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Pick-up Artists de-litter the landscape in Quinnipiac River Park

By Carolyn Christmann

Photos by Ian Christmann

Desmond drags the broken chair from the water’s edge, disentangling himself from discarded fishing wire as he goes. Zoe aims her garbage picker at cigarette butts and bottle caps. Eight-year-old Roan searches the crevices for broken bits of styrofoam. While musician Adam dumps sludge from mud-encased beer cans, postulating about the urban archaeology of civilizations only 20 days past. Two hours and 12 garbage bags later, the ragtag group, playfully known as the “Pick-Up Artists,” sits together by the river’s edge, enjoying the scenic landscape so recently redeemed from blight, and turning their attention to making art.

Started by New Haven artist Zoe Matthiessen, the Pick-Up Artists campaign is part clean-up, part connection and part creativity. It is an opportunity for artists to come together and clean-up beautiful — but heavily-littered — public spaces, which made the scenic — but trash-laden — Quinnipiac River Park the perfect spot for the groups’ second gathering.

On a sunny Saturday in October, ten people wandered Quinnipiac’s banks with bags in tow, including Zoe and some of her artist friends, local community members, and a college student who drove from Middletown to join the effort. While not a large turn-out, the participants left no stone unturned when it came to fishing the debris from the tall grasses and crevices in the rip-rap (riverside armiture).

“It’s not easy recruiting people to pick up garbage,” says Zoe, whose own interest in trash began long before she formed Pick-Up Artists. “I address the subject of garbage and pollution in my environmental art,” she explained, detailing the irony in her drawing of a duck with a discarded chip bag stuck on its head. Not just any chips, she notes, the all-natural organic kind of course.

Like many artists inspired by nature, Zoe was deeply disturbed by the trash she encountered in New Haven’s parks and waterways. She describes sketching one day in East Rock, and the persistent distraction of a plastic bag flapping in the branches of a tree. “It drove me crazy,” she said. Not long after, while biking by Long Wharf, absorbing the beauty of clouds and water, she observed two seagulls on the side of the road, dueling over a piece of garbage. Distracted by its styrofoam-encased prize, the victorious bird didn’t see the approaching vehicle until it was too late. Watching the seagull get struck by a car was the last straw for Zoe. “That’s it,” she resolved. “I need to pick it up.” Soon after, Pick-Up Artists was born, and hit the ground…drawing.

Zoe’s idea was well received, with positive response through Facebook, ads and flyers. She partnered with New Haven Parks and Recreation, who provided tools, supplies and disposal of the trash, and received a generous donation of art materials from Artist & Craftsman Supplies on Chapel St, including paper, pens, and ink, all which were put to good use by the artists who lingered in Quinnipiac Park to get creative after their clean-up.

“We’re a bunch of weirdos,” Zoe noted as ink and conversation flowed among the eclectic group. Indeed the artistic results were as varied as their creators: Zoe’s detailed ink sketch of the view across the river, with self-described lasagna-style trees; Roan’s colored pencil rendition of the oyster boats, complete with waving American flags; Gabe’s pithy poetic statement; Adam’s angry political pen and ink drawing, adorned with an unfortunate, but somehow fitting, ink spill; Desmond’s precise study of a historic lamppost.

As for myself, though often a more anonymous reporter, I couldn’t help but be drawn in. I donned gloves and filled bags, and then — sitting beside the river I have long-known and loved, with friends I had just met — I embraced the creative moment with my own small tribute:

bag-laden artists
find satisfaction
in freeing the earth
from its blight.
uncovering life
that falls through
the cracks.
moments chewed,
uncherished,
forgotten.
broken needles,
crumpled bags,
fishing line,
containers of things
consumed,
weigh the upward
inspirationof cloud, light, water,
bird, flight,
with the gravity
of waste and want.

For more information on The Pick-Up Artists, please visit:
www.NHpickupArtists.org
facebook.com/nhpickupartist

 

Schooner Camp excites kids to care for the environment through songs, games and adventures.

“Imagine a clean river as it flows through a healthy watershed. In this river lives Fred the Fish. Fred has lived here his whole life, but today he is starting a long journey downstream to the ocean. HOW IS FRED?”

The Schooner Camp counselor introduces the kids to Fred, a sponge cut into the shape of a fish. Then, one by one, the children enact Fred’s journey by reading a card they were given and following its instructions.

