As Luísa Black Ellis surveys Knitting Mill Creek on the Lafayette Branch of the Elizabeth River, she can’t help but recall a time not so long ago when the river was declared “dead.”
“Thirty years ago, the Elizabeth River was so polluted that scientists would hold competitions to see who could pull out the most deformed fish from the river,” says Ellis, Resiliency Manager at the newly opened Ryan Resilience Lab at 4610 Colley Ave.
VisitNorfolk
![](https://elizabethriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/21610-ERP_NOV-Ryan-Lab-Photography_66-300x200.jpg)