Rivers Alliance Names Nancy Cohen Environmental Reporter of the Year

Rivers & Trails Hands-on Technical Assistance

Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide

ROGER REYNOLDS
ENVIRONMENTAL ATTORNEY OF THE YEAR

Richard H. Goodwin

INTERVENTIONS

STREAM FLOW REGULATION PROGRESS

$12 Million For Polluting Farmington River

Rivers Alliance Directors In the News

DEP Protects Sound from Boat Sewage

Rivers Alliance Names Nancy Cohen Environmental Reporter of the Year

Rivers Alliance of Connecticut has named Nancy Eve Cohen of WNPR and Connecticut Public Radio as Environmental Reporter of the Year. Ms. Cohen is also Managing Editor of NPR's Northeast Environmental Hub, which focuses on the natural resources of the region. Ecological systems do not recognize state borders, and many environmental issues are common to some or all of the states in the region.

Rivers Alliance selected Ms. Cohen for its annual award because her work in this state has provided extraordinary benefits. A good reporter not only reaches the immediate audience, she enlightens the entire community as that audience interacts with colleagues, friends, and family.

The award will be presented at the Rivers Alliance Annual Meeting on December 18 in Hartford. Anyone interested in attending should contact the RA office: rivers@riversalliance.org or 860-361-9349.

Margaret Miner, Executive Director of Rivers Alliance, said, "One reason that Nancy's stories are so excellent is that behind each feature are many, many hours of travel, study, and interviews. With her background in politics and science, she understands all facets of an issue. Also, she's really fair and really smart."

Eric Hammerling, Rivers Alliance President and Executive Director of Connecticut Forest and Park Association, remarked, "Nancy has a special talent for finding interesting individual stories that also explain wider issues. And vice versa. She can take a concept like river continuity and bring it to life with specific illustrations. We are lucky to have her on Connecticut Public Radio."

Last summer, Ms. Cohen broadcast environmental stories from Alaska, which documented effects of global warming on the delicate arctic environment. In 2006, she won an Associated Press Award for her reporting on sewage overflows in people's basements in Hartford. Her recent feature on the pros and cons of dam removal in New England dealt deftly with a controversial subject.

Rivers Alliance was founded in 1992 in Collinsville, on the banks of the Farmington River, and is now in Litchfield, close to the Bantam River. It is the statewide, non-profit coalition of river organizations, individuals and businesses formed to protect and enhance Connecticut's waters by promoting sound water policies, uniting and strengthening the state's many river groups, and educating the public about the importance of water stewardship.

Ms. Cohen is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Her journalism work has taken her to Cuba (where she recorded an interview with Castro), Sarajevo (in wartime), Guatemala, and Moscow. She has been an editor on NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Funding for NPR’s Northeast Environment Hub comes from United Technologies Corporation.

Previous winners of the Rivers Alliance award have been Rep. Tim O’Brien of New Britain for legislative leadership in protecting drinking water and attorney Roger Reynolds of Connecticut Fund for the Environment for legal work on statewide environmental issues.

Ms. Miner concluded, “We have a wealth of talent in Connecticut and outstanding environmental policies. With the help of people like our awardees, we will reach our environmental goals.�

Rivers & Trails Hands-on Technical Assistance

The Rivers & Trails Program of the National Park Service provides hands-on technical assistance to nonprofits, informal groups and alliances. Applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss their project with RTCA staff before sending in an application.

The program focuses on projects that lead to on-the-ground results, such as improved trails, conserved shorelines and protected acres. John Monroe (Director of Connecticut and Rhode Island projects) is accepting inquiries from prospective project partners during the spring and summer.

Letters of request must be submitted by August 1st. Learn more at http://www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/rtca/contactus/cu_apply.html . Please email  john_monroe "at" nps.gov or call 617 223 5049.

Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide

The River Restoration Monitoring Committee of the Gulf of Maine Council is pleased to announce the publication of the Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide at  http://gulfofmaine.org/streambarrierremoval

The Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide provides a framework of critical monitoring parameters for use at dam and culvert removal sites in the Gulf of Maine watershed. When analyzed collectively, the eight parameters will allow restoration practitioners to document the physical, chemical, and biological effects of stream barrier removal.

