In Portsmouth, ‘the goo must go’
Dredging project marks halfway point in cleaning Elizabeth River’s top contaminant spots
PORTSMOUTH — Polluted “goo” that hurts the health of the river ecosystem lies at the bottom of Paradise Creek in Southeastern Portsmouth, and an environmental group is in the process of dredging 10 million pounds of it.
Completion of the Paradise Creek project in the spring will mark the halfway point in cleaning the Elizabeth River’s major pollutant hotspots — a task that environmentalists once thought would be impossible.
The “goo” is sediment saturated with harmful chemicals once used in coolant for electrical transformers. The chemicals — polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs — were banned in the 1970s, but remained in the river largely undisturbed until about 12 years ago.
Liz Friel, executive director of the Living River Trust, the environmental group doing the dredging, said prolonged, repeated exposure to PCBs can cause developmental and neurological problems to fetuses, babies and children and are harmful to adults as well. The PCBs can build up in fish and other animals, causing health problems for them and people or predators that may consume them.
Friel said the project funding came from selling mitigation credits intended to offset the environmental impacts of marine construction projects.
Decades ago, such programs didn’t exist, and cleaning up the Elizabeth River was considered impossible due to the cost and labor involved and because the problems of an unhealthy river bed are out of view of most people, said Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project.
That group adopted the mantra, “the goo must go” because a healthy riverbed is the foundation for a healthy river and a healthy environment for the plants, animals and people who rely on it. Over the past 12 years, various organizations have taken on the cleanup, and the Paradise Creek project marks a rough halfway point for the major problem sites. Mayfield Jackson said the goal is to hit the rest over the next decade.
Money Point, contaminated by a former lumber treatment facility in Chesapeake, was the first cleanup project, and Mayfield Jackson said there are observable benefits — eagles and otters have returned to the site.
Mayfield Jackson said government regulations and an overall shift in culture of the businesses operating on the river should prevent industrial pollution buildup from happening again. The more concerning new pollutants, she said, mostly come from individuals — such as fertilizer runoff.