Tickets are $8-$11 with discounts for seniors and students. They are available beginning September 15 from CRWC at www.ctriver.org 413-772-2020 X 207 or from the Academy box office Tues- Friday 3-6 pm. 413-584-9032 X105; or on the Academy website 24/7 www.academyofmusictheater.com

If last year’s event was any indication, this year may be even better. Despite showery skies, 2,132 volunteers fanned out across the 410 mile river basin for last year’s Cleanup. They ranged from scout troops and river neighbors, to corporations, schools, and boating clubs.

NRG’s employees have signed up to tackle the trash accumulated on Dart Island in the Connecticut River at Middletown, something they’ve done for the past four years, “We love participating in the hands-on part of this project,” says Plant Manager Jeff Araujo of NRG Energy’s Middletown Station, “NRG is proud to have been title sponsor of the Source to Sea Cleanup for many years. It’s a way to make a difference where we work, and it supports the contributions that cleanup volunteers are making in their own communities.”

Last year, volunteers hauled 85 tons of trash, tires, and discarded appliances away from the region’s riverbanks. Jacqueline Talbot, the Cleanup’s Coordinator and also CRWC’s River Steward in Connecticut, says planning for the Council’s 14th Cleanup got off to a quick start this summer, assisted in part by a new reporting link on their website, “It lets volunteers and interested citizens register information on where riverside trash is being dumped in their communities.” That innovation is helping prioritize the ground work that will be tackled this fall: http://www.ctriver.org/programs/outreach_education/source_to_sea_cleanup/scouting

New and returning volunteers and potential sponsors are asked to register with CRWC by Friday, September 17th. “This is a terrific way to get involved in protecting your river,” says NRG’s Araujo.

For more information on the Cleanup in your area, visit www.ctriver.org or contact Jacqueline Talbot by email at: cleanup@ctriver.org, or by phone at: (860) 704-0057.

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About CRWC
Founded in 1952. Accomplishments include restoring access to spawning areas for migratory fish, protecting over 8,000 acres, and mobilizing volunteers to conduct water quality testing and remove over 100 tons of trash from local waterways through the annual Source to Sea Cleanup. Learn more at www.ctriver.org.

About NRG
NRG Energy, Inc. is a Fortune 500 company that owns and operates one of the country’s largest and most diverse power generation portfolios. Headquartered in Princeton, NJ, the Company’s power plants—including plants in Cos Cob, Middletown, Milford, Norwalk and Uncasville, CT—provide more than 24,000 megawatts of generation capacity, enough to supply more than 20 million homes.

Then the dams came to generate electricity. The first large hydro electric dam in the river above MA was built in Vernon in 1909. By the 1950s the Connecticut River powered the largest single hydro electric project in all of New England, the Fifteen Mile Falls hydro electric project comprised of Moore, Comerford and McIndoes dams.

How much electricity a hydro power facility can produce depends on the amount of water flowing in the river and the distance it falls from its high point to its low point. The power of the water produced by this drop in elevation is called head.

In the grand scheme of things the low point of the Connecticut River is zero feet above mean sea level (msl) since it is a direct tributary to Long Island Sound. It rises up at 4th Connecticut Lake at an altitude of 2,670 msl so the river has 2,670 feet of drop in elevation and nearly every foot of it contributes to the generation of power over the estimated 400 mile length of the river.

It is a small irony that the river drops 1,320 feet in its first 12 miles from 4th Lake to Lake Francis but not a watt of power is produced. The Connecticut Lakes are owned or managed by the major dam owner, TransCanada Hydro Northeast for water storage. Water is released from these lakes to provide flow during dry periods to spin the turbines in the down river dams.

Canaan Dam is the first power producing dam. The river is small here so the facility only produces one megawatt (MW) of power partially because it is a run of river facility. It does not pool water behind the dam for quick release but produces power from the natural flow of the river. In fact all of the dams on the river with the exceptions of Moore and Comerford stations are run of river dams.

Gilman Dam is next down river and produces 5 MW. Beyond that is Moore Dam. Moore and the next down river dam, Comerford are allowed to store large amounts of water behind them. When peaking power is needed the water is released quickly and drops 160 feet at Moore and 174 feet at Comerford. The configuration of these two dams mean large flows, big elevation drops equating into high head to make the station turbines spin like crazy. These two dams when added together can produce nearly 280 MWH of electricity when generating at full capacity. Together they produce more power than all of the other dams on the river combined.

Moving down river in order the MacIndoes, Ryegate, Wilder, Bellows Falls, Vernon, Turners Falls and Holyoke stations produce 254 megawatts of power when added together. The river gains more water as it moves to the ocean but over the entire distance of some 140 miles between McIndoes and Holyoke the river only drops 600 feet in elevation; more water maybe but less head so less power to spin turbines.

In the Turners Falls reach of the river there is another hydro producer that does not rely on damming the river but artificially creates head by pumping river water up to a reservoir at night when electric rates and usage are low and releasing it during daylight high use times when prices for electricity are high. The Northfield Mountain pump storage facility can produce 1,000 MW.

