Results of a recent Virginia Department of Health Division of Shellfish Sanitation sanitary survey for the East River show that seven properties along its shoreline with deficiencies in their septic systems have contributed and may still be contributing pollution to the river.

The Mathews County properties include a home on Woods Cove Lane that has kitchen or laundry wastes discharging to a ditch in the woods, a dwelling on East River Road with an unusable privy, an RV on East River Road with an open sewer port where wastewater was discharging to an oil pan and contents were draining onto the ground, and a dwelling on Pelican Point Lane with a malfunctioning septic system.

Properties with deficiencies that have been corrected or that have received permits for corrective measures are an Evans Road dwelling that had water pooling over a drainfield, a house on Peach Point Road that had effluent erupting over the drainfield, and a dwelling on John Clayton Memorial Highway where a clogged outlet pipe was causing effluent to overflow onto the ground.

Six additional properties were cited as possibly having deficiencies. They consist of a dwelling on Diggs Wharf Road where the septic system couldn’t be inspected because of a plywood covering, a house on Turpin Lane that’s overgrown and covered with debris such as old vehicles and tires, a house on New Point Comfort Highway where a black hose of unknown origin exits the foundation, and a Caravel Way property with a number of fuel tanks and diesel containers without berms.

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