Watermen say rights are infringed

A group pledged Wednesday to be more proactive in efforts to clean Chesapeake Bay pollution.

By Patrick Lynch | 247-4534

April 10, 2008

KILMARNOCK - The government's failure to clean the Chesapeake Bay has harmed the livelihood of watermen and infringed on their constitutional right to clean water and may be grounds for a class-action lawsuit, a group of watermen decided in Kilmarnock on Wednesday night.

Fed up by declining harvests and tightening regulations that make it increasingly difficult to earn a living on the water, the watermen said it is time to take a more active role in demanding that state and federal governments reverse the pollution that is choking life out of the Chesapeake.

Whether a lawsuit materializes or not, a group of about 50 watermen and supporters, who met in a conference room at the Bank of Lancaster, resolved to be more politically engaged in getting their voices heard.

The stance is striking because of whom it's coming from. Crabbers and oystermen are often targeted for contributing to the decline of the bay. Environmentalists, government officials and scientists point to commercial overfishing as one of the key reasons for the drastic decline in oyster and crab stocks.

Much of the watermen's enthusiasm for action now stems from the ongoing debate over stricter crab regulations — required because of overfishing, scientists and regulators say — in Virginia and Maryland.

Stepping into that debate, watermen too often split themselves politically, said Ken Smith, vice president of the Virginia Waterman's Association, who organized the meeting.

Hard-pot crabbers point to peeler potters as the problem, and both point to winter dredgers.

The crossfire kills the potential for a united front on larger issues, he said.

"They've got us where they want us," Smith said.

Though crabbers may point to other crabbers as the problem, "Well, it's not. It's the quality of this bay.

"We demand that they fix the problem."

During the meeting, Smith recited a few figures from a recent "report card" on the bay's health from the Environmental Protection Agency-led Chesapeake Bay Program to underline the major problems that are not the fault of watermen.

"Three hundred and eighteen million pounds of nitrogen entered the bay last year," Smith said.

Nitrogen feeds algae blooms, which cloud the water and suck up oxygen, which is vital for marine life. The report card said the bay in a year should get no more than 175 million pounds of nitrogen, which comes from sewage plants and fertilizer washed off farms and lawns.

"Only 12 percent of the bay met the standards for dissolved oxygen in the water," Smith said, referring to one of the most basic water quality standards.

Lee Ann Washington, a White Stone attorney whose father was once president of the state watermen's association, led a discussion on whether the commercial fishermen would have legal standing for litigation.

Washington cited as potential grounds the Virginia Constitution, which states "it shall be the commonwealth's policy to protect its atmosphere, lands, and waters from pollution, impairment, or destruction, for the benefit, enjoyment, and general welfare of the people of the commonwealth."

Washington and others also pointed to the Clean Water Act and the federal court order to Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington to clean up the bay by 2010. The government is not living up to the Clean Water Act and the states will not meet the 2010 deadline, both potential grounds for litigation, they said.

The discussion brought up an alphabet soup of agencies that could be involved. Watermen are most familiar with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission because it sets commercial harvest regulations.

But the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, still a favorite target for watermen, has little to no jurisdiction over water quality.

The watermen also talked about the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Environmental Quality as agencies that have failed to keep the bay clean.

Representatives of U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, Del. Albert Pollard and state Sen. Richard Stuart also attended the meeting.