Stories

Whitewater rushes out of Wilder Dam, near Hanover, in early May. Photo by Britta Greene for NHPR

For Residents On The Connecticut River, Hydro Dams’ Relicensing Is A Rare Opportunity

June 1, 2018

Right now, a group of hydroelectric dams on the Connecticut River are undergoing a once-in-a-generation process – a federal relicensing.

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To Understand Great Bay’s Decline (and How to Stop It), Start on the Water

January 3, 2018

New Hampshire’s Great Bay and the Piscataqua River estuary have been in bad shape for years – and the latest data doesn’t show a lot of improvement.

 

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To Restore Healthy Rivers, Conservationists Find Success Removing Small Dams

September 11, 2017

Unlike large hydropower dams, where there’s often serious political and emotional resistance to removal, conservationists are finding many landowners of small dams are happy to have them removed.

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How Nutrients In The Connecticut River Become Pollutants In Long Island Sound

May 30, 2017

By the end of the year, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce new limits on the amount of nitrogen that wastewater treatment plants in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire can release into the Connecticut River.

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Divided By Drought: Why Neighboring Towns Have Drastically Different Water Restrictions

September 6, 2016

There’s a sprinkler dousing Marie Robinson’s lush front lawn as the longtime Tewksbury resident chuckles and says, “I need to tell you how many people have stopped to tell us how nice our grass looks.” In Tewksbury, residents can still irrigate their lawn, water their flowers, and even fill up a kiddie pool if they like.…

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Dartmouth Hazardous Waste Site Contaminates Drinking Water

August 25, 2016

A Dartmouth hazardous waste burial site has contaminated the ground water near a Hanover neighborhood. Those chemicals are now on the move, and at least one family’s drinking water has been affected. At her home on Rennie Road, whenever Debbie Higgins wants a glass of water, she passes her sink and heads to a cooler of…

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Rhode Island Town Investigates Source of PFOA in Drinking Water

August 3, 2016

Cumberland, Rhode Island popped up on a list of cities and towns that have unsafe levels of the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. It’s used to make Teflon.

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While Bennington, VT Residents Learn How To Live With PFOA, Doctors Play Catch Up

August 1, 2016

People in Bennington County have been learning how to live with PFOA in their water. Now they’re learning how to live knowing it’s in their bodies.

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U.S. Companies Replace Teflon Toxin With Chemical Cousin. Is It Safe?

June 7, 2016

A new kind of water contamination has shown up all over the US, including New England. This time it’s not lead, like in the Flint, Michigan water system, but instead it’s a chemical used to manufacture Teflon pans, firefighting foam, even microwave popcorn bags.

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On a Cross-State Canoe Trek, Advocates Urge Communities to Embrace the Scenic Housatonic

May 13, 2016

As Schuyler Thomson lead a group of paddlers down the Housatonic River in northwest Connecticut, he squinted through the morning sunlight on the water.

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