Opinion

Busy spring on the Connecticut River: problems and solutions

By DAVID DEEN
As the Connecticut River wakens after its long winter anticipation, consider just how many things are happening in, on, under, about or near the jewel of the north country.

Flooding: The National Weather Service has issued various flood watches throughout the entire four state watershed. Although VT/NH have seen limited high water in the main river and there has been no significant main-stem flooding but as you move down river and the river gathers more snow melt and rain runoff there has been moderate flooding in Connecticut through the month of April. Despite no main river major flood events, tributaries have flooded roads causing washouts around the upper watershed.

Erosion: From the main river to the smallest tributaries the high and swift waters of spring has caused some shore and bottom erosion turning the rivers brown with sediment. Rivers move only three things, water, sediment, and detritus from the shores. Rivers that are not disturbed by humans can deal with sediment just fine. When we alter natural conditions erosion and sediment can and often do become a problems for the river and for us humans. So far so good this year with no major damage.

Discharges: With the melt and heavy rain events of spring most of the waste water treatment facilities (WWTFs) in the watershed experienced combined sewer overflows (CSOs) resulting in untreated sewage being discharged directly into the river. As disturbing as that sounds, you should know that the conventional wisdom of 50 years ago designed these systems to do exactly what they are doing, collect all the sewage and all of the surface runoff and put it through the WWTF. Unfortunately, there is a lot more runoff now than 50 years ago with both the climate change increase in intensity of  rain events and in the increased impervious surfaces that shoot unabsorbed runoff from our roads, parking lots and building roof tops quickly into our streams overrunning WWTFs so they cannot effectively treat this upsurge in wastewater. So much for conventional wisdom.

Dams: Five of the largest hydroelectric facilities located on the main river are being relicensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC – search it on line at www.ctriver.org/february-2019-hydroelectric-relicensing-update/). The facilities alter 110 miles of river from Wells River, Vermont to Turners Falls, Massachusetts. The licenses will be renewed for 40+ years. Unlike 40 years ago when the only consideration was the amount of power produced, this time the license must include a balancing of environmental impacts with electric generation, but nothing about this process is automatic so it takes an active participation of federal and state environmental agencies as well as nonprofits like the Connecticut River Conservancy to hold the regulators accountable for their decisions. Speak now or live in voiceless frustration with the impacts of the new license conditions on the river for the next 40 years.

Invasives: We face a glut of invasive plants and fish and the infestations grow yearly. Everything from Eurasian milfoil to northern snakehead fish. If the invasives are not already here, they are headed this way encouraged to move north as our climate change influenced temperatures climb. River users must take precautions to not move any species, native or invasive from one waterbody to another. Rigorous attention to our responsibility to our water bodies is the only action we can take to prevent the spread of invasives. Make sure you clean all items or they are bone dry, be it a boat to fishing gear to sneakers as you leave one body of water and before you enter the next one. Do it or lose it.

Seasonal changes: The migratory instinct is in full cry these days as the river’s high flows send the homing signal out into the ocean that whets fish spawning instinct and that provides the road map that the shad, salmon, herring follow up river to their spawning waters. Our migratory birds phoebes, finches, red polls, humming birds and others are returning. Some just stop over here on their way further north, while others stay in our area to begin their nesting to hopefully fledge the next generation. Welcome to our returning species.

Aquatic insects: The spring water temperature increases will stimulate larval forms of aquatic insects to begin morphing through their life stages to become winged adults that spawn in the air, deposit their eggs back in the water, and then a deathly flutter onto the water. Their ephemeral individual life times of hours to days are short by human expectations but the cycles themselves are ageless as their ancestry reaches back in time some 300 million years. Black flies aside, it is a joyous marvel of watery renewal.

Recreation: Even as high water crests in the upper watershed, river users are already on the water. Members of the UMass Outing Club have already canoed the main Connecticut River from Canaan, Vermont, on the Canadian border to Northampton, Massachusetts, a distance of some 223 miles to complete the annual Connecticut River Challenge.

So enjoy our dynamic river, as busy as it is, the Connecticut River has time for you.

 

David L. Deen is an honorary trustee of the Connecticut River Conservancy and a board member of the CT River Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

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