Fred’s travels include:

• Fred swims into farm country. He passes a freshly plowed riverbank. It begins to rain and some soil erodes into the river. (DUMP SOIL INTO FRED’S WATER) HOW IS FRED?

• Fred swims under a bridge. The winter trucks put salt on the road. The rain washes the salt into the river. (ADD SALT TO FRED’S WATER). HOW IS FRED?

• Fred swims past the city park. Some picnickers didn’t throw their trash into the garbage can. The wind is blowing it into the river. (ADD LITTER TO FRED’S WATER) HOW IS FRED?

This thought-provoking activity is part of the Schooner Summer Camp curriculum, designed to encourage kids to explore and steward the natural world. And it’s one of the few activities that takes place indoors. Camp participants, ages 4 – 14, spend most of their day donned in bathing suits, sunscreen and water shoes, discovering their local coastal ecosystem in ways they may never have before.

“In many cases in New Haven we forget we live on the water, and so many New Haven residents have never set foot in Long Island Sound. Schooner summer camp opens the door to explore the wealth of environmental opportunities that exists here,” says Justin Elicker, executive director of the New Haven Land Trust that facilitates the Schooner program.

These opportunities include daily explorations of the coastline, delving into marine science and, for those ages 9 and above, sailing in the harbor. By engaging campers, hands and feet first, in New Haven’s sea and shore, Schooner hopes to excite young citizens to preserve and protect watershed land.

“I love everything about being at camp, just everything,” enthused one camp participant. “I love learning and doing activities, being by the water.”

Schooner has set a course to offer this excitement to as many New Haven youth as possible, by providing scholarship support to at least half of its campers, and by expanding its staff and resources to double the spaces available each week. To this end, Schooner is inviting younger and older campers on board: introducing a new Sea Sprites program for 4-5 year-olds and creating a Leaders In Training program for teens 13 and 14 years old.

For more than four decades, the Schooner program has introduced New Haven youth to the wonders of the shore and sea, but in 2014, financial difficulties nearly capsized the camp. The merger with New Haven Land Trust put new wind in Schooner’s sails and the program has made much headway, empowered by new leadership, partnerships, and grants including $9,500 from the Quinnipiac River Fund.

The Schooner grants are a part of the Fund’s broader support of the Land Trust, which, over the course of 20 years, has totaled more than $100,000 to help the Trust establish and maintain preserves in New Haven, as well as provide public education and activities.

“We can’t underscore just how much the Quinnipiac River Fund has helped activate our programs and nature preserves along the Quinnipiac River and Watershed,” says Elicker. “Thanks to the Fund, we’ve hosted more than 50 educational events, expanded participation in our Schooner program to school groups and kids, installed educational signs and made our preserves much more beautiful and accessible to the public.”

The camp takes place at the Sound School and the Long Wharf Nature Preserve, where each day delivers new science-based learning through adventure, crafts, songs, and games. Shore program participants spend most of their hours exploring the habitats of the preserve, while youth in the Sailing Program head out to the harbor, learning how to sail and skipper a small sailboat, as well as boat handling maneuvers, knots and boat safety.

One-week sessions run from June 25 – August 17. Children can participate in up to two sessions. Full and partial scholarships are available for income-eligible families.

For more information on program dates, prices and schedules, or to enroll in camp or apply for scholarships, please visit: http://www.newhavenlandtrust.org/Schooner. For questions, please email schooner@newhavenlandtrust.org or call 203-562-6655

 

Photos by Ian Christmann

 

Source to Sound clean-up clears more than a ton of trash from Q River watershed

For more than four years, Bob Diamond has been grabbing gloves and garbage bags and joining QRWA for its semiannual Source to Sound clean up along the Quinnipiac River. He calls himself “the bobsessive de-litterer.” His task at hand, “keeping up with the garbagians.”

For the Quinnipiac River watershed and other natural resources in highly-developed areas, the so-called “garbagians” come in many forms, from the heedless litterer hocking candy wrappers and soda cans out car window to the illegal dumper depositing old tires, radiators or couches in the woods.

For nearly 40 years, QRWA cleanups have helped remove the flood of rubbish that besets the Quinnipiac River and its tributaries. This year, the event spanned five locations in five towns — Meriden, New Haven, Cheshire, Wallingford and Plainville — where more than 100 volunteers pulled, picked and dragged more than 3000 pounds of garbage from bushes, banks, trails and beaches.

