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Photo Credit: Catherine Avalone — New Haven Register

NEW HAVEN >> As Aly Tatchol Camara biked to the very edge of Criscuolo Park, fishing poles slung on his back, he found he would not be alone at Grape Vine Point this cold, March evening.

Two poles already rested on the stone wall, lines dropped into where the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers meet before emptying into Long Island Sound. A 13-year-old boy told Camara through his shivering that he hadn’t had any luck yet that night in catching anything. The boy said he was there to try to bring fish home to his family.

Just to the right of the poles was a sign from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protectionwarning that if anyone spots raw sewage in the water, they are to call and report the sighting.

Combined sewer overflows, contaminated storm water runoff, lawn fertilizers and lingering chemicals from dozens of power and manufacturing plants are just some of the pollutants hurting Greater New Haven watersheds. All three rivers in Greater New Haven — West, Mill and Quinnipiac — are on theimpaired waters list of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

While pollution limits activities like swimming and paddling in these rivers, it also poses a significant risk to those who consume fish from them. Thestate Department of Public Health advises that any fish caught from the Quinnipiac River should be consumed only once a month, due to the dangerous contaminants present in fish tissue. Blue crab from the Mill River should not be eaten at all, the department warns in its 2016 consumption guide.

Camara, 51, said it was still a little too early in the year to catch much, but he said he likes spending his summer evenings at the edge of Criscuolo Park. A native of West Africa, Camara has been in the United States since 1996, he said, and he now teaches African dance and drumming in New Haven.

He mostly fishes for sport, releasing much of what he gets, he said. Fishing in the evenings keeps him away from television and out of trouble, he said with a laugh.

“This is a place for us to spend time,” Camara said. “You meet a lot of friends here.”

CONTAMINATION THREATS

Based on the health advisories from the state health department for 2016, fish in the Quinnipiac may be contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly referred to as PCBs. The recommendation that any species of fish caught in the river only be consumed once a month applies to both high-risk and low-risk groups.  Continue reading . . . 

WALLINGFORD — Allnex’s application for a change to its waste water discharge permit has some river advocates calling for a public hearing after filings showed the chemical company had 17 discharge violations since February 2012.

Allnex wants to change its discharge permit because of plans to manufacture modified or new products at the South Cherry Street facility.

The products are similar to those already manufactured on site and will be produced with existing equipment. The modification includes monitoring for a new parameter, tetrahydrofuran, according to a report by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Tetrahydrofuran is a clear, colorless liquid used in adhesive and sealant chemicals, according to the compound summary on the National Institutes for Health website.

Continue reading

The Public has until March 22 to comment on a permit modification application submitted by Allnex USA Inc., the chemical manufacturer in Wallingford. Allnex proposes a monitoring process for a new byproduct, “Tetrahydrofuran,” as well as modified permit limits for Acrylamide, Phosphorous and other requests related to its discharge into the Quinnipiac River. Read the posted notice here.

The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection (“Commissioner”) has made a tentative decision to issue a permit for the modifications.

2016february22allnexusaincdraftpermit.pdf

Prior to making a final determination to approve or deny any application, the Commissioner shall consider written comments on the application from interested persons that are received within 30 days of this public notice. Written comments should be directed to Christine Gleason, Bureau of Materials Management and Compliance Assurance, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, 79 Elm Street, Hartford, CT, 06106 5127.

The Commissioner may hold a public hearing prior to approving or denying an application if in the Commissioner’s discretion the public interest will be best served thereby, and shall hold a hearing upon receipt of a petition signed by at least twenty-five persons. Notice of any public hearing shall be published at least 30 days prior to the hearing.

Petitions for a hearing should include the application number noted above and also identify a contact person to receive notifications.  Petitions may also identify a person who is authorized to engage in discussions regarding the application and, if resolution is reached, withdraw the petition. Original petitions must be mailed or delivered to: DEEP Office of Adjudications, 79 Elm Street, 3rd floor, Hartford, 06106-5127.  Petitions cannot be sent by fax or e-mail. Additional information can be found atwww.ct.gov/deep/adjudications.

