NORFOLK, Va. — World Rivers Day is a celebration of the world’s waterways, and we have many of them here throughout Hampton Roads.
I visited the Elizabeth River Project’s Ryan Resilience Lab on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk to highlight the incredible work they’ve done to clean and restore the river.
“We consider the Elizabeth River to be the dominant natural feature of Southampton roads,” said Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, the executive director of the Elizabeth River Project.
Watch more: Elizabeth River Project receives funding for last phase on Money Point cleanup
Mayfield Jackson made some time to chat with us about the importance of the watershed throughout our area.
“It actually contributes to a sense of well-being for our community,” she explained.
She tells me rivers create a sense of quality of life for any region, helping shape our culture, economy and environment.
Watch similar coverage: Elizabeth River Project celebrates completion of Ryan Resilience Lab in Norfolk
Living on the river, Mayfield Jackson remembers a time when people had fun on the river but would not get in because they were afraid.
“I remember my sister moving, coming to visit me, and she let her kids play on the edge of the river. And the neighbors were like, get them away from the river. Because people just thought, this is toxic, this is dangerous. This is basically a sewer,” she said.
It’s why she co-founded the Elizabeth River Project back in 1993 to combat the river’s numerous challenges.
Watch: School kids get hands-on lesson about what's really in the Elizabeth River on the Learning Barge
It’s the reason their Ryan Resilience Lab focuses on climate change and sea level rise, which negatively affect the river.
“That brings as much pollution in a day as used to happen over the course of a year because the increased flooding, when it comes over the land and then recedes back, is taking the fertilizers, excess fertilizers, dog poop, grease off the roads, back into the river,” Mayfield Jackson shared.
More than thirty years later, they’re still hard at work building oyster reefs, restoring shorelines and putting in millions of dollars' worth of pollution controls.
“What you do blocks and blocks away from the river, on your lawn or in practices at your house, they can lead to the pollution in the river. So we need everybody's help for a healthy home river,” Mayfield Jackson said.
Watch more coverage about the Elizabeth River: Why is a section of the Elizabeth River orange?
They’ve made progress in making the urban waterway healthier- helping the river’s ecosystem recover and bringing back all types of fish, birds, otters, and dolphins.
But Mayfield Jackson tells me there are still miles of shoreline to clean up and wants more people to get involved.
“The river needs people who do care, and that's really why we're here,” she said. “And so, we would love to invite people to join us and be part of an inspiring future here on our home river.”
If you’d like to find out more about the Ryan Resilience Lab, take a tour of the building, visit their learning barge or learn how you can get involved, you can check out their website here.