For all of the power the Connecticut River produces and even though its water keeps on flowing, there is no free lunch. Power production has its costs for the river. Dams change the river to a lake and cause silt to cover aquatic habitat on the river bottom behind the dams. Dams cause water temperature to increase and thereby dissolved oxygen levels to drop. Dams fragment the river and of course unless retrofitted with passage, stop fish migration cold. That said, with continued vigilance by CRWC, resource agencies and cooperation by dam owners in the licensing process negative environmental impacts have been lessened by the terms of new licenses.

Our river lights our homes and offers us pastoral views, boating fun, cool playtime and fishing. You would think the river would be more than tired by the time it meets Long Island Sound but it just keeps on working even there. It provides important amounts of oxygenated water to an oxygen depleted Long Island Sound and helps keep LIS aquatic life from dying of hypoxia.

The Connecticut River does not end here but merges with the oceans of the world carrying messages from the North Country about the worth of our river.

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David Deen is River Steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. CRWC has been a protector of the Connecticut River for more than half a century.

Despite all the water around us we seldom think about how often we require clean water in our lives. We use water to wash our food, our possessions and ourselves. We cook our food in water; constantly drink water in various forms and dispose of our waste with water. We rely on water in our most basic manufacturing processes; conduct commerce on water and harvest food directly from it. We play in, on and under water. Water is necessary to our lives on a lifetime, daily, hourly, minute-to-minute basis and we cannot substitute any other known substance for water.

Water is so basic to our existence that in antiquity it was considered an element along with air, fire and earth. The ancients were not far wrong, water is unique. Water exists as a solid, liquid and gas at normal atmospheric and temperature conditions at the surface of the earth. Few substances have this capacity and none compose as large a part of the earth. This marvelous ability of water to move between these three physical states allows for the hydrologic cycle of rain, running down to rivers, into lakes or the ocean and then evaporating to again become rain restarting the cycle. Without water falling on the land our woods, grasses, and crops could never support our lives.

It is the ability of water to dissolve solids, liquids and gases into itself is vital to life. A substance that can dissolve a wide array of other substances is known as a “universal solvent.” Few substances other than water are universal solvents and those that are, such as alcohol and benzene are toxic to organic life forms. Water in proper amounts is harmless to virtually all life forms.

The ability of water to dissolve solids and liquids allows the cells in our body to be fed and dispose of the wastes they generate in the life process. Fortunately, as excellent a solvent as water is, it does not dissolve calcium or phosphorous, otherwise our bones would liquefy. One fact we all learn at an early age is that 70% of our body is composed of water. A loss of water from our bodies, even as slight as 12%, can bring death.

If water did not dissolve gasses there could be no aquatic life. An attribute of water that relates to the health of all forms of aquatic life is the change in the capacity of water to dissolve substances as its temperature changes. As water heats up most solids and liquids dissolve more easily in water. However gasses, such as oxygen dissolve less easily in warmer water. Dissolved oxygen levels can drop below requirements for aquatic life if water is too warm.

Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen, but the bond between these two elements is unusual in the world of science. Unlike most compounds once water forms there remains a little extra bonding power left over. This residual bonding power allows water molecules to form “hydrogen bonds” with other water molecules. Each molecule of water is attracted to and holds onto any water molecule near it. This extra bonding power means that a beaker of water, a lake or for that matter oceans can be thought of as one single assemblage of water. It is also why a “belly flop” dive hurts. The grip of one water molecule to another makes the surface of water is inelastic.

Water is one of the few substances found anywhere in nature that expands as it freezes and that expansion means ice weighs roughly 90% the weight of liquid water. Consequently ice floats on water so lakes and rivers freeze from the top down not from the bottom up. If it were otherwise aquatic creatures living in cold climates could not exist. A frozen bottom would mean that water cannot flow over, under and around the rocks and cobble on the bottom of rivers and lakes depriving aquatic organisms of oxygen and food.

For all the importance of water to us and other species, we do not know where it came from nor how there came to be so much of it to where it covers three quarters of the Earth. Several theories exist that involve the accretion of water molecules during the formation of the earth and/or comet and asteroid strikes and/or as a waste product of the earliest living organisms over the four billion years of the Earth’s existence but there is no agreement that any of the theories adequately explain the existence of all this water on the earth.

Out of this shroud of mystery comes a substance found everywhere on or around the earth with properties that are necessary for all life as we know it. Water is truly a wonder substance.

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David Deen is River Steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. CRWC has been a protector of the Connecticut River for more than half a century.

Over the past 13 years the volunteer Source to Sea Cleanup effort has removed more than 600 tons of trash, tires and derelict appliances from riverbanks in communities throughout the 410-mile long Connecticut River watershed. That effort has helped produce stream-sides and river edges that are now staying cleaner in many places, “but we’re looking to find the lesser-known river spots where debris may be hidden by woods and shrubs,” Talbot says. “Knowing which sites really need attention ahead of time will make the cleanup more strategic and worthwhile for all involved.”

Last year, despite predicted heavy rains, over 2,000 volunteers turned out at sites reaching from near the New Hampshire border with Canada to Long Island Sound. They hauled off over 85 tons of illegally-dumped debris. “We are definitely seeing riverbanks improve because of that work,” says CRWC Executive Director Chelsea Gwyther, “Now we want to piggy-back on those gains by having folks who know their local corner of the watershed tell us where the hidden dumping sites are.”

