This report, by Morris H. Roberts Jr., Mark Luckenbach and Michael Unger of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and published by the Chesapeake Bay Program, is the result of a study to characterize selected bayside creeks of the Virginia portion of the Delmarva Peninsula with respect to chemistry and toxicity.
Agriculture is the peninsula's primary land use.
When compared to urbanized and industrial areas, one might expect to find fewer persistent impacts with potentially severe intermittent impacts. The ambient toxicity methods applied in the Bay area in the last decade were used to detect persistent impacts. To detect intermittent or pulsed impacts from rain events, in situ exposures with the grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio were used. Three of the four creeks, the Hungar, The Gulf and Old Plantation in Northampton County, are known to have plasticulture of tomatoes and other nightshade vegetables. The fourth creek, Onancock in Accomac County, is free of plasticulture, but includes an urbanized community, Onancock.