Following up on the petition, filed last Friday, asking the Virginia Supreme Court to review a trial court's demurrer which failed to recognize that the owners of a state lease to harvest oysters in the Nansemond River have a property interest . The court concluded that the city and santitation district possess a superior right to pollute the river with sewage.
The case arose when the city and sanitation district declared the oysterbeds "condemned" during certain times of the year because they put sewage into the river. They denied compensation, and the trial court held that Darling v. City of Newport News, 249 U.S. 540 (1919) subjected the lease owners to the city's superior right to pollute.
We paid a visit to the site a couple of weeks ago to see the pollution source, and how the oysters are harvested in the river. The above video is from that trip. The below is from WAVY 10's report on the case.