To let CRWC know about a trash site, visit the Council’s website at: www.ctriver.org to fill out a simple form about the site or contact them at cleanup@ctriver.org. People interested in volunteering for CRWC’s Source to Sea Cleanup can also visit the Council’s website for information on registration, participating groups, the 2009 “Trash Tally”, and sponsorship opportunities. Alternatively, call Jacqueline Talbot, Cleanup Coordinator, with site tips or questions at: (860) 704-0057. CRWC advises concerned citizens who witness any illegal trash dumping “in-the-making” to contact their local police and town authorities immediately.

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Press information contact: Jacqueline Talbot, Cleanup Coordinator and River Steward in CT at: (860) 704-0057, or jtalbot@ctriver.org; or, Chelsea Gwyther, Executive Director: (413) 772-2020, X 202; or cgwyther@ctriver.org.

The Connecticut River Watershed Council has been a nonprofit advocate for the 11,000 square-mile watershed of the Connecticut River since 1952.

The pre-colonial forest was defined in part by white pines (Pinus strobus) that were enormous by modern standards. In the 1700s in Durham, NH a pine tree was recorded to be 7 feet 8 inches in diameter. An entry in the Dumbarton, NH town history recorded a tree “200 feet tall and be 10 feet in diameter” and as late as the early 1800s in Lancaster, NH a pine was recorded to be 264 feet tall. It only took settlers, farmers and loggers from the late 1600s to the mid 1800s to clear off these extraordinary trees.

These monarchs of the forest were not found as broad swaths of the forest but in island like stands. A combination of the sand and gravel deposits of kame terraces on side hills or moraines in the valleys left by the retreating glaciers offered ideal well drained soil conditions and those soils along with our wet cool climate resulted in the pines stupendous size. In colonial days people went out “a-masting” looking for those scattered tall trees. Even today, although the trees are not as tall, where you see outsized pines clumped together there is probably a glacial sand and gravel deposit beneath them nourishing their roots.

The name mast pines evolved because of the value of the trees as masts, spars and bowsprits for the ships of the British Admiralty. Mast pines were the largest, tallest, straightest and soundest of the white pines. They were of such value that a Surveyor General was appointed by the King of England to mark, protect, harvest and prosecute poachers of these special trees. As early as 1691 it was illegal for anyone but the King to cut a pine tree over 24 inches in diameter. The trees claimed by the King were marked with the “Broad Arrow”, a three stroke slash on the tree that looked like an arrow head. One other noteworthy responsibility of the Surveyor General besides marking the trees was to encourage the growing of hemp.

In 1741 Benning Wentworth became Governor of the New Hampshire. He sold townships in NH and VT, slyly retained for himself along with 500 acres in each township, all the rights to mast pines within those townships. He then bought the position of Surveyor General from the appointed title holder to insure that he did all of the marking and harvesting of the mast pines. He then sold off the rights to cut these valuable trees to his brother Mark. The cozy family arrangement created a Wentworth monopoly on mast trade with the British.

There was one serious attempt to break the Wentworth monopoly. In 1761 a Connecticut man convinced the Navy Board to buy masts from him. He was given permission to harvest trees up the Connecticut River valley from Deerfield, MA up to Haverhill, NH. He and his crew cut 150 trees and floated them down the Connecticut River to Middletown, CT. It took two years to deliver the logs due to low water but it was a onetime venture. Wentworth sent his deputy to confiscate the logs. It turned out to be an unsuccessful harassment but another such effort did not seem worth the intimidation factor.

There is some speculation that the mast pine harvest restrictions had as much to do with the American Revolution as the tea tax. There was a 100 year history of guerilla conflict between the Surveyor General, sheriffs, their henchmen and the colonists leading to confrontations, arrests, fist fights, beatings, boat sinking along with riding officials out of town siting backwards on their horses.
Since sawn boards had to be less than 24 inches wide the colonists in rebellion would saw boards 23 inches wide wasting the remainder of much wider trees just to scoff at the Surveyor General and the King. It seems that on more than one occasion not one colonist knew a thing about how tens or even hundreds of mast trees simply disappeared. Forest fires were set since fire left the wood of the pines useful for lumber but ruined for masts. One such fire burned for two months.

Unfortunately there is little likelihood one might see mast pines today because according to VT and NH sources, in our the region there is less than one tenth of one percent of the forest area documented as old growth and most of those stands are of mixed hardwood climax growth. Fortunately a story that captures our past can stir up mental images of the natural history of our watershed.

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David Deen is River Steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. CRWC has been a protector of the Connecticut River for more than half a century.

For those who fish, know where your bait came from, what species and whether or not it is a native to the body of water where you are fishing. The introduction of the wrong species of baitfish into a water body can have devastating effects on the resident fish; newly discovered smelt in Lake Champlain is one of our latest documented invasions.

Three years ago we learned of a potential invasion of an infectious virus Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, called VHS discovered just some 75 miles to the west of our watershed. VHS has the potential to kill fish by the thousands. The virus is spread by moving fish from one water body to another. Heed the restrictions on moving untested uncertified bait fish between water bodies including those you net yourself.