Volunteers included local families from each town, dozens of students from Plainville High School, as well as community businesses and organizations such as the Quinnipiac River Marina, the Meriden Motorcycle Club and Jovek Manufacturing, with the latter two contributing ATVS to transport the garbage from the trails.

“It’s a way for people to get their hands on the problem, which keeps it on their mind,” says David James, QRWA president. But, he explains, the problem itself is much bigger than what can be bagged and hauled out. Quinnipiac’s water quality continues to be an issue. While there have been strides made in reducing point source pollution from active industrial discharge, the watershed still suffers degradation from non-point sources like impervious surfaces (pavement), agricultural runoff, lawns and storm systems.

“Nature longs to heal itself and will in time,” David says.  “And with some human TLC that day can be hastened.” To hasten the day, David adds that policies and public education are essential. “People need to realize that it is critical that our environment is healthy. This should be headline news. Unless we start to make some progress in regards to ethics, we’ll still be doing this in 50 years.”

In line with the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972, the long-term goal is to see the Quinnipiac more capable of supporting more recreation and measured consumption, but in the meantime, QRWA and a revolving army of concerned citizens will continue to fight the garbagians. Ongoing efforts include these semi-annual cleanups and other initiatives of the newly-formed Quinnipiac River Cleanup committee led by husband and wife team Shianne and Tim Cutler, both of whom serve on the QRWA board. In addition to coordinating the multi-town reach of the clean up events, the committee is ready in any season to don boots or waders and respond to reports of trash in the river.

“We’ve gone out for everything from a playground slide to bunches of bottles in the water,” Shianne explains. The Cutlers live in Meriden but are committed to responding to issues anywhere on the river.  To report a clean up concern, e-mail qrivercleanup@att.net.

“Everybody wonders who lives in the house,” said Mike Dorsey, one of New Haven’s ten bridge tenders who keep New Haven’s moveable bridges moving. While not a residence per say, the curious orange building perched in the through-truss of the Grand Avenue Bridge serves as a home away from home for the bridge tenders on duty. Similar control houses are located on the Chapel Street and Ferry Street bridges.

But what’s life like for the ones who keep watch above the rivers?

“It never closes,” Mike explains. 7 days a week. 24 hours a day. 365 days a year a bridge tender is available to ensure that boats can pass to and from the harbor and the Quinnipiac and Mill Rivers. A division of New Haven’s public works, bridge tenders operate the city’s three movable bridges: the Chapel Street and Grand Avenue swing bridges which pivot at the center to open and the Ferry Street double-leaf bascule bridge which uses a counterweight for its upward swing. The Tomlinson Bridge on Route 1 represents another type of movable bridge, a vertical lift bridge, but being state-operated, it does not fall under city jurisdiction.

New Haven’s bridge tenders work all three city bridges in three shifts. Each bridge is staffed for the first two shifts: 5 am – 1 pm and 1 pm – 9 pm, with only the Chapel Street Bridge manned during the third shift, 9pm – 5 am. As such, third shift duties include leaving the Chapel Street post as needed to open the other two bridges for any late night boat traffic.

Moveable bridges play a critical role in preserving the character of the Fair Haven and Fair Haven heights community. Whether its tugboats, barges, oyster boats or personal fishing craft, to maintain a vibrant water-based community, the boats must get by. And when they do, the bridge tenders know them by name – both the boats and their operators. “We know everybody that comes through here,” said Mike. “We have a good relationship with all the boats”

While the vessels appreciate the bridge tenders, vehicles and pedestrians don’t always share the sentiment, especially when the bridge opens during peak traffic. But despite the inconvenience, the bridges form and function still inspire much public appreciation. The Ferry Street and Grand Avenue bridges in particular, both built as replicas of the original bridges 1920 and 1900 bridges respectively, add scenic beauty and are key features in the Quinnipiac River Historic district.

Anthony Lesko, one of the city’s newest bridge tenders, has a long family history in the Quinnipiac community. “I grew up in the neighborhood,” he said, explaining that his family has lived in the same house on Hemmingway for generations. “My grandfather told me stories that they used to ride the bridge…and now I get to open them.” Of course, Anthony’s job includes preventing others from following in his grandfather’s bridge-riding footsteps.

Still new to his role, Anthony receives lots of questions when people learn of his occupation, some of the most common being, “How do you know when to open the bridge?” and, “Is it difficult?”

