A CLEANUP INITIATIVE 



In the early 1990s, the 

 Jacksonville City Council decided 

 to upgrade to a new land applica- 

 tion plant built farther inland. This 

 waste treatment plant, one of three 

 in the U.S., cost $50 million to 

 build and irrigates 6,300 acres of 

 forested pine plantation. 



The old treatment plant offi- 

 cially closed in March 1998. With 

 its closing, "The people wanted 

 to see an effective reclaimed use 

 of the riverfront and river," says 

 Glenn Hargett, Jacksonville com- 

 munity affairs director. 



"You don't hear local 

 government use the words 'moral 

 responsibility' very often. There 

 was a clear public will to reclaim 

 the river, and the city felt a moral 

 responsibility to clean up Wilson 

 Bay." 



A series of community 

 summits drew more than 1 ,000 

 people looking for ways to revive 

 the bay. The city consulted Jay 

 Levine, a researcher with North Carolina State 

 University's College of Veterinary Medicine. 

 He saw potential in the dilapidated buildings 

 and wastewater tanks. 



"Between the tanks and the large 

 biotower, there were the makings for a huge 

 aquarium," says Levine. Also, the industrial 

 features of the treatment plant face a magnifi- 

 cent view of the bay. 



Levine's idea quickly took root — and 

 continues to grow into the educational center 

 named Sturgeon City. 



Eventually, the converted wastewater 

 facility will be used to raise short-nosed 

 sturgeon that could be released into the bay. 

 The biotower will treat the fish waste. And the 

 huge wastewater tanks will be divided into 

 smaller viewing tanks. 



Levine's early vision for Sturgeon City 

 was "to fill the area with yellow school buses." 

 But two obstacles were apparent: the stench- 

 filled bay and the neglected area surrounding it. 



The Wilson Bay Initiative (WBI) began 



CLOCKWISE, TOP LEFT: Donning waders, students collect water quality samples. Students learn to 

 dissect squid at the Sturgeon City Student Leadership Development Institute. There 's much to see in the 

 freshwater lily pond at Sturgeon City. Here students take temperature readings and get an up-close look at 

 mosquito fish through the viewfinder. Students and volunteers of the Student Leadership Development 

 Institute at Sturgeon City gather trash along the perimeter of Wilson Bay. 



as a comprehensive proposal submitted in 1 997 

 by Levine, Donovan-Potts and the City of Jack- 

 sonville to the N.C. Clean Water Management 

 Trust Fund (CWMTF). 



The proposal included stormwater 

 management and efforts "to clean up the bay 

 and upper portions of the river through a new 

 process called bioremediation — utilizing 

 shellfish to filter water of toxicities and 

 organics," says Donovan-Potts. 



Donovan-Potts began collecting baseline 

 data for the project in 1997. CWMTF awarded 

 a $572,000 grant to WBI in 1999. 



IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS 



In addition to the bacteria and pollutants 

 in the bay, other potential problems had to be 

 defined before Donovan-Potts could formulate 

 a plan of action to revive the bay. 



For instance, no dissolved oxygen was 

 found within Wilson Bay. A healthy bay 

 requires 5 mg or more per liter. 



Also, rather than an aerobic sand habitat 



bubbling with life, a soft anaerobic mud 

 — largely composed of sludge — blanketed 

 the bay bottom. In fact, the accumulation 

 created an 8-foot wall between the bay and the 

 deeper channel. The wall pushed the natural 

 flow of water away from the bay, decreasing 

 the circulation of water and oxygen. 



To make matters worse, freshwater intru- 

 sion from stormwater events caused salinity 

 levels to drop. In an estuarine ecosystem, 

 saltwater is key to survival. 



With such poor conditions, the diversi- 

 fied bay-bottom organisms that should have 

 been present — clams, oysters, crabs, shrimp 

 and worms — had died off long ago. 



And without bottom life, fish can't 

 survive. "We didn't have a diverse finfish 

 community because there was nothing to feed 

 on," Donovan-Potts explains. 



These factors weighed so heavily on 

 the bay's ecology that NC State researchers 

 predicted an extremely slow recovery — one 

 that could take decades. 



8 HIGH SEASON 2004 



