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Molly Roggero of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science walks
Molly Roggero, a marine scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, talks with landowner Donald Watkins
This 'living shoreline' was planted to stem erosion on waterfront property in Northumberland County.
Before sunrise, a broken dock comes into view from an eroding shoreline on Mattox Creek in Westmoreland County.
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One recent day, Molly Roggero stood on a wide, sandy beach on Mattox Creek near Colonial Beach. The sunlight sparkled a half-mile on the water to the creek's other shore.
"When you see a place like this, you understand why people want to live here," she said.
Roggero is a marine scientist with the wetlands program of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Her job that day was to inspect a shoreline project proposed by Jerome and Patricia LaLonde of Harrisonburg and to report her opinion to the Westmoreland County Wetlands Board.
LaLonde developed this waterfront subdivision in 2002. His company bought the 55-acre tract for $874,940 in April, recorded a plat for 17 lots in July, sold most of them in August and grossed $2.4 million.
He bought the best lot himself for $219,000. Westmoreland County appraised it last year at $325,000. Its 4 acres descend from a ridge 20 feet above sea level to a grove of trees by the beach. Shoreline erosion has toppled a few large oaks into the water.
"I'm a conservationist. My goal is to protect my shoreline and trees from erosion. We're just going by the recommendation of experts. We have no opinion about how this should be done," LaLonde said.
On the day Roggero visited the beach, carpenters were finishing up LaLonde's new house on the high ground. At $75 per square foot, county building officials estimated its cost at $556,000.
LaLonde said he and his wife plan to move in soon. They have a 48-foot boat in Florida. They want to build a new, 190-foot pier to dock the boat at their new house. They also want to protect their shoreline. For all that, they need permits.
The shore where Roggero stood is a complex mix of jurisdictions.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the county wetlands board all have some say about what goes on there.
LaLonde hired a firm that specializes in shoreline projects to help him navigate the bureaucracy. The firm came up with an application for a $30,000, 190-foot-long pier and a $25,000, 205-foot-long revetment of 100-pound rocks called riprap to protect the shoreline and the oak trees behind it.
Roggero's specific focus was the wetlands area of the beach between low and high tides. Since most of LaLonde's rocks would be placed higher than the high-tide line, she estimated only 80 square feet of the wetlands area would be threatened by the project.
"Impacts to the wetlands are minimal," she noted in her report.
"However, all wetlands impacts could be avoided by grading and re-vegetating the bank rather than using riprap. This approach could provide a gentle slope that should be less vulnerable to wave attack and would provide additional habitat and water quality benefits."
As it does in 96 percent of its cases, the Westmoreland County Wetlands Board heard Roggero's marine science advice Feb. 27, but approved LaLonde's plan as submitted.
At the same meeting, the board allowed 1,633 feet of other bulkheads and riprap to prevent shoreline erosion. According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the projects impacted a total of 3,899 square feet of wetlands.
A shortage of fundsVirginia's unique system of tidal wetlands protection has existed for more than 30 years. In deciding shoreline projects, 36 citizen panels and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission are required by law to consider scientific advice along with a host of other social and economic factors.
The science comes from the Tidal Wetlands Advisory Service of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
VIMS keeps tabs on shoreline changes, trains members of local wetlands boards and sends out Roggero and five other scientists to assess about 1,000 proposed shoreline projects each year.
The VIMS program and advice are "invaluable" and "absolutely critical," said Robert Grabb of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, which oversees actions of the local boards. "I know of no other entity that could step in and fill VIMS' shoes," he said.
Last month, however, the VIMS wetlands program was the verge of collapse because of budget problems.
According to Carl Hershner of VIMS, state funding for the wetlands program had for many years paid only about half of what it actually cost. VIMS used federal grants to make up the difference.
This year, however, the federal money didn't come through. VIMS also was unsuccessful in getting a $225,000 supplemental appropriation from the General Assembly.
Hershner thought his program was doomed.
"Basically there will be no funding for the wetlands advisory program forthcoming. We are moving to restructure our advisory program, and anticipate that the changes will begin next month with a cessation of the site visits and reports," Hershner wrote in a Feb. 21 e-mail.
"This is dispiriting for the scientists here who have been dedicated to providing support for local wetlands boards and the state agencies for the past 30 plus years," he added.
The next day, however, VIMS Director John T. Wells said he would try to find in VIMS' $38 million budget enough funds to keep the wetlands advisory program going.
"At this point, VIMS will take the difficult step of trying to reallocate one-time funds to keep the program intact for another year. Our hope is to find permanent funds so that we can continue this vital program," he said.
According to VIMS, sea level in tidewater Virginia rose 16 inches between 1933 and 2003. Scientists now think the rate of increase is about 1.5 feet per century, but the increase may turn out to be greater as earth's warming atmosphere melts mountain glaciers and polar ice packs.
Historically, the rising waters of the lower Potomac and Rappahannock rivers have drowned many islands, sand dunes, houses and farms. The Potomac regularly undercuts huge sections of 150-foot-tall cliffs near Montross and imperils houses built on top of them.
According to VIMS, some sections of the Westmoreland coast are washing away at a rate of more than 3 feet each year. Boats and personal watercraft also are causing erosion in protected creeks, residents say.
"Not all erosion is bad," Hershner said. "Without it, for example, there would be no beaches."
And no marshes, either. If left to natural processes, the soil that washes away from one place would settle in other places where wetlands plants would soon grow.
Marine scientists say wetlands perform a wide range of vital physical and biological functions.