Three years ago the invasive algae Didymosphenia geminata, better known as didymo or rock snot was discovered in the Connecticut River just below the Connecticut Lakes. It has since been found in the White River, the Mad River and the Battenkill. Didymo has the potential to destroy river bottom habitat and make our watershed rather unappetizing to fish or swim in. Fishers wearing felt bottom waders are the major risk of transporting this invasive to new water. Soak waders in hot soapy water for 20 minutes or completely dry them out before going into new waters.

Last year zebra mussels were discovered in Massachusetts just one lake outside the Connecticut River watershed. The response was swift; the boat ramp was closed as were boat ramps within easy driving distance and at the Quabbin Reservoir. Even with that quick response the odds are great that the mussel will get into the Connecticut River watershed. Boaters in MA must now certify on a signed form that their boat has either not been in any water body with zebra mussels or that they have cleaned the boat with hot water and Lysol, bleach or vinegar.

When exotics establish themselves in a new habitat they propagate more quickly than native species. Exotics do not face their usual predators and as with VHS our native species are not resistant to new viruses. In their uncontrolled explosions, exotics deny native species their usual habitat by killing off the native flora and fauna. They also create problems for humans, just ask anyone living on a waterbody where Eurasian milfoil or water chestnut has taken hold and choked their lake or someone responsible for keeping a water intake pipe unclogged in the presence of zebra mussels.

Here in the Connecticut River watershed boats are the biggest threat to import or spread invasive species. There are no “fixes” once milfoil, zebra mussels, rock snot or other exotics are in our waters. Care in preventing further spread of these infestations is the only tool we have at our disposal. Act as though every place you launch harbors these problem species. It does not matter if the waterbody actually harbors exotics; rely on the precautionary principle, be safe not sorry.

What should boaters be doing to protect the river? Think: Check, Clean and Dry!

Check: At the ramp during both launching and trailering, thoroughly inspect your boat’s hull, drive unit, trim plates, trolling plates, prop guards, transducers, anchor and anchor rope, and trailer. Scrape off and trash any suspected mussels, however small and all waterweeds hanging from boat or trailer. Live bait should not be taken from one water body to another. Do not dump live bait into the water; the bait may be a non-native species to that waterbody.

Clean: Before launching your boat into uninfected waters, thoroughly flush the hull, drive unit, live wells, any pumping system, bilge, trailer, bait buckets, engine cooling water system, and other boat parts that got wet while in infested waters. Use a hot hard spray from a do-it-yourself carwash. Hot water pumped through an engine’s intake periodically is one method of preventing zebra mussel growth inside an engine’s cooling system. Do not use chlorine bleach or other environmentally damaging washing solutions next to the shore.

Dry: Boats and trailers should be allowed to dry thoroughly in the sun for up to 5 days before being launched into uninfected waters. Drain all bilge water, live wells; bait buckets and any other water from your boat and equipment at the ramp as you leave a water body.

CRWC hopes boaters will be especially careful and protect our river from further invasions by exotics. You enjoy it so protect it and remember: Check, Clean and Dry!

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David L. Deen is the River Steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. CRWC is celebrating over half a century as a protector of the whole Connecticut River.

When a river bank washes out people get nervous and try to stop the river from being a river. The conventional wisdom up until 20 years ago was to address erosion by putting in place large boulders or quarried stone along the bank as rip rap to deflect the flow of the river away from that eroding spot. Of course all that approach does is to export the erosion problem down river to another spot.

As a matter of physics water will dissipate its energy and will do so in several ways. One of those is to carry sediment in its flow. Think of it like you carrying a bag full of gravel, it takes more of your energy to walk from here to there carrying that bag. The same is true for rivers but the gravel is suspended in the water. When a river has energy that has not been dissipated it will erode sediment from wherever it can including the banks and bottom of its own channel.

When you place stone rip rap on a river bank all of the energy in the flow is deflected and the river cannot pick up any sediment from the stone surface, so nothing has happened to lessen the energy of the river. If a river cannot erode sediment the energy in high flows just continues on down river until the river finds a surface that it can erode thereby picking up sediment and lowering its energy level.

In this case someone had tried to rip rap the shore up stream from the bridge with quarried stone. The river had made short work of washing out the rip rap and tumbled some of the stones down river. One that was almost a perfectly cube with sides of about 2 feet in length, width and height had ended up under the bridge and it was sitting upright so looking down in to the water the top was a square flat surface, like a granite table top about two feet under the surface.

Sitting right smack in the middle of that table top was a crayfish (Cambarus bartonii), one of those tiny lobster looking critters that live in all of our healthy lakes, streams and rivers. This one wasn’t all that tiny either, with a 3 inch long body and large pincers (chelipeds) at the end of its front two appendages. Circling around the rock like a shark was a small mouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) about 16 inches long. What ensued next was fun to watch; doubtless the crayfish did not enjoy this encounter.

The bass would dart toward the crayfish. The crayfish would put up its pincers in a defensive posture and actually scuttle toward the bass. This confused the bass to no end and exercising the better part of valor, discretion; it would turn away from those raised and open pincers and resume swimming around the rock. The bass tried to communicate that it was not interested at all in the crayfish. The bass actions seemed to say, “I am just out for a lazy afternoon swim and see I am not even watching you Mr. Crayfish, just out here enjoying the water.” Despite this show of studied indifference eventually the bass would dart again for the crayfish.

