Residents Ambivalent About Effects Rising Chesapeake Bay May Have on Their Homes
MATHEWS, Va. _ Paul Davis’ family has lived in a sturdy white house for more than a century just yards off the water in Mobjack, an unincorporated community on Mobjack Bay, Va., without any bay water getting into their home.
He’s heard talk that Chesapeake Bay is rising, a situation that would transform wide swaths of low-lying Mathews, Va., into swamp or marsh, hasten the erosion of shorelines and potentially cause dramatic declines in home and land values as the water creeps higher.
It also poses problems for Mathews County government as it faces the daunting task of trying to enforce Chesapeake Bay Act regulations in an environment of shifting tidal and even nontidal wetlands and encroaching water, while planning for emergencies at times when more roads will be submerged and homes imperiled during storms events.
But Davis, 85, isn’t buying into it.
“Global warming and all that stuff, I don’t understand,” Davis said. “I think Mother Nature will take care of itself.”
A sampling of opinions across Mathews reveals that residents in many cases are ambivalent about studies that show Chesapeake Bay is rising _ fast enough that in 50 years the water level may be a foot higher.
“I’ll be gone then, partner, so it doesn’t matter,” said Sheddie Armistead, 66, who lives on Horn Harbor. Armistead, a former waterman, said he hasn’t noticed the water level rising in 30 years at Horn Harbor.
Others are trying to grasp the notion that although their home is on dry land now, that may not be the case for their children or grandchildren.
Craig Ciszewski, who lives with his wife and two young children in Bavon, Va., near the confluence of Mobjack and Chesapeake bays, wonders how far back the records go that experts are consulting.
“You could go up in the Shenandoah Mountains and find fossils of seagoing animals,” Ciszewski said, referring to the mountain range to the west in his state. “Everything is cyclical. What goes up goes down. What goes down goes up.”
Ciszewski said he asks himself what he can do about rising bay water and comes to one conclusion: “There isn’t anything I can do.”
Mathews officials say they’re doing the best they can to plan for bay water rise.
“Our job over the next several years is to really educate ourselves over the latest thinking and strategy and stay ahead of the curve,” said Mathews County Administrator Steve Whiteway.
He said he is constantly looking online for the latest information on land-use planning in advance of rising ocean and bay levels to take the lead on coping with the potential problems. The rising water poses threats not only to future development, but also existing development and infrastructure.
“You may have your house up on stilts but what if your septic is underwater?” Whiteway said. “For me, it’s just stay on top of whatever literature you can find and put this type of information into our thinking and into our action.”
At the same time, Whiteway said, Mathews has had less of a change than other areas because so much of the county is undevelopable already, due to nontidal or tidal wetlands.
“The whole center of the county is one big doughnut hole,” Whiteway said.
While the county can try to plan and adapt to rising bay levels, a significant burden will fall on property owners to combat the rising tides and accompanying storm surges that are expected to be more intense with rising sea levels.
About 5,000 residences sit in areas under the jurisdiction of the Chesapeake Bay Act, which puts them close to water.
“Now some people just get by (during storms),” said Susan Thomas, the Mathews environmental codes compliance officer. “Will they get by in 50 years in that structure?”
Lawrence West, 67, moved to the Horn Harbor area of Mathews from Virginia’s Gloucester County’s Guinea are 12 years ago. He said he’s noticed increasing erosion and fears the worst is yet to come.
“This area is low, just like the lower end of Guinea,” West said. “If the bay rise is going up, the water’s going to go high here.”
Other homeowners, such as Eddie Pritchett of the Bavon, Va., area, say they notice an abundance of water in ditches and on land, indicating water isn’t draining like it used to, signaling perhaps that water levels are rising. His family has lived in the same Craftsman-style home since 1932.
“The water seems to lay more, versus what it used to do,” he said.
Pritchett, whose home remained dry through Hurricane Isabel, thinks he’s on a high spot _ around eight feet above sea level _ and hopes he has enough elevation to withstand future storm surges.
Others are like Johnny Horner, who lives about 125 feet from Horn Harbor, said he is counting on past experience: “We’ve never had a problem here.”
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