRC, the state Department of Health, Secretary of Natural Resources office, (possibly even the governor) will be there.

A number of recreational and commercial vessels, along with a few kayakers/canoers, will gather on the river at that location to show the support of those who stand to benefit directly from the clean up of the river. Fire boats from Chesapeake and Portsmouth will be there as well as two police boats from the Marine Resources Commission.

The plan is for the boats to blow their horns when a flag on shore is raised, thus showing their support for the project to the TV cameras.

Anglers should be very concerned about the health of the Elizabeth River. While progress has been made over the years, the river still is in deplorable condition. Shellfish harvesting has been banned for a decade and scientific evidence shows that 70 percent of mummichogs in some sections of the river have cancer.

Some of the contaminants are bioaccumulative, including heavy metals, mercury and PCBs, meaning this stuff moves up the food chain and concentrates in long-living predator fish such as striped bass. It is in every anglers best interest to have the river cleaned up.

This stage of the clean up plan is known as the ERP’s fishable, swimmable campaign.

Please spread the word via email, word of mouth, or message boards. The more people who show up in their boats for that hour and blow their horns at the designed time, the better.

Call me if you want to talk about this further, Thanks.