A program for improving water quality in the Connecticut River Valley in response to increased urbanization and industrialization

• Main Author: Kozyra, Frederic A.
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1965
• Subjects: Hampden; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/20.500.14291/182745; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14291/182745; http://liblink.bsu.edu/catkey/846867

The goal of this study has been to formulate a program which can be used as a guide to control or eliminate pollution in the Connecticut River Valley so that the river could be utilized to its fullest potential. However, after making a cursory examination, it has been discovered that pollution, though the most important, was not the only problem which prevented full utilization of the river. Pollution through- bacteria, synthetic organic and inorganic matter, sediment, and heat was found to do most in curtailing full utilization of the river. But a second problem caused by man's building dams across the river has also contributed to lessening the river's usefulness. These dams have prevented anadramous fish, such as Atlantic salmon and shad, from returning to their spawning grounds in the upper reaches of the Connecticut River. The valley has been deprived of much recreational fishing because of these dams.While pursuing this investigation, it was recognized that two cogent facts aggravated the problems of pollution and inadequate recreation: (1) a high rate of population increase in the river valley (a higher rate than that of Massachusetts) and more particularly the concentration ofthis population in the southern or Hampden County section of the valley and (2) inadequate amounts of recreational facilities which were needed by this increased population. Therefore, the study of these problems from which suggestions for their elimination could be derived seemed particularly worthwhile, especially, to the people of the valley and to a certain extent the nation as a whole.Finding it necessary to define the limits of this study while keeping in mind that the watershed of the valley provided the most logical boundaries for the study, the writer chose to recognize the natural boundaries of the area. The Berkshire Hills, an extension of Vermont's Green Mountains, established the western boundary of the valley. A southern segment of dew Hampshire's White Mountains, the Worcester County Plateau or Central New England ...