The critical monitoring parameters include monumented cross sections, longitudinal profile, grain size distribution, photo stations, water quality, riparian plant community structure, macroinvertebrates, and fish passage. The Guide presents the scientific context for barrier removal and gives detailed methods and data sheets for six parameters.

The Guide is based on the input of more than 70 scientists, natural resource managers, engineers, consultants, and staff from non-governmental organizations in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Final review was sought from experts in barrier removal monitoring from outside the Gulf of Maine region.

For more information about the Stream Barrier Removal Monitoring Guide, please contact:

Matt Collins, NOAA Restoration Center, (978) 281-9142 Kevin Lucey, New Hampshire Coastal Program (603) 599-0026 Beth Lambert, Massachusetts Riverways Program (617) 626-1526 Jon Kachmar, Maine Coastal Program (207) 287-1913

Richard H. Goodwin, Prominent Environmental Scientist and Wetlands Protector Dies at 96.  

Richard H. Goodwin died July 7, 2007.  He was 96.  Goodwin was a pioneer on behalf of the environment, especially in land preservation and wetlands protection.  He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Esther Bemis Goodwin, two children, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Goodwin was a professor emeritus of botany at Connecticut College , a past president of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) (1956-58 and 1964-66), and a co-founder, with William A. Niering, of the Connecticut Chapter of  TNC.  Goodwin co-authored a number of articles with Niering, including "Inland wetlands of the United States: Evaluated as potential registered natural landmarks (Natural history theme studies)" 2 v. U.S. Dept. Interior in 1971, "Inland Wetland Plants of Connecticut " Conn. Arboretum Bull. 19 in 1973 and "Wealth of the wetlands " Pequot Trails 2 (2): 9-15 in 1974.  The Connecticut College Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies was founded in 1993 and renamed in 1999 in honor of the two men's great collaboration in the environmental field.

Other publications included Connecticut's Coastal Marshes a Vanishing Resource (CT Arboretum Bulletin No. 12, Feb., 1961), The Connecticut College Arboretum: Its sixth decade and a detailed history of the land (Bulletin / Connecticut College Arboretum), The flora of Mendon Ponds Park (Proceedings of the Rochester Academy of Science), Check list of woody plants growing in the Connecticut Arboretum and guide to the Arboretum (Connecticut College, New London. Connecticut Arboretum. Bulletin) and The flora of the Burnham Brook Preserve of the Nature Conservancy (Studies in human ecology),

During his tenure with TNC, Goodwin negotiated in 1960, the then-largest deal in the TNC's history, protecting 6,500 forested acres on the California coast.

Goodwin served as a director of Connecticut College's arboretum, and stayed active there even after he stepped down of as a director.  During his sixty years of involvement there, the acreage increase from 90 acres to 750 acres today.

Goodwin also established the Conservation and Research Foundation, an independent venture launched in 1953 to offer seed grants to scientists and others seeking to study and preserve the natural environment.

Goodwin held both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in botany and doctorate degree in biology with a concentration in botany from Harvard University .  He published his autobiography in 2002:  A botanist's window on the twentieth century ( Harvard Forest , Petersham , Mass. ). 

Goodwin was a member of Rivers Alliance of Connecticut for many years and a close friend of Rivers Alliance director David Bingham, who offers this remembrance:

Dick will be remembered as a giant among those who have worked for land conservation and protecting earth's natural resources.

He was a man of science who left a promising career and research to lead a movement based on stewardship of the land. He was a great teacher, a mentor for over two generations of students, both within and outside the classroom. He was a man of vision, with a knack for bringing people together to accomplish their mutual goals. He was remarkably generous, both with his money and with his time, leading by example in achieving one successful project after another. And he was a man of gentle patience, waiting at times for decades for the moment when the seeds he had planted bore fruit.

We feel a great void, and no one will fill his shoes. But there are hundreds if not thousands of others that Dick Goodwin has inspired to carry on his important mission, working with dedication and confidence in the cause of stewardship he taught us how to pursue.

A short video featuring Richard Goodwin is available from the CT Nature Conservancy at: http://www.conncoll.edu/news/goodwin/

INTERVENTIONS

Rivers Alliance intervened on two issues at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in recent months.

