The following is an extended version of the article that appears in our May 2026 issue.
A bald eagle near Powell Creek in Prince George County
About 30 miles south of Richmond, off Flowerdew Hundred Road in Prince George County, a battle is brewing over the future of a little-known tributary of the James River.
For more than a decade, Powell Creek, which borders the 4,700-acre James River National Wildlife Refuge, has been open to kayakers and canoers. In April, to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, the creek was designated a “blueway,” which comes with a map for paddlers and interpretive information about the creek.
It’s an excellent place for fishing, says refuge manager Cyrus Brame. He has seen anglers reel in perch, catfish, smallmouth bass, sunfish, shad, crappie and more — sometimes all in one day. There is rarely more than one boat on the creek at a time, he adds, and the isolation allows for an intimate experience with a primeval landscape.
The creek, however, may not be a natural haven for much longer.
In 2023, Norfolk-based Hitch Gravel Corp. applied for a permit to dredge Powell Creek. Estimated to cost more than $5 million, the proposed dredge would be over 2 miles long, up to 14 feet deep and range in width from 100 feet to 200 feet. Over 275,000 cubic yards of sandy silt would be removed. Seaward Marine Corp., also based in Norfolk, would carry out the project.
Its stated purpose is to allow barge access to a gravel mine owned by Hitch Gravel; the mine is located on a 183-acre tract of private land surrounded by the refuge on all sides.
In a public letter to the commission, James River Association Riverkeeper Tom Dunlap states, “The project would dramatically and negatively alter a sensitive tributary of the James River.”
On Sept. 2, 2025, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took over the permit process for development of aquatic resources in the commonwealth. As such, the USACE will be the organization that approves or denies the permit.
“In the summertime, it’s absolutely gorgeous,” says adjacent landowner Wilson Enochs, who opposes the project. “[Powell Creek] is magical place.”
Dormant DDT
In 1975, 29 workers at the Life Science Products Company in Hopewell were hospitalized after being poisoned while making the pesticide chlordecone (commercially branded as Kepone).
Investigations later revealed that both Life Science Products and another company called Allied Chemical were disposing of excess Kepone by dumping it directly into the James River, just upriver of Powell Creek.
Kepone — which is linked with heart palpitations, severe convulsions and neurological disorders in humans — was banned globally in 2009. Much like its famous cousin DDT, Kepone causes the eggs of bald eagles to become dangerously thin. The eggs then break in the nest, killing the unborn young. Both DDT and Kepone were associated with the complete disappearance of bald eagles on the James River before the mid-1970s.
Today, there are 400 nesting pairs on the James River, including at least three on Powell Creek, two of which nest directly above the proposed dredge site, says Brame, the refuge manager.
The proposed dredge site runs through the mouth of Powell Creek, where Kepone, DDT and other dangerous chemicals are likely buried in the sediment, says Greg Garman, associate professor of life sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University.
“We have found very high concentrations of DDT and DDE — the breakdown product of DDT — in the tissues of fish native to [Powell Creek],” Garman says, indicating that the chemicals remain in the sediment. “We also found 23 polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs [banned globally since 1979], and tributyltin [banned globally since 2008].”
“These chemicals are sequestered in the sediment now, and we’d like to keep it that way,” Garman explains. “Dredging the creek will put these contaminants back in the water column.”
Many of these contaminants are endocrine disrupters, Garman says. In fish, they mimic natural hormones, including reproductive hormones.
“It results in fish that don’t have a clear distinction between physically male and physically female,” Garman explains. As a result, the chemicals “interfere with their ability to reproduce.”
Hitch Gravel did not respond to requests for comment. However, representatives from Groundwater & Environmental Services Inc. defended the proposal on behalf of Hitch Gravel in an open letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Oct. 17.
The letter notes that testing for Kepone had been done along the pathway of the proposed dredge, according to Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
“The applicant has had the sediments tested throughout the proposed dredge route ... and Kepone was not detected,” the letter states. “As Kepone was not detected in any samples taken, resuspension of Kepone during the dredging of this previously dredged channel is unlikely.”
Neither the number of tests nor the locations tested were listed in the public response. Some scientists — including Garman — remain skeptical.
“I would say that there’s a pretty high likelihood that, if they follow through with the project, a lot of those legacy contaminants will become available to move through the food chain again,” Garman says.
Enochs points out that the depth of the samples would impact test results.
“I don’t doubt that a lot of [clean] sediments have created a shoal at the mouth of the creek,” Enochs says, indicating that a clean sandbar could lay overtop the dangerous sediments, “but the Kepone is in that mud. I can’t speak to exactly how deep, but if you go cutting 14 feet out of the mouth of that creek, you’re certainly going to get into it.”
Cyrus Brame, manager of the James River Wildlife Refuge, navigates Powell Creek in Prince George County.
Charismatic Fauna
Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, anyone who causes bald eagles to abandon their nests could face criminal charges, fines and even prison. But in their letter, Groundwater & Environmental Services Inc. representatives posit that the bald eagle population will be unaffected by industrial traffic.
“Bald eagles have become increasingly acclimated to human activity in their vicinity, in particular to barge traffic, tugs, and even dredging, since these are common along the James River,” the letter states.
The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is wide-ranging — but certain stipulations are no longer being enforced the way they once were, says Joe McCauley, who managed the James River National Wildlife Refuge from 2000-2010.
“The current administration is trying to loosen protections for eagles and all migratory birds, saying, ‘Unless there is a direct mortality, the law hasn’t necessarily been violated,’” he says.
“Under the old guidelines, if abandonment of a nest resulted from a certain activity, that would be considered a violation,” McCauley says. “The eagle was there. It liked it there. It was happy there. It was raising young there. And what you did caused that eagle to say, ‘I’m out of here.’”
