The Nansemond River has long supported people in Suffolk, including local Indigenous tribes who relied on it for hundreds of years and a once-booming oyster industry.
But in recent years, the river’s been suffering. Pollution continues to build from sources like home fertilizers, overflowing septic tanks and construction sites.
“We’ve seen a continuing trend of 10 years of growing impairment for the river,” said Beth Cross, president of the nonprofit Nansemond River Preservation Alliance. “Now we’re at over 50% impairment, and that should send a red flag to all of us.”
In other words, at least half of the river is considered too polluted for swimming or fishing.
The Preservation Alliance puts out an annual State of the River report documenting progress and rising threats to the waterway, which feeds into the James River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.
But “very few people that don’t live by the river even pay attention,” Cross said. “It’s not changing the trend.”
The nonprofit’s new Suffolk Nature Project aims to change that by showing more residents how they can make a difference with the river, through education and hands-on training.
They already work with students at Suffolk City Public Schools, but want to increase efforts to reach parents, too.
Cross said the nonprofit will encourage homeowners, schools, churches and businesses to plant gardens with native species, or install cheap water filtration solutions like rain barrels.
Boosting green space helps catch or filter pollutants on land before they run off into the water.
Part of the Nansemond’s problem is that many of its headwaters were dammed off to create water reservoirs for Norfolk and Portsmouth.
“It’s kind of like a toilet that won’t flush,” Cross said. “We continue to have more asphalt and more people that are eventually dumping things, even on accident, into the river, but there's less to filter it out. There's less flow to push it down the river.”
Progress at the Nansemond lags behind many other areas of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The Elizabeth River Project in Norfolk, for example, has successfully started turning around what was once considered the bay’s most polluted river.
Cross said in that case, officials were able to hold major polluters accountable – like at Chesapeake’s Money Point. Industrial companies that set up shop along the river have contributed to cleanup efforts through environmental mitigation credits.
In Suffolk, there aren’t a lot of big businesses or military groups along the river to do the same, she said.
But there has been a lot of development and population growth in the city in recent decades, bringing with it more pollution.
“There's going to be a continual growth in our city,” Cross said. “But we don't have to do it like we've always done, which is pave miles and miles of land. … We could do it in smarter ways and live with nature instead of against it.”
The Suffolk Nature Project will kick off with an event Saturday, Nov. 16 at Sleepy Hole Park from 9 to 11:30 a.m., including a filter garden demonstration.