The crayfish all this time kept pivoting in the center of the rock keeping the bass in front of it at all times so it was not surprised when the next attack came. It was ready with its pincers held high with their menacing jaws wide open.

The crayfish parried attack after attack, pincers wide open scurrying toward the fish each time the bass darted toward the crayfish. The crayfish would then reset itself backing up to the center of the rock. It was a standoff. No matter how disinterested the bass acted the crayfish knew that if it dropped of its defenses it would be dinner.

This went on for about 30 minutes. The bass finally got it, this crayfish was not going to let down its guard and the bass had no desire to take on those pincers. As soon as the bass swam off the crayfish backed to the far side of the rock away from the departing bass and jumped off sinking quickly to the bottom.

Although that particular crayfish was never spotted again, hurrying down to the river while tying a crayfish pattern streamer on to my fly line and casting down river in the direction of the bass did hook one 16 inch bass that thought for an instant until the line tightened it had finally outsmarted that crayfish.

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David Deen is River Steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. CRWC has been a protector of the Connecticut River for more than half a century.

On the other hand, the beauty and accessibility of the river attracts us and thousands of visitors year round. Along with the explosion in motorized boating, kayaks and canoes travel through areas not accessible to motorized boats creating an illusion of being alone in nature.

Keep in mind though we are not alone and these quiet places are home to other creatures. We should offer them the same courtesy we would expect of a visitor in our own home. We would not appreciate strangers peering in our windows while preparing dinner, getting ready for bed, teaching our children, or cuddling with a loved one. You would not want beverage containers, food wrappers, or cigarette butts dumped in your living room either.

Wildlife is stressed by the presence of perceived predators and this includes human activity. Minimize your impact on wildlife you encounter. How? Read on.

Keep your distance. You should try to keep a buffer zone of approximately 200 feet between you and any animal. When traveling in groups, double that distance and save your talk for the ride home afterwards. Move slowly and quietly but do not sneak up on animals or birds. A startled animal is a stressed animal.

Learn the signs of stress in wildlife when you move too close to them or their young. Threatened animals will walk, run, crawl, slither or hop away; cease foraging and watch YOU intently and may point their ears at you. They may make sudden nervous movements in place or conversely stand still, adopting an “invisible” posture; display specialized behavior such as deer stamping their feet or beavers slapping their tails on the water.

Birds too offer stress signals and with few exceptions they will take flight; ospreys and herons will cry out; least terns, swallows and willets may dive bomb when you come to close to their nests and killdeer will make loud keening calls and fly off but circle back and keep calling.

There are some simple steps you can take to put our wild neighbors at ease. Purchase a good pair of waterproof binoculars and/or a spotting scope so rather than moving closer you can observe from a distance. When you are canoeing learn to paddle quietly or simply drift with the current. In all cases avoid sudden movements and don’t stop to watch wildlife face-on. To birds and animals, this is an aggressive predatory stance that puts them on high alert.

Then there is the whole wet world. Few people observe the living creatures in the aquatic world and because most of us do not know our aquatic neighbors we can be less concerned about abuses perpetrated on the river. So here are a few tips on how to see the life in a river.

Wear polarized sun glasses and a peaked cap when you are on the water. Fishing guides depend on them. They will allow you to see into the water by cutting down on the overhead and surface glare. You will be amazed at what you see with a little patience and you will become aware there is a thriving biosphere in healthy water.

Become an “over the side of the bridge” watcher by moving slowly into position and waiting a few minutes. You will be surprised at what will swim into view. It does not matter the size of the stream either; even the smallest of our brooks host several species of fish including brook trout.

When you are walking the shore, pick up a hand sized rock that is in submerged in the river but not embedded in the river bottom and turn it over quickly. You will see nymphs scurrying away to the edges of the rock. Nymphs are the aquatic life stage of the insects you see flying over rivers. They could be stoneflies, midges or mayflies and the 4 inch long mandible armed thousand legged one is a hellgrammite, startling but not dangerous.

Look to see if there are any caddis fly cases attached to the rocks. Their underwater homes could be shaped as small roundish gravel disks; small rock jumbles attached to larger cobble stones, inch long wood stick casings or cocoons of gravel. With luck when you are moving through shallow water you will see sculpins dart under rocks, crayfish shooting backwards away from you to find a hiding place under another rock and that dinner plate sized light colored hollow on the bottom of the river, it’s a fish nest (redd) so do not walk on it.

There is now a constant human presence on the river and it is the cumulative thoughtless intrusions that magnify our impact. Stay back, be quiet, be watchful and learn to observe the watery species while you enjoy our river.

David Deen is River Steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. CRWC has been a protector of the Connecticut River for more than half a century.

When you first see the picture you would think the editor had made a mistake and placed the picture on its side. On reading the caption though the striped bass in the picture is in fact “standing on its tail” with its nose facing straight up in a comatose state. The fish was under the effects of an endocrine treatment medicine added to the water.

We now face new types of pollutants known as endocrine disrupters and they are found in profusion in certain watersheds in the US. It is unknown at this time if we face the problem in the Connecticut River. It is not a matter of whether these compounds are present or not but VT, NH and the federal government have yet to publish the results of any studies so we are ignorant of the presence or lack thereof of drugs in our river.

