TITLE: Pocomoke River remains closed weeks after fish kill
BYLINE: JENNIFER C. YATES
CREDIT: Associated Press
EST. PAGES: 1
DATE: 09/16/97
DOCID: ASPS298066
SOURCE: The Associated Press Political Service; APOL
ORIGIN: VIRGINIA
(Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)
The Pocomoke River was closed Aug. 8 and reopened within a
week after thousands of fish were found floating dead with lesions.
But now, more than 15 days after a second fish kill was detected,
the river remains closed.
"We've not heard anything about the reopening," said Ray Feldmann,a spokesman for Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening.
Virginia officials, meantime, sought Monday to calm fears
that a toxic microbe was spreading in state waterways.
"I have no problem going fishing or swimming in the Rappahannock
River," said Virginia Health Commissioner Dr. Randolph L.
Gordon. Menhaden with lesions were found this month in the Rappahannock,
but there was no fish kill.
Maryland officials closed two other Eastern Shore waterways
after fish with lesions were found. Kings Creek, a tributary of
the Manokin River, was closed last week, and the Chicamacomico
River was closed Sunday.
Also Monday, Glendening appointed a panel headed by former
Gov. Harry Hughes to come up with legislation to submit to the
General Assembly when it meets next January dealing with farm
runoff.
Glendening said governors from North Carolina, Virginia, West
Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware will come to Annapolis later
this month to consider a regional approach to problems caused
by pfiesteria, which has been found in waters from North Carolina
to Delaware.
A pfiesteria-like organism has been preliminarily identified
in one of 10 water samples taken Sept. 10-11 from Kings Creek,
just off the Manokin River in Somerset County, Maryland Department
of Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin said in a statement
Monday. Lesioned fish were found in the creek last week.
The toxic micro organism Pfiesteria pisicida has been blamed
for killing fish in the Pocomoke and is suspected with causing
the lesions found on fish in the other watersheds. Scientists
suspect that runoff from farms and poultry houses is a likely
factor that triggers pfiesteria to turn toxic.
Tests were being done on water samples to determine if pfiesteria
was to blame.
On Sunday, Glendening met with Vice President Al Gore and Maryland
Rep. Steny Hoyer during an impromptu meeting at the Washington
Redskins home opener at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium.
"The vice president assured the governor that the White
House was definitely working on this," Feldmann said.
The National Sea Grant College Program of the University of
Maryland has established a pfiesteria web site. Visitors to the
site can access up-to-date information on closed waterways and
pfiesteria research.
The site can be found at www.mdsg.umd.edu/fish-health/pfiesteria.
DESCRIPTORS: Education; Environment; Political