The Connectiuct Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection’s investigation into a discharge pipe across from the Quinnipiac River State Park concluded that the discharge was likely related to the accidental release of lubricating oil into a batch of cooling water. The pipe’s owner, Nucor Steel, was found in violation of not reporting a permit violation in a timely manner. No further action is expected.

The full report of the complaint investigation can be downloaded below.

Read the DEEP comment in The New Haven Independent.

Read the original story in The New Haven Independent.

Harry Pylypiw stumbled across a Quinnipiac River “hot spot” where previously undetected chemicals pour into fish-filled water streaming toward New Haven Harbor.

Now he wants to find out if we should worry about that. And if it’s legal.

For six years Pylypiw, a chemistry professor at Quinnipiac Univerity, and his students have been testing the Quinnipiac River fromt Wallingford down to New Haven Harbor for industrial contaminants.

They’ve found plenty of them, because companies are still allowed to discharge a limited amount of pollutants, by permit. Not until this year, however, did they find a genuine “hot spot.”

The spot is right next to a fishing spot and a state park.

Continue reading on The New Haven Indpendent.

There was once a place called Dragon, in the east. A place where oysters thrived and Quinnipiac arrowheads could be found simply by tilling the soil of your garden. It got its name for the seals that once played and warmed themselves at the entrance to the bordering river. “The sailors called them sea-dragons and hence dubbed the waterway Dragon River,” remarks local historian Doris B. Townshend in the opening pages of Fair Haven: A Journey Through Time (1976).

With the seals long gone—the oysters mostly, too—the river’s taken a newer name, from another historic population: the Quinnipiac. And where the Dragon of old has sunken into the annals of history, Fair Haven has risen in its place.

Read more from the Daily Nutmeg.

Estrogen, fertilizers, plastic and heavy metals may kill entire species of fish in the Quinnipiac River—and limit humans’ dinner and recreation options. Unless four University of New Haven researchers succeed in sounding the alarm.

The four UNH researchers are testing the levels of a few pollutants along various sites of the 38-mile river, to find their sources and inform policy to reduce them.

Read the story in the New Haven Independent.

A new handbook has made it easier for the public to be involved in the permitting process that regulates the use of the three major rivers in Greater New Haven.

The Urban River Permits Review and Advocacy Recommendations for the Quinnipiac, Mill, and West Rivers lists the major water permits and their expiration dates for purposes of coordinating public participation in the three corresponding watersheds. The report lays out the timeline for river advocacy to influence key permits and regulatory decisions and provides the tools that advocates can use to further restore these rivers to benefit both people and wildlife.

“We’re trying to even the odds here,” said Mary Mushinsky, Director of River Advocates of South Central CT, which produced the report along with the the Mill River Watershed Association of South Central Connecticut.

“In many of these meetings, the regulated community, that is the people that hold the permits, are always there. There is not always representation from the general public who would like to see the rivers cleaner.

It’s a handbook. You can go to each section and read about best practices and then go to a hearing and get them inserted. If more people do that there will be a shift toward more protections.”

Download the report here: mill_river_pages.pdf

Young stewards from Solar Youth, the New Haven-based youth empowerment program, traveled to the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association for a river adventure. First stop: the Wallace dam for an overview of the river and its ecology.

The group then went to the QRWA headquarters and met with staff-volunteer Ginny Chirsky and other volunteers ready to take them out on the river. They paddled onto Hanover Pond to explore the ecosystem. They saw herons, egrets, hawks and other birds as well as turtles and insects.They met to discuss human impacts on the watershed and how they could be good stewards of the environment.

Next, they put on mud boots and waders and headed to a stream feeding into the pond to search for insects and larvae and other creatures

The day concluded with a discussion of how different organisms indicate the health of the stream. They brought specimens back to the lab for a closer look.