General Permits: With Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Farmington River Watershed Association, and Trout Unlimited, we worked as intervenors with DEP staff on proposed new General Permits for water diversions. These permits allow minor water diversions to go forward without individual scrutiny and oversight. Our first goal was to be sure that only minor activities are eligible for such permits. A second effort was aimed at countering the tendency in the originally proposed permits to allow activities to go forward without filing for the diversion in question (basically an honor system) or with a filing-only approach, which would not require any kind of sign-off from the DEP. Finally, we sought to support and enhance DEP's proposed permit conditions that enhanced protections for sensitive areas, such as headwaters. We were much helped by the volunteer assistance of Gail Batchelder from Loureiro Engineering Associates. David Radka of Connecticut Water Company ably provided expertise from the utilities' perspective. DEP's Denise Ruzicka and Doug Hoskins led the way to the final, satisfactory resolution.

If you have questions as to what activities are covered under what permit, feel free to ask us (860-361-9349; rivers@riversalliance.org) or Doug Hoskins, Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse / Inland Water Resources Division, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, 79 Elm Street, Hartford, CT 06106. Phone: 860-424-4192; Douglas.Hopkins@po.state.ct.us

Torrington Litchfield Water Diversion:  A very similar team (Rivers Alliance, Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Trout Unlimited, and Housatonic Valley Association) intervened in an application from Torrington Water Company (TWC) and Aquarion water company for the transfer of 400,000 gallons per day from TWC to Aquarion's Litchfield system.  This would be 200,000 gallons more per day than allowed under an existing permit that was expiring.

The issue here was brought to our attention by soil scientist Sean Hayden of the Northwest Conservation District.  The streams in the TWC donor basin of the West Naugatuck River need more water. Should not TWC release additional water from its reservoirs into its own streams before selling water out of basin?  The DEP was inclined to say, yes, and had included in its proposed permit conditions that would require TWC to study the needs of its streams and means to meet those needs. Moreover, the DEP proposed permit gave the DEP commissioner the authority to order, eventually, appropriate flow releases.

TWC protested strongly, pointing out that that they possessed grandfathered claims to all the water in question and much more.  They had registered their reservoirs in 1982 under the Water Diversion Policy Act. (Those readers who followed the Shepaug River case will recognize this as similar to the argument by the City of Waterbury that it should not be required to release more water into the Shepaug.)  In addition, the water companies pointed that a stream flow regulation is in progress, and any flow-management plan should be based on that regulation.

DEP countered that the grandfathered exemptions from permitting requirements do not extend to sales outside a utility's service area. The environmental team, of course, agreed with the DEP, and also argued that negotiations regarding stream flow should not depend upon the unpredictable process of regulation writing.  However, the legal issues were not crystal clear.  Moreover, all parties recognized that Aquarion faces real challenges in meeting Litchfield's water demand, and TWC had indicated it was ready to drop the application if the permit were to include mandated releases.

We were pleased with the compromise that resulted after months of back and forth.  The DEP will issue a new permit for a transfer from Torrington to Litchfield at the current level of 200,000 gallons per day.  But the permit will run only for seven years (rather than 25 years).  TWC will provide five-years worth of data on stream flows and reservoir levels, which will be useful in determining the needs of that basin.  TWC will also prepare a preliminary feasibility study on engineering options for making increased releases from its reservoirs.  This moves us closer to a science-based solution to the needs of the streams in West Naugatuck basin.

STREAM FLOW REGULATION PROGRESS

The one law we have framed for a wall in our office is Public Act 05-142.  This 2005 law required the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to write a new regulation protecting stream flows in the state's rivers and streams.  The goal was not a single minimum number, but rather a standard based on the natural seasonal flows in rivers.  The new regulation was to be ready by January 2007, but all involved recognized that the statutory schedule was almost impossible to meet.  And it has not been met.  But the DEP has given the work a high level of attention, and progress has been made.

The process includes a commissioner's advisory committee, required by the statute, and two work groups, one on science and one on policy.  All groups are diverse, but the science group naturally includes more people with expertise in fisheries, hydrology, and so on.  The commissioner's advisory committee and the policy group tend to discuss the same issues.  These two groups both include representatives of water companies, river groups, agricultural interests, the Department of Public Health, and so on.  DEP staff is in charge.  DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy attends some of the advisory group meetings, and follows the debates closely, pressing for answers.

Rivers Alliance of Connecticut is represented on the official advisory group by Director Lynn Werner, who is Executive Director of the Housatonic Valley Association.  Director Marc Taylor, M.D, and RA Executive Director Margaret Miner serve on the policy group, and usually monitor the advisory committee.

