{"id":11072,"date":"2021-01-08T08:12:13","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T13:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/?page_id=11072"},"modified":"2021-06-14T14:10:31","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T18:10:31","slug":"emergency-closures","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Why is an emergency closure issued?<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When there are sudden factors that could affect the safety of individuals consuming molluscan shellfish outside of, or beyond the scope of, routine monitoring by Division of Shellfish Safety staff.\u00a0 These factors could be virus and bacteria laden sewage released to shellfish waters, harmful algal blooms, or other deleterious substances.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>What standards are followed when you issue an Emergency Shellfish Closure? <\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Virginia is a participatory member of the\u00a0<em>National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP)<\/em>\u00a0and adopts the standards outlined in the document\u00a0<em>NSSP Guide for the Control of Molluscan Shellfish,\u00a0<\/em>commonly called the\u00a0<em>Model Ordinance<\/em>.\u00a0 These standards identify when an emergency closure should be issued and what criteria must occur in order to reopen.\u00a0\u00a0<em>For more information<\/em>\u00a0click\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/media\/143238\/download\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u00a0to be redirected to the\u00a0<em>Model Ordinance: 2019 Revision<\/em>\u00a0and scroll down to page 49 in the document (pdf page 60).<\/li>\n<li>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/01\/EmergencyClosureResponseFlowChart.pdf\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/span><\/a> for a step-by-step flow chart review of the tasks involved with the issuance of an emergency closure and subsequent reopening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>When will an emergency closure be rescinded (waters reopened) and what water criteria are used to rescind?<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An emergency closure will automatically end at the conclusion of the closure effective date range.<\/li>\n<li>In the instance of a known sewage release, waters are closed by emergency action for 21 days and cannot be reopened early unless oyster meat samples (coliphage testing), obtained seven days following the end of a sewage release, do not exceed 50 MSC per 100 grams.<\/li>\n<li>In the instance of floodwaters causing general increases in bacteria from runoff, no sampling can be obtained for seven days and any early reopening cannot occur without two favorable water quality samples.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Is it safe to swim or eat fish or crabs in waters encompassed by an emergency closure?<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Molluscan shellfish are filter feeders and by their nature require much cleaner water quality.\u00a0 An emergency closure does not automatically imply it is unsafe to swim or eat finfish or crabs.\u00a0 Any closure to recreational waters or fishing, etc. would be identified by a separate order.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Hampton Roads Closure<\/span><\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/02\/Newport-News-Sewage-Spill.pdf\">click here<\/a> for printable fact sheet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is an emergency closure issued? When there are sudden factors that could affect the safety of individuals consuming molluscan shellfish outside of, or beyond the scope of, routine monitoring by Division of Shellfish Safety staff.\u00a0 These factors could be virus and bacteria laden sewage released to shellfish waters, harmful algal blooms, or other deleterious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11072","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions - Environmental Health<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions - Environmental Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why is an emergency closure issued? When there are sudden factors that could affect the safety of individuals consuming molluscan shellfish outside of, or beyond the scope of, routine monitoring by Division of Shellfish Safety staff.\u00a0 These factors could be virus and bacteria laden sewage released to shellfish waters, harmful algal blooms, or other deleterious [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Environmental Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-14T18:10:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/emergency-closures\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/emergency-closures\\\/\",\"name\":\"Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions - Environmental Health\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-08T13:12:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-14T18:10:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/emergency-closures\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/emergency-closures\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/emergency-closures\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/\",\"name\":\"Environmental Health\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/environmental-health\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions - Environmental Health","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions - Environmental Health","og_description":"Why is an emergency closure issued? When there are sudden factors that could affect the safety of individuals consuming molluscan shellfish outside of, or beyond the scope of, routine monitoring by Division of Shellfish Safety staff.\u00a0 These factors could be virus and bacteria laden sewage released to shellfish waters, harmful algal blooms, or other deleterious [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/","og_site_name":"Environmental Health","article_modified_time":"2021-06-14T18:10:31+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/","url":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/","name":"Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions - Environmental Health","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-01-08T13:12:13+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-14T18:10:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/emergency-closures\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Emergency Closure Frequently Asked Questions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/","name":"Environmental Health","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11072"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11700,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11072\/revisions\/11700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/environmental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}