Watchful residents have monitored the 

 pulse of the creek's health since the 1970s, 

 when a package plant treated sewage 

 nearby. Few details have escaped them. 



Mona Smalley, Keith's mother and 

 chairwoman of the Hewletts Creek Water- 

 shed Association, says crabs are fewer 

 along the creek's mud flats and some have 

 been sighted with shell diseases. Creek 

 residents have been reluctant to sink their 

 crab pots there. 



Reid says 

 she measures the 

 changes by what 

 she can no 

 longer see. Back 

 in the 1950s, 

 shrimp were 

 abundant enough 

 to fill a bucket 

 with a few 

 passes of the 

 push net. Push 

 nets are no 

 longer legal, and 

 it's just as well, 

 she says. The 

 catch would be 

 nil. More re- 

 cently, sea ur- 

 chins and small 

 crabs have disap- 

 peared from the 

 flats at low tide. 

 Fishermen no 

 longer make a 

 living from the 

 creek's marine 

 life. And the 

 family of otters 

 that visited a few 

 years ago is gone. 



The quiet unraveling of Hewletts 

 Creek is the price of excess, a landscape 

 out of Rachel Carson's The Sea Around 

 Us, Reid says. 



"Rachel Carson's whole philosophy 

 about how we're ruining our water, we're 

 ruining our earth, that's how I feel," she 

 says. "All of us who have lived here a long 

 time, who have a deep affection for what's 

 in our front yard, feel a tie to her. 



"We say we've had the best of it. It's 

 just going to get worse." 



Keith Smalley doesn't have the years 



of perspective that have shaped his grand- 

 mother's vision of the creek. He sees more 

 hope for its future. And judging by his days 

 on the water, he says the creek looks ready 

 to reopen to shellfishing. This, too, is the 

 goal of the Hewletts Creek Watershed 

 Association. 



State regulators, however, are less 

 certain. 



Hewletts Creek still exceeds fecal 

 coliform standards allowable for 



Scon D. Taylor 



The condition of a shellfish area and its suitability for han'esting 

 depend largely on the type of development nearby. 



shellfishing. Shellfish Sanitation tests 

 coastal waters for these bacteria, which 

 originate in the intestines of warm-blooded 

 animals and point to the possible presence 

 of pathogens and bacteria that cause ty- 

 phoid, hepatitis and the vomiting and diar- 

 rhea associated with gastroenteritis. People 

 who eat raw shellfish that have ingested 

 these pathogens can become ill. 



Very low levels of fecal coliform are 

 allowed in open shellfish waters, however. 

 These waters are closed when the bacteria 

 count exceeds 14 organisms per 100 milli- 

 liters of water, or about one-half cup. Be- 



fore they can be considered for reopening, at 

 least 15 samples must be taken, and no more 

 than 10 percent of these samples can exceed 

 43 organisms per 100 milliliters. 



Six samples collected in 1993 from the 

 front of Hewletts Creek have failed the fecal 

 coliform standards with a median count of 

 23 organisms per 100 milliliters, says 

 Patricia Fowler, environmental health spe- 

 cialist for Shellfish Sanitation. 



"Recent samples don't look good," she 

 says. "They're 

 mixed." 



Shellfish 

 Sanitation is also 

 sampling the back 

 stretch of Hewletts 

 Creek — from its 

 midpoint to the 

 headwaters — 

 where the sewage 

 pump station is 

 sited. These are 

 prohibited waters, 

 and median fecal 

 coliform counts 

 taken last year at 

 two stations were 

 49 organisms per 

 100 milliliters and 

 56 organisms per 

 100 milliliters. 



Obviously, 

 the back stretch is 

 an unlikely candi- 

 date for reopening. 

 But the waters 

 from the midpoint 

 to the mouth of the 

 creek could even- 

 tually be opened, 

 says George Gilbert, assistant branch head 

 of Shellfish Sanitation. 



"In these small areas, especially small 

 estuaries in fairly populated areas, a closure 

 is not irreversible," Gilbert says. "But it's 

 few and far between where they improve." 



Still, interest in the creek is high among 

 residents and DMF law enforcement officers 

 if phone calls are a gauge, Fowler says. The 

 area is being tested a minimum of five times 

 a year. If the results were to improve, how- 

 ever, Shellfish Sanitation would sample 

 more aggressively. 



As a rule, more emphasis is given to 



6 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1994 