“There is evidence that bald eagles do not relish human activity,” McCauley adds. “Clearly, they have become somewhat accustomed to it. But to whitewash that and say, ‘Oh, that’s not a problem anymore’? ... That’s a superficial and unscientific approach, in my opinion.”
Another popular species that has clawed its way back to relevance in the James River ecosystem is the Atlantic sturgeon. Like the bald eagle, it was completely eradicated from its ancestral territory in the James at one time. But a small baby sturgeon was discovered in 2004, the first of its kind in decades. In the years since, VCU researchers have tagged over 2,000 adult sturgeons in the James River.
One of the primary causes of the sturgeon’s decline was industrial activity. When sand and silt were thrown into the water, the dust settled over the sturgeons’ eggs, preventing fertilization. Sturgeons also prefer to lay their eggs on jagged, rocky ground.
In a letter last summer urging the Army Corps of Engineers to deny the permit, attorneys for the Southern Environmental Law Center list the Atlantic sturgeon population first in a list of chief concerns.
“Dredging is one of the most significant threats to the Atlantic sturgeon, because it can affect hard bottom substrates needed for spawning,” SELC attorneys state in the letter, dated Aug. 17.
GES representatives say that work will occur outside of the time-of-year restrictions, from Feb. 15 to June 30, when migratory fish are protected by a temporary ban on dredging and other marine projects.
“TOYRs are widely considered adequate protection against potential impact to the Atlantic sturgeon,” the GES letter states.
Atlantic sturgeon, however, mate in both spring and fall. The most successful spawning time for Atlantic sturgeon in the James has historically been late September.
“We’ve witnessed some impressive improvement to water quality over time, and we can’t take that for granted,” says Jamie Brunkow, director of advocacy and river ecology for the James River Association. “We need to put in protections, while this project puts that at risk.”
Other endangered species native to the refuge flagged by the SELC as threatened by the project include the shortnose sturgeon and the northern long-eared bat. Impacts to submerged aquatic vegetation and shoreline erosion are also a concern, Brunkow says.
“The dredging is not happening just for the sake of deepening the creek,” he says. “When the gravel mine gets going again, the risks are going to be magnified.”
Hitch Gravel Corp. plans to dredge a 2-mile strech of Powell Creek in Prince George County.
‘The Creek Has Healed’
The history of Powell Creek has long been interwoven with industry. The gravel mine was active more than 40 years ago, and barges frequently traveled up and down the creek. Today, many of the old barges remain sunk in the mud, where they have become habitats for wildlife.
As GES representatives point out, Powell Creek has been dredged before — prior to 1949, and at least one time since. The new proposal would roughly follow the portion of the creek that has previously been dredged.
“When barges were in and out of there, you were seeing impacts on wildlife. But over the last few decades, the creek has healed,” McCauley says. “You can’t exactly call it pristine, since you’ve got old barges there on the side of the creek — but those old barges have become habitats.”
If the dredge project goes through, the old barges will be removed, which McCauley calls “a huge disruption.”
In the first half of the 20th century, there were timber farms on both sides of Powell Creek.
“Back in the 1920s and ’30s, my grandfather would buy pieces of property, timber them and resell,” Enochs says. “He bought an 800-acre property that adjoins Coggin’s Point [on the west bank of Powell Creek].”
Much of the acreage that now makes up the refuge, on the east side of the creek, was once a pine farm. When the farm closed, loblolly pine continued to grow unmanaged on the property.
In the 1980s, the property was owned by Continental Can Corp., which sold it to a local developer who wanted to build a subdivision, Enochs says.
Eventually, development of the property was hampered when it was proven that more than 50 juvenile bald eagles gathered each spring on a stretch of land called Maycock’s Point, now at the heart of the wildlife refuge.
The nail in the coffin, Enochs says, came when local landowners banded together and were able to prove that a sewage treatment plant would be required for development on the heavy clay soil, and that discharged sewage would pool into Powell Creek. The land was then sold to the Nature Conservancy, who sold it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which established the refuge in 1990. Over time, the size of the refuge grew — acquisition by acquisition, parcel by parcel. Eventually, the 183 acres of land now owned by Hitch Gravel was completely enveloped by the refuge.
If the permit to dredge Powell Creek is granted, Enochs says that he and his neighbors are prepared to fight for the creek once again.
“Adjacent landowners get an opportunity to post any objections onto the application, which we’ve all done,” he says. “If the permit is granted, we could use litigation to try and stop it — but we don’t want to go down that path.”
If the permit is granted by the Army Corps of Engineers, a public hearing will almost certainly follow, likely at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission office in Norfolk. This means the public would have the chance to voice opposition or support for the project.
Long-Term Vision
Today, much of the refuge consists of a burgeoning longleaf pine forest, planted and managed by Brame. Bald eagles prefer to nest as high as possible, making longleaf pines and native cypress trees ideal for habitation.
Currently, there are 200 acres of longleaf pine forest on the refuge, consisting of roughly 20,000 trees. Brame plans to expand the forest to cover 2,100 acres.
“It’s a really neat ecosystem, and part of the historic range of the longleaf pine. We want to promote that longleaf savannah habitat,” he says.
Cypress trees are plentiful on both sides of the creek, at the refuge and on Enochs’ land.
“We try to be good stewards on our family property. We’ve planted more than 10,000 cypress trees,” Enochs says.
The longleaf pine forests will not reach their full height for decades. But under ideal conditions, they can live for up to 500 years.
“It’s a long-term vision,” McCauley says. “That kind of long-term planning is why we have a national wildlife refuge system. It is a resource that belongs to everyone.”