What are endocrine disrupters? The endocrine system inside our bodies is the network of glands, hormones and receptors that provide communication and controls between the nervous system and bodily functions such as reproduction, immunity, metabolism and behavior. The endocrine system is based on chemicals, the hormones, which are secreted into the blood and reach all parts of the body. What is true for us is true for all animals on earth including our aquatic neighbors. Endocrine disrupting chemicals mimic the natural hormones in the body. These chemicals are used in thousands of common products. Some closely related drugs react differently to standard wastewater treatment and some do not react at all. Mirror image drugs have the same effects in humans but different reactions to treatment in wastewater processes.

Endocrine disruptors can be natural or synthetic. Some plants, including soybeans and garlic, produce endocrine disruptors as a defense mechanism. However, most endocrine disruptors are human-made chemicals, such as pharmaceuticals, phthalates (used as plasticisers), alkylphenols (industrial detergents), and bisphenol A (used in packaging food), that are released into the environment unintentionally. They have been shown to cause developmental and reproductive abnormalities in wildlife, and can cause birth defects, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and infertility in humans. For the most part our wastewater treatment plants were engineered and built beginning in the 1950s. The technology used in those plants was and is pegged to deal with the pollutants of the time. Things have changed from those earlier times and our technology is falling behind in dealing with modern pollutants. In the meantime things could slip out of control if there is no response on the part of our policy makers. We may face situations where there are no male fish of certain species and five legged frogs as normal occurrences.

Disrupters play a role in the feminization of male fish that has been reported from many countries across the world. The effects reported are probably a consequence of exposure to a mixture of estrogenic chemicals.

Along with endocrine disrupters we are also looking at another new technology being dumped onto our waters called nano particles, molecules less than one thousandth the width of a human hair. Nano particles are extremely small particles, sometimes only one cell thick that are used in a wide variety of products and the number is growing.

Several studies have shown there are health risks posed by nano particles. Manufacturers are putting these particles into skincare products. Even worse, the FDA is allowing them to do so without adequate testing of the new technology or its consequences for human health in direct application situations and nobody is looking to see their effects in our rivers and lakes.

So how do all of these new pollutants find their way into our river? They simply are flushed into the waste water system either by natural elimination by people or having households throw out old prescriptions and personal care products by flushing them down the sink or toilet. From there they make their way to the wastewater treatment facilities where the facilities cannot treat the compounds or nano particles.

Unused drugs then become part of the effluent from the plant but are not treated by the process within the plant. They should be screened out but the most reliable system is reverse osmosis but that is expensive to install and maintain and is not used on our plants. So we are left with digestion as the system of disposal and that is not 100 percent reliable or effective in dealing with these new pollutants.

What can you do? If you are hooked up to a municipal waste water system do not flush unused drugs down the toilet or sink in your house. Mix them with mud, used cat litter or some other disgusting substance and then throw them in the trash or take them to your recycle centers hazardous waste collection day. Since manufacturers’ should be responsibility for the drugs they produce, ask your pharmacy to take back unused drugs. Take unused personal care products to your toxic collection days at your recycle center.

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David Deen is River Steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. CRWC has been a protector of the Connecticut River for more than half a century.

One option said to be available to engineers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant for dealing with the tritium contamination is to extract the hundreds of thousands of gallons of tritium-contaminated groundwater at the site, filter out the organic matter, and then flush the tritium-tainted water back into the Connecticut River. Just the mention of that possibility has drawn the ire of the Connecticut River Watershed Council.

The radioactive tritium leaks discovered in early January have already spread in a plume that is leaching into the river. The Council says if Entergy were to be allowed to use this “dilution” method, it would be sanctioning New England’s four-state river as a de-facto sewer for low-level nuclear waste.

“Withdrawing large volumes of contaminated groundwater is a laudable idea to avoid further contamination of the river,” says David Deen, River Steward for Vermont and New Hampshire, “but diluting that radioactive water with still more Connecticut River water and then discharging the solution back directly into the river is wholly unacceptable. It would broaden the reach of the contamination downstream.”

Another option said to now be under consideration by Entergy is more environmentally preferable to the Council. That approach is to extract the water from the ground and then reuse the contaminated water within the plant, “Even after filtering, the tritium is not removed,” says Deen, “But at least by this method, any tritium release through evaporation at the plant must comply with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s air discharge limits. It provides a way of monitoring the health and safety risks to people in this three-state region.”

Deen noted that if the plant cannot reuse the water for some reason, Entergy should be required to store it on site, “Until the radioactivity level is within the exposure limit of 3 millirems that exists under Health Department rules.” Entergy currently may not have the capacity to safely store hundreds of thousands of gallons of tainted water, another impediment to continued plant operations, “The Council feels that since Vermont Yankee created the problem, neither the river, nor the public, should be forced to pay the price for their clean up.”

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For press information contact: David L. Deen, River Steward, CT River Watershed Council: 802-828-2266; or, ddeen@ctriver.org

Today, Attorney Jon Groveman of the Vermont Natural Resources Council submitted briefs supporting the Connecticut River Watershed Council’s request for intervener status in the Vermont Public Service Board’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant relicensing proceedings. In February, the Council publicly called for Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to cease operations until the causes of ongoing releases of radioactive tritium and other radionuclides into groundwater and the Connecticut River are fully verified, halted, and remediated.