Requests to open the bridge come by phone call (with the phone number posted on signs located on the pier of each bridge) or, more commonly, by radio. When a request comes in, the bridge tender first calls fire communications to inform them of the opening so that emergency response can be diverted to a different route. The tender then enacts a visual check to make sure the bridge is clear. Depending on the bridge, the opening itself requires a series of 9 – 12 buttons or levers. Once the boat passes through and confirms it’s cleared the bridge, the bridge tenders close the bridge and lift the gates. A final call to fire communications announcing traffic completes the process.

In addition to ensuring that the bridges open and close properly, designated bridge tenders provide routine maintenance, which includes cleaning and lubricating the wedges and the fittings (or the expansion-bearing assemblies) and cleaning debris from the bridge drainage system. Sometimes the bridge tenders encounter some unexpected “duties,” such as calling animal control for a stray dog in danger of slipping through the bridge fence or chasing away the intrepid raccoons that climb the trusses, explains Bob Bombace, who may be more keen to notice the four-legged intruders considering his previous position as an animal control officer.

Some seasons also bring unexpected sights — such as a sweltering summer day when the fire department had to hose down the overheating metal trusses of the Grand Avenue Bridge or Christmas of 2017 when Santa Clause traded sleigh for boat and sailed into the Marina — but overall most days are rather routine. Daily bridge openings range from four on a slow day on the Grand Avenue Bridge to upward of ten on a busy day for the Chapel Street Bridge. Since each opening takes approximately 10 – 15 minutes, the bridge tenders have a lot of downtime. When not pushing levers or logging the openings, they occupy their time working on laptops, reading, playing guitar, or simply contemplating. “It’s a thinking job,” Mike says, who, with four years on the job, has observed and contemplated many of the ins and outs of the bridge operations. It takes 12 seconds for the traffic gates to come down, Mike has counted, and when there are four bars visible on the Ferry Street Bridge pier, the Mary Colman oyster boat can pass under the bridge without it opening.

For Anthony, the currents are the most captivating observation. “If you’ve never experienced the power of the river, walk across one of the bridges at the tide change,” says Anthony. “Sometimes you can actually hear the current from up here inside the house.” For the bridge tenders, keeping a keen ear and eye on the currents and other environmental factors, such as snow, ice and wind come with the territory. They adjust the swing bridge openings based on the water velocity and during heavy snowfalls won’t open the bridge due to the excess weight.

At every opening, regardless of the weather, the tenders must stay alert. We listen while the bridge opens for certain noises that might indicate a problem, explains Bob. “Each of the bridges has its idiosyncrasies,” he adds.

Bob’s been working the bridges for eight years now and, while he admits he grows accustomed to the views, he still harbors a great appreciation for his office. “It’s a nice situation to work in, to be by the water.”

Photos by Ian Christmann

New Haven Independent

The new Canal Dock Boathouse is getting closer to the finish line, and it is a thing of beauty.

I got to join a sneak preview of the waterfront gem on Thursday afternoon. I’d show you what I saw, but they allowed no photos. But I can tell you about it.

Construction of the new $37 million two-story, 30,000 square-foot boathouse — which replaces the historic Adee Memorial Boathouse the state tore down in 2009 along the Quinnipiac River to make room for the expansion of the I-95 Pearl Harbor Memorial “Q” Bridge — is in its final stages.

Thursday afternoon’s tour was arranged for Mayor Toni Harp and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, state Department of Transportation and city officials, along with a couple of members of the press to check out what three years of toil has produced. (Read more about the making of the boathouse here and here.) The city was able to get the funding for the project to mitigate the impact of building the “Q” bridge and that money had to be used specifically for rebuilding the boathouse and improving the shoreline.

When the boathouse opens tis summer there will be elements that harken back to the grandness of the original Adee Memorial Boathouse along with new elements that make the building a showplace of this current age. Gregg Wies and Gardner are the architects who designed the building. Nosal Construction is the contractor.

Continue reading on The New Haven Independent.

New Haven Independent.

You dredge, deepen and extend the New Haven harbor channel to bring in bigger ships leading to more efficient business.

Then you take the sand, silt, and other stuff you’ve hauled out of the depths and use it to shore up washing away beaches, to create new shellfish habitats and salt marshes. Who knows? Maybe you even find three of Fort Hale’s three missing 1779 cannon.

That rosy picture of an invigorated harbor all depends on one big “if”: If the dredged out material is biologically safe —non-toxic, and suitable for such beneficial uses.

