TIME TO ACT!
We continue to learn about the grave situations caused by
FirstLight's illegal and dangerous "failure to protect."
Many thanks to Karl Meyer and the 30+ people who joined the
environmental writer and river expert on Saturday for a very
interesting look at the effects of the mismanagement of the
flow of the Connecticut River on the historic habitat of the
Connecticut River Shortnose Sturgeon, as well as the wooded
area between the river and the power canal.
Karl's latest blog article, copied below, addresses that problem and gives us some information to demand that FERC not give FirstLight corporation a new (50 year!) license to manage the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Project and Turners Falls dam. Our last letter gave addresses and important points, which I copy below, FYI. Let's spread the word and oppose another "License to Kill."
Finally, more needs to be done, and fast! Several people are
ready to focus on making history for the river, ecosystems,
fish and friends. As Karl tells us here: "When there is no WATCHDOG, there is no
ENFORCEMENT."
If you have time and interest in being part of this organizing
group for River Protection, write me at the traprockinfo@crocker.com
address, and the group will get together for a zoom meeting
soon.
(Also write to be taken off this list, change address, etc.
We are now writing to almost 40 people who expressed interest,
from the April 24 Walk for River Survival and the May 22 River
Walk.)
Thanks,
Anna Gyorgy for Traprock communications
"Karl Meyer Writing Blog" - 1 new article
"THE GREAT FAILURE TO PROTECT: Flaunting the Endangered Species Act and Other federal and state laws governing clean water and habitat on the Connecticut River at Rock Dam in Massachusetts
Photo credit: US Geological Service
FirstLight’s Turners Falls and Cabot Station under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission License #: FERC P-1889.
The ROCK DAM spawning nursery on the Connecticut River: the ONLY documented NATURAL spawning site for the ONLY FEDERALLY-ENDANGERED MIGRATORY FISH on the Connecticut River: the CONNECTICUT RIVER SHORTNOSE STURGEON.
Desiccating and baking shortnose sturgeon nursery habitat
in the Connecticut River at the Rock Dam pool on May 21,
2021.
Photo Copyright © 2021 by Karl Meyer
The FEDERAL ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF 1973,
Section 9: the term “TAKE” MAKES IT ILLEGAL TO: “to
harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap,
capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such
conduct.”
Other federal and state laws NOT being ENFORCED
on the Connecticut River at this critical habitat: the CLEAN
WATER ACT, THE WETLANDS PROTECTION ACT, and, the Supreme
Court’s 1872 landmark environmental decision for the
Connecticut River in Holyoke Company v. Lyman—mandating
that private operators of dams and facilities on the
Connecticut—and thence for all rivers, must provide safe
upstream and downstream passage for migratory fish.
When there is no WATCHDOG, there is no
ENFORCEMENT.
THE: federal and state agencies and leaders responsible for
implementation, protection and enforcement of laws and
conditions protecting spawning, habitat, life-cycle and
survival of the Connecticut River’s sole federal and state
endangered migratory fish: THE CONNECTICUT RIVER SHORTNOSE
STURGEON
THEIR NAMES:
Phil Glick, Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission:
Julie Crocker: Branch Chief, Endangered Fish Recovery unit,
NOAA, Gloucester MA
Kathleen Theoharides: Sec. of MA Energy & Environmental
Affairs
Martin Suuberg: Commissioner MA Department of Environmental
Protection
Ron Amidon: Commissioner MA Dept. of Fish & Game
Daniel McKiernan: Director MA Division of Marine Fisheries
Wendi Weber: Director Region 5, U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service
Here is a link to further discussion of testing
the connection between the TF Canal and grim sludge at Rock
Dam–w/Monte Belmonte, WRSI.com
https://wrsi.com/monte/how-to-
When there is no WATCHDOG, there is no ENFORCEMENT."
Writing letters to
our local papers: Make the issue better
known and in the public's eye.
The critical time is NOW for letters to the editor at
the GREENFIELD RECORDER, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE,
BRATTLEBORO REFORMER, or
MONTAGUE REPORTER. Letters should be
brief—about 3 paragraphs under 300 words, using some
of these bullet points in your own words. These can be
used in your testimony to FERC as well (see below):
Recorder Letters <letters@recorder.com>
Editor Montague Reporter <editor@montaguereporter.org>
Northampton Gazette
https://www.gazettenet.com/
Brattleboro Reformer news@reformer.com
Points to make:
*The Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Project (NMPS)
should not be relicensed to kill.
*NMPS is the deadliest machine ever installed on the
Connecticut River. It obliterates 100s of millions of
aquatic animals in its year-round suctioning—including
migrating adult and juvenile fish, their eggs and
larvae.
*In landmark environmental legislation centered on the
Connecticut River in 1872 the US Supreme Court ordered
all private owners and operators of river dams and
facilities to provide safe upstream and downstream
passage for migratory fish in Holyoke Company v.
Lyman.
*By this standard, NMPS has been illegal for its
entire 49 years of existence. It should not be
relicensed to kill. It is operating in the midst
of a US Fish and Wildlife Refuge.
*NMPS is deadly to migrating fish during all stages of
their life cycles—on their journeys upstream through
MA, to NH, and VT, and back downstream again to the
Atlantic.
*Migrating American shad, Blueback herring, American
eels and sea lamprey are all subjected to NMPS’s
deadly suction on their life cycle journeys to and
from the sea.
*FirstLight’s offer to place a late-season, partial,
temporary net across its deadly suction tunnels yearly
to prevent some adult fish from being sucked to their
deaths is a band-aid. That leaves all developing eggs,
larvae and juvenile migrating shad, herring and eels
open to its deadly suction on their cyclical journeys.
It fails the Supreme Court decision of 1872. NMPS
should not be relicensed.
*Under the Endangered Species Act: NMPS has a crushing impact on spawning and on the critical natural spawning habitat of this river’s only federally endangered migratory fish here in Massachusetts: the Connecticut River shortnose sturgeon at the Rock Dam in Turners Falls. FirstLight’s eroding river banks are washing into that critical habitat. No license to kill.
*FirsLight Power/NMPS was bought by the Canadian venture capital firm PSP Investments in 2016. In 2018 they re-registered it as a tax shelter in Delaware. They are here to make money for foreign investors.
-----------------Options for submitting comments to FERC:
Comments up to 6,000
characters FERC Online E-comment link:
https://ferconline.ferc.gov/
For longer comments you need to eRegister with FERC to create an account, and then eFile.
Project number:
Turners Falls (Rock Dam), P-1889
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