Attorney Groveman is the Water Program and Legal Council for the Vermont Natural Resources Council, which filed for its own intervener status with the Vermont PSB in the Vermont Yankee case on February 9, 2010. In arguments submitted today, he documented the Watershed Council’s role as “a leader in advocating for the protection of the Connecticut River since 1952.” Groveman’s brief stated that CRWC “has a substantial interest intervening in these Dockets to address the potential contamination of the Connecticut River from the leak of radionuclides, radioactive materials, and potentially, other non-radioactive materials into the environment from Vermont Yankee.”

“Our members and the public have an absolute right to feel safe when it comes to groundwater, drinking water, and what’s flowing into the Connecticut River,” says CRWC Executive Director Chelsea Gwyther, adding “Entergy has not proven a very friendly neighbor to the river.” Three years back the Council went before the Vermont Environmental Court to challenge Entergy’s request for a variance to increase the temperature of heated effluent the plant discharges directly into the Connecticut at the Vernon, VT site, arguing that the hot water negatively impacts migratory American shad and aquatic habitats.

In 2009, Entergy spokespeople testified that pipes now shown to be involved in the current tritium contamination did not exist. “It’s the job of the Watershed Council to protect the river. We expect the same of Entergy. But, after two months Entergy has still not been able to definitively pinpoint all the sources, or the full extent of the expanding field of tritium moving in the groundwater,” says Gwyther, “Its time to halt operations until the public can be sure we have all the facts. We need to be certain that this plant can operate without threatening our groundwater and the Connecticut River.”

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For press information contact:

David L. Deen River Steward CT River Watershed Council 802-828-2266; ddeen@ctriver.org

Jon Groveman VT Natural Resources Council Water Program Co-director water programs 802-223-2328; jgroveman@vnrc.org

Tomorrow the Vermont Senate will take up an historic vote on whether to extend the operating license of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant beyond 2012, the expiration of its original 40-year license. There’s no better time than right now to remind your Legislator about CRWC’s issues with Vermont Yankee – their pollution of the Connecticut with both tritium and hot water discharges and their lack of forthrightness in answering our tough questions.

The news related to Vermont Yankee has been deeply disturbing since a radioactive tritium leak was discovered in early January. This discovery has ballooned into an expanding field of groundwater contamination and Entergy Nuclear, Vermont Yankee’s owner, admits that even without conclusive testing tritium is undoubtedly leaching into the Connecticut River. At least one monitoring well has registered tritium levels at 2.2 million picocuries per liter of water, which is the second highest level ever reported nationally, close to levels that occur within the reactor itself, and 100 times the national drinking water standard. Yet, seven weeks later, the root source of the expanding tritium leach field flowing to the river has yet to be identified.

Entergy has repeatedly been shown to have obscured or withheld information from the public on the sources and extent of the leaking tritium. Their denial that underground piping at the plant even existed has now been shown to be patently false. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the recent revelations that there was a 2005 radioactive tritium leak in the vicinity of the current leak that was kept from the public. This cannot go on.

CRWC has been on the forefront of holding Entergy responsible for their impact on our water resources. Three years back, we took Entergy to court in an attempt to halt an expansion of the dumping of their thermal effluent into the river—a flushing of hot water directly into the Connecticut that endangers upstream migration of American shad, and impacts a host of native aquatic species in the river, as well as the development of juvenile shad. Entergy refuses to use its cooling towers–specifically designed to limit the plant’s heating impact on the river, because it lowers profit margins.

Here at CRWC we have called upon the NRC and federal regulators to take the prudent and overdue step of closing down the plant until the source and extent of the leaking tritium is located, and permanent remediation is achieved. Anything less puts communities and water resources at continual risk. Further, we have requested full public disclosure of all leaks and environmental impacts arising from operations at Vermont Yankee, past, present, and projected. As guardians of ground and surface water resources in the Connecticut River watershed, anything less is unacceptable.

At the root of this disturbing state of affairs is everyone’s right to know what is being released in the water we depend on for drinking, bathing, fishing, and swimming. Clean water is everyone’s right.

What you can do:

1. Stay informed. Keep abreast of the current situation at Vermont Yankee, both on-site, and at the legislative level. If you are a Vermonter, consider contacting your state senator and representative and making your wishes known. Visit us at www.ctriver.org to learn more.
2. Contribute to CRWC. We rely on member support to be able to respond quickly when pollution threaten our community resources. Without your support, we simply don’t have the resources we need to respond effectively. Please donate now.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Chelsea Reiff Gwyther
Executive Director

The remand comes in light of recent policy changes implemented by the Patrick Administration in issuing permits under the Water Management Act. CRWC and its partners had appealed the 2008 permit issued to Russell Biomass on grounds that DEP had not adequately considered safe yield in the permit. The permit was upheld in August, 2009 in a recommended decision by a DEP presiding officer. Parties had since been awaiting a final decision by Commissioner Burt.

