Creosote cleanup in Elizabeth River ready for final phase — if funding is approved
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — For decades, industrial plants along the southern branch of the Elizabeth River produced creosote. The preservative was used for wooden poles that would support what was then, new technology — the telephone.
A former WAVY-TV anchor, the late Terry Zahn, presented a report in 1984 in which he displayed sediment laced with the deadly creosote.
“This is sediment from the bottom branch of the Elizabeth River. The shiny material is creosote,” Zahn said.
WAVY Archive: 1984 May 10 – Elizabeth River Pollution
WAVY Archive: 1984 June 20 – Elizabeth River Pollution
WAVY Archive: 1985 July 16 – Elizabeth River Pollution
WAVY Archive: 1988 Chesapeake Elizabeth River Waterfront
Former journalist Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, the executive director of the Elizabeth River Project, said there were at least six wood treatment facilities, and they made creosote to treat poles, and then they laid the poles over the river, on piers, and they dropped into the river.
“There were major spills and fires and that stuff,” Jackson said. “The reason it works on telephone poles to keep the telephone poles nice and clean is that it kills stuff. Over the decades creosote would kill or harm plants and animals so it’s correlated with cancer in fish.
“And so when we began working on cleaning up the Elizabeth River, one of the first things scientists told us is you’re going to have to do something about those hot spots on the southern branch that are causing cancer in the fish and that are just a major problem for the whole ecosystem.”
Creosote generated so much revenue the area was affectionately known as Money Point.
Beginning in 2006, the Elizabeth River Project, along with other organizations and volunteers worked to clean the 35 acres.
“Cancer rates [are] going way down in the fish and otters and eagles,” Jackson said. “We now have citation fishing going on in the southern branch of the Elizabeth River for speckled trout. So it’s amazing.”
To fund the last of three phases, the federal government has promised $11.25 million if the state puts $3.75 million on the table. That’s part of the disputed budget bill that sits on the desk of Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
In Norfolk Tuesday for a school visit, Youngkin made a promise to Virginians.
“Well, first, I’m going to go do my homework like I do on everything and get very familiar with this project,” Youngkin said, “and then we’ll work to see how best to support it. I have been a consistent, very loud proponent of taking care of the Chesapeake Bay. And I’ve been incredibly pleased with the progress that we have made.
“You know, the 2025 goals that were set for the Bay weren’t accompanied, really, with a plan or or funding. And so over the course of the last two budget cycles, I think we have made incredible efforts to address the pollutants that are making it into the bay. So this will always be a priority for me. I’ve told everyone that, of course, I grew up in Hampton Roads and I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay. It’s incredibly important for us to take care of our waterways, the tributaries that lead into the bay and the bay itself.”
If the state funding is approved, the Project said cleanup, led by the Army Corps of Engineers, could start in 18 months.
Money Point isn’t the only hot spot.
According to the Elizabeth River Project, there’s one other creosote hot spot where the railroad trestle crosses the eastern branch of the Elizabeth River.
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