Wetlands protect shorelines by reducing the power of waves. In times of high water, the marshes submerge first and reduce flood damage to other low-lying places. Wetlands also enhance water quality by trapping sediments.
Wetlands are also the nursery of the bay. They shelter and feed many creatures, including birds, mammals, baby fish and crabs.
Bacteria and fungi feed on wetlands plants when they decay. These microbes then become the foundation of a complex food chain that leads upward to microscopic plankton and ultimately to the crabs, oysters and fish that people find so tasty.
"But human occupation of the shorelines is at odds with the continuation of these natural processes. Here at VIMS, we've come to conclude that the least intrusive thing you can do on the shoreline is probably the best," Hershner said.
Hardening the shorelineLocal wetlands boards in six counties along the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers seem to have reached an opposite conclusion.
In recent years, wetlands boards in Stafford, King George, Westmoreland, Northumberland, Lancaster and Richmond counties have permitted 53.5 miles of their shorelines to be hardened with riprap or bulkheads.
Together, the six localities accounted for 44 percent of the 121 miles of shoreline structures allowed on state tidal waters between 2000 and 2005.
Northumberland County leads all localities. According to VIMS data, Northumberland officials allowed the hardening of 27 miles in the five-year period. If all the permitted riprap and bulkheads are built, they will line 96 of the county's 556 miles of shore.
Lancaster County has permitted 80 miles (25 percent) of its shoreline to be hardened.
In 2001, VIMS inventoried 204 miles of Westmoreland shoreline. Then, almost 38 miles of it were lined with structures to prevent erosion. Now, 42.5 miles (21 percent) of the county's shoreline are permitted to be lined with rock or walls.
VIMS marine scientist Karen Duhring thinks the rapid increase in shoreline hardening on the Northern Neck is the result of increased waterfront development in recent years.
"The first thing many purchasers of expensive waterfront property want to do is to stop it from washing away," she said.
But the many miles of bulkheads and riprap interfere with the natural processes of the marine environment, she said.
Bulkheads may protect one property from erosion, but the waves that reflect off bulkheads may damage wetlands and other properties nearby, she said.
Riprap has an advantage over bulkheads in that the rocks dissipate wave energy rather than reflect it. The rocks also provide some habitat for snails and other marine creatures, but nothing like the rich habitat of wetland plants, she said.
Duhring and other marine scientists now view both forms of shoreline protection as harmful to wetlands. Hard shorelines rob estuaries of sand and sediments needed for wetlands to grow as sea level rises and shoreline recede, she said.
In stopping the natural landward progression of wetlands with bulkheads and walls of rock, "shoreline stabilization may actually be contributing to the loss of wetlands and, as a result, to less stable shores," she said.
Duhring is trying to stem the tide of unnecessary riprap and bulkheads.
In some cases, she said, plantings of marsh grasses and other wetlands plants can retard shoreline erosion as effectively as rock and timber. The plantings provide habitat and improve water quality. They also are cheaper than bulkheads and riprap, she said.
Duhring has preached her "living shoreline" message to groups all over tidewater Virginia. The groups include many people who recently bought waterfront property.
"The problem is that they look at the bulkheads and riprap on their neighbors' properties and think they've got to have the same thing, when other less-damaging options may also be effective," she said.
Struggling to save wetlandsVirginia regulations have always emphasized avoiding and minimizing impacts to wetlands. But, last year, regulatory managers realized that the programs had strayed far from their goal of "no net loss" of wetlands.
For years, the state had allowed the approval of noncommercial shoreline projects when fewer than 1,000 square feet of wetlands were impacted. VIMS data showed, however, that the loophole had resulted in large-scale damage to wetlands.
Most of the loss came from erosion-control projects such as riprap revetments and bulkheads. In individual cases, the wetlands losses amounted to relatively small areas measured in square feet. But between 1993 and 2004, the losses totaled 132 acres.
The finding caused the marine commission to make significant changes to state wetlands policies.
VMRC revoked the 1,000-square-foot exemption. For the first time, it also required local wetlands boards to order mitigation and compensation for losses of wetlands caused by any shoreline project.
The new rules require applicants to replant any wetlands destroyed by their projects. In lieu of that, applicants can buy credits from a tidal wetlands mitigation bank in their area or pay fees to their localities earmarked for wetland restoration.
But neither option is presently available in the Northern Neck. Only two tidal wetlands banks now exist in Virginia, neither in the Potomac or Rappahannock basin, where much shoreline hardening is occurring.
Seven months after VMRC issued its new requirements, no area counties have adopted ordinances setting up the rules to collect fees for damage to wetlands.
Gary Zeigler said he hopes to get to work on it soon.
Zeigler became Westmoreland County's director of planning and community development seven months ago. He came from Ohio with no prior experience in administering shoreline regulations. "It's a steep learning curve," he said.
His assistant is Beth McDowell, who received a master's degree in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh last year. She said she, too, was unfamiliar with tidal wetlands until she arrived in Westmoreland in December.
Updating the county's wetlands regulations may have to wait awhile. A proposed new zoning ordinance and several new waterfront developments seem to be much higher on the county's things-to-do list. One subdivision proposes 751 new houses on Goldman Creek at Colonial Beach.
Austin R. Magill, chairman of the Westmoreland Wetlands Board, said he isn't sure when or how the county will enact new its rules to collect fees for replacing wetlands damaged by shoreline structures.
When that day eventually comes, Magill's board will become responsible for managing a program to replace wetlands damaged by projects that the board itself permitted.
"It hasn't been made clear to me how we're going to do it," he said.
To reach FRANK DELANO:
Email: fpdelano2@verizon.net