“We are heartened that the Commissioner re-affirmed that permitting decisions be based on the best available science. That is what we have been asking for from the beginning,” said Andrea Donlon, CRWC’s Massachusetts River Steward, “However, there are a number of issues with the remand that we find problematic.” CRWC and a ten citizen group filed a request for clarification with DEP on February 22nd, noting that remands are supposed to be directed to a presiding officer, not a regional DEP office, and this decision does not recognize the need for due process hearing procedures. Donlon also noted discrepancies within DEP as to the current allocation of withdrawals in the Westfield basin.

A groundswell of opposition ensued last fall when DEP changed its longstanding position on safe yield, which would have allowed rivers to be drawn down to conditions of severe drought. Scores of groups protested, and several resigned from the state’s Water Management Advisory Committee. In light of this, Governor Patrick reconsidered and DEP clarified its position on safe yield to include environmental protection factors such as water quality, a subject the presiding officer excluded from the appeal testimony last year. DEP’s clarification set in motion a pair of stakeholder groups working to develop a long term safe yield methodology that will be in place within a year, ultimately affecting withdrawals in the Commonwealth’s 11,000 miles of rivers and streams.

“We find it troublesome that the Commissioner has directed DEP to use the interim safe yield in the absence of formal rulemaking, thereby allowing DEP to create a new standard without granting each party a fair opportunity to prepare arguments and submit evidence,” says CRWC’s Donlon, “Healthy rivers and habitats are the backbone of our communities. The Westfield River deserves better protection than a permit allowing a corporation to withdraw down to the lowest flow ever recorded, then dump heated water back in; we hope ultimately DEP will see that.”

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For press information contact: Andrea Donlon (413) 772-2020, ext. 205, or adonlon@ctriver.org, or Fridays at home (413)625-8178.

The Connecticut River Watershed Council is also calling on Entergy for a full public accounting of all chemicals, radioactive material, and pollution entering the Connecticut River at its Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant. “Radioactive tritium is just Entergy Vermont Yankee’s latest insult to the Connecticut River and all of us that enjoy fishing, boating and swimming in it. We believe people have a right to know what else is entering the river—whether from the groundwater plume, underground pipes, or the thermal pollution Entergy feeds into the Connecticut at Vernon.” said Chelsea Gwyther, Connecticut River Watershed Council Executive Director. The Connecticut River Watershed Council appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court Entergy Vermont Yankee’s thermal discharge permit which allows the nuclear power plant to increase the temperature of the Connecticut River by up to 13 degrees in the winter and up to 6 degrees in the summer. The thermal impact has been shown to extend up to 50 miles down to the Holyoke dam and coincides with a 99% drop in the American shad population at the Vernon pool according to the conservation group.

The source of the tritium leaks has yet to be pinpointed at the riverside nuclear plant. But the reach of the groundwater contamination has continued to widen as new testing has been undertaken. One new well just 100 feet south of where the original leak was detected showed tritium levels at 775,000 picocuries–3-1/2 times the federal safe drinking water standard, and the second highest level ever reported at a US nuclear plant . New disclosures also reveal that cobalt-60 at 13,000 picocuries per liter, and zinc-65 at 300 picocuries per liter—both hundreds times the federal drinking water standards, have been documented where the contamination was first discovered.

“It is flabbergasting to hear Entergy describe a plume of tritium leachate on the lip of the Connecticut River as benign. What goes into the river is hardly irrelevant to community health issues.” As news of the leaks came in CRWC’s Vermont-New Hampshire River Steward David Deen, began requesting detailed information and disclosure from Entergy, the NRC, and the Vermont Department of Public Health, who has been issuing updates on the Yankee situation. The Council’s purview includes the protection of the watershed’s drinking water, groundwater, and surface waters of basin rivers and streams.

Deen, of Westminster, VT, is also a state representative and chair of the VT House Committee on Fish, Wildlife, and Water Resources. The Committee has scheduled weekly meetings with Vermont health officials to stay abreast of developments. VT Health Commissioner Wendy Davis has been coming before Deen’s committee to answer the many questions and requests for information arising from the radioactive groundwater plume. Dr. William Irwin, Radiological Health Chief at the Vermont Department of Health has also appeared to take information requests.

An onsite, radiological sampling team has now been formed, including members of the Agency of Natural Resources, Agency of Agriculture, and the Dept. of Health. Once representatives pass security background checks they expect to be part of the public oversight as testing continues. Deen notes that the Dept. of Health Commissioner is closely monitoring developments for any immediate threats to public, and does have the authority to request a plant shutdown as part of exercising “prudent caution.”

Meanwhile, the Watershed Council has gone ahead with its own requests for specific information about the contaminated groundwater plume at Yankee. There are some 30 existing test wells at Yankee, with another 11 wells slated to be drilled. Queries and information requests from the Council have also included detailed geomorphological maps of the contours and known groundwater flow at the Yankee site, as well as requests for information on the private and public sector individuals chosen to work on the contamination issue, “We just want to be sure that the most highly-qualified, independent people are in there doing this public oversight work,” said David Deen.

In keeping with their water protection mandate, the Council will be issuing updates and listing the latest news and information resources on its website: www.ctriver.org.

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Contact: David Deen, VT/NH River Steward ddeen@ctriver.org
Chelsea Gwyther, Executive Director (413) 658-8552 cell cgwyther@ctriver.org