That maritime hope tinged with anxiety animated a public information session convened by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Ports of Authority of the state and city.

About 50 people gathered in the auditorium of the Nathan Hale School Wednesday night for a status report on the “National Environmental Policy Act Scoping New Haven Harbor Navigation Improvement Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).”

That mouthful is a $3 million study, shared equally by the feds and the state, with no cost to the city, to deepen New Haven’s main harbor channel from its current 35-foot depth to depths up to 42 feet.

Read full article in New Haven Independent

Once upon a time there was a city that loved the water. And the water made her great.New Haven’s waters (a protected harbor with three tributary rivers) drew settlers to her side. A village formed. In 1638, early colonists established a nine-square central block by the ocean’s edge. The town “stood by the harbor [and was] placed as close to the water as ground would allow and wedged into angles of the two creeks, thus maximizing water frontage.”(Elizabeth Mills Brown, New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design)

As the years progressed, New Haven’s sea-side identity developed: ocean-borne trade boomed, a world-class oyster industry developed, ship-building and watch houses dotted the banks, the harbor bustled with sloops, schooners, steamboats and sharpies: a long narrow flat-bottomed fishing boat claimed to have been built in Fair Haven in the mid 1800s.

Though maritime industries flourished, the shallowness of the bay frustrated sea commerce. In response, creeks and tidal flats were filled-in, and wharves lined with warehouses, taverns and shops extended into deeper waters. The longest — aptly named Long Wharf — stretched from the junction of Union and Water Streets into the harbor. In the 1820’s it reached a final length of ¾ mile, making it the largest in the country at the time.

New Haven’s love affair with its water did not depend on industry alone. Throughout the late 1800s water-based recreation became increasingly popular in New Haven, and, by 1900, recreation was considered one of the most important uses of the harbor. Steamboat excursions to New York became common, waterside hotels were constructed, and New Haven’s coastline boasted acres of parks and beaches for bathing and picnicking, including: City Point’s Bay View Park, a shady marine park of more than 23 acres; 30 acres on the eastern shore of the harbor encompassing historic Fort Nathan Hale and the Palisades, known for having some of the “best sandy bathing beaches;“ and, Waterside Park, which provided the city’s easiest access to the coastline recreation, offering 17.5 acres of parkland created after the harbor’s mudflats were filled-in.

Rowing became a popular pastime after a Yale junior brought a second-hand, four-oared Whitehall boat named Pioneer to New Haven in 1843. Within weeks, other students purchased similar craft and by the year’s end, the first American college rowing clubs had formed at Yale — their main function to facilitate informal skill races and pleasure cruises to coastal spots. A decade later, the hobby had grown to a serious collegiate pastime. In 1853, Yale officially organized its “Navy” for racing and began hosting the “Annual Yale Commencement Regatta” in the harbor. Soon after, Yale constructed its first boathouse — a rough structure on the Mill River above the Grand Street Bridge. However, given its location above the high tide mark, the boats had to be hand carried down the banks, which, at low tide, became a notoriously messy and muddy affair. In 1862, Yale secured the funds to construct a much-needed new facility, one that they heralded as the best boathouse in the country. Yet this structure soon revealed its own deficiencies. Built directly over the water, the house required that crew lower the boats through trap doors, climb down ladders, walk the keelson to their seats and then push clear of the piles before inserting oars into the oarlocks — an inconvenient system that brought its share of misadventures.

In 1875, Yale built its final, and best, Mill River boathouse, located at the east end of the bridge crossing Chapel Street. With ample space, storage for 100 boats, and broad floats allowing for easy launching, the wooden building served the college successfully for decades, until saltwater and weather took their toll. “In February 1909, The New York Times reported that Yale’s first practice had been canceled when many floor beams in the existing boathouse were found broken.” (New York Times, Christopher Gray, Boathouse Built for the Bulldogs Is Soon to Bow Out, February 19, 2006)

Fortunately, fundraising had already begun for a new boathouse at the mouth of the Quinnipiac — an elaborate masonry building designed by the firm of Peabody & Stearns, costing $100,000 in total, and named after George Augustus Adee, a devoted oarsman from Yale’s class of 1867. The college began using the new facility in 1911, but Adee’s boathouse days were short lived. After only five years, the growing busy-ness of the harbor prompted Yale to move its varsity teams to the Housatonic River. The rest of Yale’s rowing teams soon followed.