The approach emerging is the creation of an index system of classifying water courses into three classes according to current conditions and future expectations.  The highest-class waters will have the highest protection for flows; rivers falling into a lower class would be subject to relatively greater diversions.   There are many dozens of complications, but some of the toughest issues are:    Should there be a fourth class (for what are sometimes called "sacrificial" rivers)?  Is there any protective standard that is actually feasible?  (So far, it seems that groundwater withdrawals are most problematic in this respect, but the problem appears solvable with a more appropriate measure of the impact of groundwater withdrawals.)  Is there any index system that can in most cases, or many cases, take the place of site-specific studies in devising flow-management plans? (Maybe not.)  What would be the best approach for implementing a new standard?  (A phase-in program?)

Please be in touch if you have questions or suggestions or would like to be involved. 

Subsidiary of United Technologies to Pay $12 Million For Polluting Farmington River

In February, federal and state authorities announced a fine, penalties, and imposed costs amounting to $12 million imposed on aerospace-systems manufacturer Hamilton Sundstrand. This subsidiary of United Technologies, based in Windsor Locks, violated its wastewater discharge permit for hexavalent chromium from 2001 through 2003, and failed to report the exceedences. The company also admitted that, in September 2003, it knowingly discharged into the Farmington River tens of thousands of gallon of wastewater heavily contaminated by copper. The reservoirs and aquifers in the Farmington River watershed supply water to about one million people. The river is also intensively used for fishing and boating. Hamilton Sundstrand makes a variety of systems used on the Space Shuttles and the International Space Station. The plant has its own wastewater treatment facility, with a discharge permit based on the Clean Water Act, administered under the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

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Rivers Alliance Directors In the News!

David Bingham,  M.D.,  has had the happy opportunity to be interviewed on the valor of his father, Hiram Bingham IV, who is honored on a U.S. Postal Service stamp in the Distinguished Diplomat series.  As a diplomat in France during World War II, Mr. Bingham broke rules to issue visas to some 2,000 Jews and other refugees fleeing the Nazis.  Dr. Bingham himself has been in the news as one of the few state figures to oppose the transfer of the Norwich Hospital property (included 250 acres of unspoiled woods and streams) to the Town of Preston for one dollar, without environmental protections.  Dr. Bingham, is a director of Rivers Alliance and the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters.  He is lifelong dedicated conservationist with ties to numerous other national, state and local environmental groups. 

Bill Bright, Rivers Alliance Director and Partner at McCarter & English, wound up a decade of litigation in the Shepaug River case with a great settlement for the river.  The settlement surmounted the last major barrier in May when Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced $3.5 million in bonding to implement the terms of the agreement.   Mr. Bright represented the river advocates in the high-profile conflict between the City of Waterbury and the towns and land trusts of Washington and Roxbury.  The river advocates were asking Waterbury to release sufficient water into the parched river to restore its ecological health.  Mr. Bright led the way to a sweeping win in Superior Court, endured a harsh reversal in the state Supreme Court, and prevailed in subsequent arduous negotiations that in the end both benefited the river and extended Waterbury's water resources. 

Marc Taylor, M.D.,  accepted the prestigious Cooperative Conservation Award at the Department of the Interior in Washington D.C. on May 4.   Dr. Taylor was nominated by the US Geological Survey for his work with that agency in a sophisticated study of the Pomperaug River watershed.  This study sets the standard in Connecticut for a scientific approach to understanding and managing water resources.  Dr. Taylor is Co-founder of the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition, a Director of Rivers Alliance, and President of the Housatonic Valley Association.

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DEP Protects Sound from Boat Sewage

The DEP has extended its ban on dumping treated sewage from boats into Long Island Sound.  Raw sewage, of course, cannot be dumped anywhere!

The ban on treated sewage now extends down to Guilford.  The area from Groton to Guilford is newly added to the previous announced bans from the Rhode Island border to Stonington and from Stonington to Groton.  The entire stretch is now a "no discharge" zone.   Boaters must use pumpout facilities or pumpout boats that serve the area. Eliminating the release of sewage from boats, both treated and untreated, will result in reductions of man-made nutrient loading and exposure to bacterial pathogens in swimming areas, shellfish beds and other environmentally sensitive aquatic habitats. 

Thanks, DEP.  Enjoy the seaside, people.