Today (Tuesday Aug 25) while walking around the grounds of Porto Vecchio
waiting for a friend, (and looking to see those black terns again while I
waited) I was approached by two women. I think they approached me because I had
my binoculars and camera with me. They were very upset. They lived there, said
they, and they said the board of directors of Porto Vechhio had approved
spraying and dumping herbicides into the river to kill the spatterdock and the
hydrilla. They had been informed that the solution dumped was 58% glyphosate,
and 42% things they could not remember. They received a notice that the river
would be toxic for three weeks near the dumping area. They were concerned about
Dyke Marsh, about fish and bird kills, and about the right or lack thereof of
private parties to do such a thing. They said that they thought the river was
Maryland's and DC's but that the permit they had been told was received was
from Virginia. I also observed a sick or injured juvenile gull at the bridge -
could not fly. A couple who had a car with them took it to the vet to await a
wildlife rehabilitator.
The women said they think this was not the first time this summer this had been
done. I wonder, if true, if this had anything to do with the 30-50 large dead
fish I saw floating last week from my kayak. There were many of them all
together.
In any event, from the stench of chemicals, (I can still taste them just from
breathing there) I think it likely what they said is true; that spraying and
dumping herbicides was done in the river at Little Hunting Creek. I have no
idea if this is legal or not, if they would need a federal permit as well as a
state one to do this, or if it is permitted at all. But I saw nothing but gulls
there - no more peeps as I saw Sunday, or terns floating along on hydrilla
mats. I figured I would post the info here and email Friends of Dyke Marsh, and
let the proper people do what can be done, if anything.
