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 The challenge was how to
achieve “win-win” for the health of the river and the health of the port
economy, when APM Terminals (parent company, Maersk) planned to dredge
10 million cubic yards of the healthiest part of the Elizabeth River
bottom.
The answer: APM
Terminals agreed to offset these large impacts on the Mainstem of the
river by setting aside enough funds to pay for restoring the health of
the river’s most severely contaminated sediments, a few miles away.
Thus was born The
Living River Restoration Trust, which received $5.2 million last June
from APM Terminals for two projects: to clean up sediment contamination
at Money Point; and to construct two acres of native oyster reefs in the
river.
 The Elizabeth River
Project, under contract to carry out the projects for the Trust,
actually constructed a 13-acre oyster reef on May 31 -- the largest reef
to be constructed yet in the Elizabeth River. More than six times the
acreage specified in the APM Terminals permit, the reef was established
alongside Hospital Point at the mouth of Scott’s Creek. The larger
acreage was accomplished by spreading the shell in a thin blanket along
the river bottom to create a large area of centralized habitat.
The Elizabeth River
Project, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality negotiated the formation of the Trust as the first
“in-lieu fee” fund in the country that is government sanctioned to
achieve “mitigation” of impacts to a river bottom through off-site
cleanup of contaminated sediments.
Permits from the Corps
and DEQ for APM Terminals to begin work on its large new port facility
stipulated the mitigation funds for the Trust, an independent
organization with its own seven-member Board of Trustees. Under terms of
an Operating Agreement, the Corps and DEQ must authorize all
expenditures of Trust funds for mitigation projects.
 Currently the Trust is
contracting with The Elizabeth River Project to manage the two projects
for which the APM funds were provided: the cleanup at Money Point and
the oyster reef.
The Elizabeth River
Project has been raising additional funds for the complex planning and
community involvement which must take place before the off-shore project
can be implemented at Money Point, including the revitalization of the
Money Point shoreline by industries and residents to prevent
re-contamination.
For more information
about the Trust, see these links (pdf files):
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Photo
Legend: |
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Top
right: |
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Barge shoots shells at Hospital
Point |
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Map: |
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Map of Hospital Point Shell
Plant (Click
here for larger map) |
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Bottom right: |
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Building oyster reefs...Joe
Reiger, Money Point project manager, and Marjorie Mayfield
Jackson, Elizabeth River Project's executive director. |
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