Yale sold the building in the 1950s and it was used mainly as office space until its demise in 2007 as part of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge project. Demolition of the Adee boathouse was an architectural loss for the City, but when it comes to New Haven’s water-based identity, a much greater loss occurred decades earlier, with the construction of the original Q Bridge and Connecticut Turnpike. To accommodate the highway, hundreds of acres of the harbor were filled, distancing downtown from the water. And the interstate’s location itself — running alongside the newly created shore — further severed the City’s connection to its coastline.

While it’s not possible to turn back time and remove these physical barriers, today, a new project in the Long Wharf area hopes to turn the tide on this separation and rekindle the bygone romance of city and sea.

Currently under construction, the Canal Dock Boathouse will open “New Haven’s waterfront for adventure, discovery and growth” by creating a community-based boathouse with access, activities and programs around the water.

Owned by the City, the boathouse will be operated by Canal Dock Boathouse, Inc, (CDBi) a nonprofit established in 2013 by several members of the New Haven community recruited by the City Plan Department with a mission to increase education and awareness of Long Island Sound and improve public access to water.

The new boathouse will provide ample space and amenities to make this mission a reality. The 30,000 square foot facility sits atop a 1.12-acre platform and features a waterfront promenade, boat storage bays, handicap accessible ramps for canoe and kayak launching. Activities hoped for include: kayak and paddle board rentals and lessons, a dragon boat club, rowing and sailing, an indoor rowing studio, free programs for public school students, event spaces, and interpretive displays about New Haven’s harbor history and environment.

The boathouse’s name honors its historical location: the former Canal Dock where the Farmington Canal (and later the rail line that replaced it) met the harbor. The building itself also pays homage to a New Haven harbor legacy, that of Yale’s boathouses of old — specifically the Adee — from which architectural elements, including terra cotta finials, bulldog gargoyles and large frame from its entry portal, were salvaged are incorporated by architect Rick Wies into the building’s prominently modern design.

The $41 million project included federal funding to mitigate the impact of the Interstate 95 expansion project, which razed the Adee Boathouse. To weather the inevitable super storm, the boathouse required special architectural and engineering considerations including steel pilings driven 100-plus feet into the ground and, in the case of a hurricane, breakaway walls on the first floor.

The project broke ground in September 2013 and is expected to be complete late in 2017, with on-water programs beginning in 2018. In the interim, CDBi — ready to get its oars wet — launched indoor rowing programs at the Metropolitan Business Academy and James Hillhouse High School and outdoor rowing programs at the Quinnipiac River Marina, including an immersive “Intro to Rowing” summer camp for youth in 7th – 11th grade.

“Having Canal Dock here for the last two years has been a real pleasure since it brings more people down to the water,” said Marina owner Lisa Fitch. “The affect is contagious! When you see rowers out there on the river it is just beautiful! The Q-River can accommodate a lot of different things…the river and the rowers are a nice match.”

While rowing has lead the way, kayaking, sailing and other water-related experiences are on the horizon; new access and new opportunities that give the Elm City a chance to begin a new chapter in its salty story…

Once upon a time there was a city that loved the sea…

Canal Dock Boathouse Inc received a Quinnipiac River Fund grant in 2017 to support start up staff to expand public access to rowing and other non-motorized watercraft, to grow participation in the annual dragon boat regatta, and to maintain a partnership with the University of New Haven, which will offer programs in environmental education to the general public.

 

Nearly half of the 60 companies that are allowed to discharge wastewater directly into Connecticut’s rivers, brooks and other bodies of water exceeded the amounts of toxic metals or other pollutants that their permits allowed over the last three years, a C-HIT analysis of federal data shows.

Despite the violations, the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection fined only two of the 29 companies found to be in noncompliance with their permits—a record that state environmental advocates called alarming, but that the agency said is justified.

The 29 companies discharged excessive amounts of pollutants during at least one three-month period from October 2013 to September 2016. At least 19 companies exceeded by more than 100 percent the amounts they were allowed to discharge, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

The data also show 23 of the 60 companies were found in noncompliance with terms of their permits for at least half of the three years—for reasons ranging from excessive discharges to submitting late discharge reports. Thirteen companies were found in significant noncompliance—the most serious level of violation—for three months or more.

While DEEP has the authority to fine or take court action against polluters, EPA records show it more commonly issues notices of violation or noncompliance or warning notices, opting to work with violators for months or years to correct the problems. Continue reading.