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THE ENVIRONMENT
A River Runs Through Us
Just 38 miles from wellspring to sea, the Quinnipiac River is nevertheless the bellwether for the region's environment . At long last, efforts are taking shape to make it a force for economic development, too
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Business New Haven
7/12/1999
By: Elizabeth Guertin Regan
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QUINNIPIAC
By Elizabeth Guertin Regan
Philosophers consider it among the most essential elements of life. Theologians and spiritualists revere it as a symbol of purity and rebirth. It is one of the most widely used metaphors for destruction and renewal in literature. It makes up more than 70 percent of the earth and nearly 70 percent of the human body.
Water.
The Quinnipiac River, the artery that carries this mystical fluid through the city of New Haven, is at once a symbol of hope and a victim of neglect. Now experts believe that tended wisely, the Quinnipiac may yet be the source of new life for the Elm City - helping to attract young talent, wealthy tourists and even bald eagles to the area.
"The river is an important resource and something to be treasured," asserts Mary Mushinsky, executive director of the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association (QRWA).
To make the most of it, "We need to follow principles of smart growth and sustainable development," according to Robert Santy, president of the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP).
These buzzwords, Santy explains, mean that "With any development we need to take into account the environment and the population 50 or 100 years from now."
That's definitely not the way they thought 50 or 100 years ago. Historically the Quinnipiac, like most rivers, was valued strictly for its utility. Storm water, human waste and industrial byproducts have been dumped in the 38-mile waterway for centuries, causing damage that is still evident 30 years after the federal Clean Water Act became law.
"Rivers were mainly a cheap way to get rid of waste. Water was never considered something for recreation because there wasn't time for recreation. People worked 18 hours a day, six days a week," explains Dean Hanink, a professor of geography at the University of Connecticut.
As industry grew in the region, access to the river for dumping and transportation became a priority and so factories were built literally on the banks of the Quinnipiac, particularly in the lower river valley. Over the course of many decades, overuse of the river has begun to choke the life out of it.
Once thriving species of flora, fauna and wildlife disappeared, the river's natural floodplain was dramatically altered, and undesirable brownfields, or potentially contaminated sites, now dot the river's banks.
The state's Clean Water Act of 1967 brought about significant improvements. The Department of Environmental Protection reports that most discharges - sites where waste is dumped into the river - are within regulations. Wildlife and plant life thought to be long gone have begun to reappear. A bald eagle was spotted scouring the river for fish this winter.
But even as industrial waste has abated in the last 20 years, contaminated storm water and non-point source pollutants have increased, creating what is for many an almost intangible problem. Non-point source pollutants are those that can't be traced to a single discharge pipe or a particular contaminated parcel of land.
"One good thing," Regional Water Authority Environmental Analyst Ron Walters says, "is that we don't get our drinking water from the Quinnipiac River."
Because the Quinnipiac is not a public water supply, the regulations that govern the river are less stringent than those pertaining to other bodies of water, according to the Regional Water Authority's Walters.
The QRWA, a Meriden-based non-profit organization with about 300 members, monitors the water quality regularly. They report "bacterial spikes," or sudden high levels of contamination, following heavy rains.
Part of the problem, according to QRWA's Mushinsky, is the amount of pavement that exists in the watershed, particularly in the low-lying areas. Soil and wetlands around a river can act as a filter. But rather than seeping into soil, run-off from paved surfaces quickly flows to the river through catch-basin systems, bringing with it litter, sand, road salt, oil and gasoline from vehicles, even pollutants from the air.
The result is a complicated series of reactions: The water level in the river rises and falls much more often and much more quickly than it has in years past. This causes erosion problems which, coupled with erosion from poorly monitored construction sites, lead to an increase of sediment in the river.
"People really don't get very excited about sediment. It's not PCBs, so they don't see the problem," frets Sigrun Gadwa, staff scientist for the QRWA.
A thorough understanding of the river bottom is needed to appreciate the full impact of suspended sediment. In the upper Quinnipiac, much of the river bottom is gravel and bits of wood or natural debris.
Entire subcultures of aquatic invertebrates live, and thrive, in this environment. They in turn become food and sustain life for various species of fish and other wildlife. Suspended sediment that settles on top of that subculture threatens the existence of the invertebrates and the creatures that feed on them.
The lower part of the river is muddier on the bottom, but sediment is just as much of a problem. Very few, and only the most pollution-tolerant, species of worms exist in the muddy bottom. A thin layer of sediment settling on a culch where oysters spawn can destroy a whole crop, according to Gadwa.
"The river is carrying a lot of weight on its shoulders," Mushinsky says. And much of that weight is being carried by the upper river where development is less intense and cleaner waters flow in from tributaries and wetlands.
The QRWA strongly supports efforts to identify and remediate brownfields along the Quinnipiac River because it believes reusing existing industrial sites will quell the need for expansion into the unpolluted rural areas at the headwaters.
The RGP, an organization comprising representatives of 15 area communities, is hoping to do just that in an effort to balance environmental goals with development goals.
The organization has recently designated areas of Hamden, North Haven and New Haven as the Quinnipiac River Conservation & Development Corridor. It has applied for $200,000 in grant funding from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to study brownfields in the corridor on a large scale.
RGP president Santy hopes then to establish some land-use guidelines within the corridor that will allow business to return - but not at the expense of the environment. As an example, he suggests that guidelines may call for a greater buffer between the river and the development, but that more dense development might be allowed beyond the buffer zone.
If the towns agree, Santy says, "They get a new piece of development with tax revenues."
As a bonus, the undeveloped land in the buffer might then be used for trails or other amenities for passive recreation.
Recreational use of the waterfront can be a huge boon to the region. Recent studies have shown that cities that invest in recreational activities have seen millions of dollars in new business.
Pittsburgh, once the steel capital of the world, watched its manufacturing industry decline for years. Now, the city (like countless others) is trying to build a technology-based economy, and is using its waterfront to help draw young, bright talent.
"For eons, this community turned its back on its rivers. They were so polluted that no microorganisms even existed there," according to Court Gould, chairman of the Pittsburgh Friends of the Riverfront and a member of the Pittsburgh Technology Council.
"We were shocked into needing to take a look at a new mix for economic development," Gould recalls. Cleaning up the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers became an integral part of that redevelopment.
Today, Pittsburgh is planning to build a second boathouse to accommodate the corporate rowing programs, as well as 15 high school and six college teams, as well as countless local community rowing activities.
The Allegheny Trail Alliance, an aggregation of eight trail groups recently lauded by the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, has just acquired $22 million in funding to build a trail system that will extend from Pittsburgh to the trails outside of Washington, D.C.
UConn's Hanink calls spending like that "an investment." Hanink, who specializes in economic environmental geography, says the emphasis in urban planning now is "asset districts." Things like trail systems and riverfront parks are assets to the community that aren't necessarily measured in dollars.
Natural Resource Economist Lynne Bennett of the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies says that "It's very difficult to put a dollar value on things that don't have a market price. But tourism and recreation provide a huge economic impact."
A recent study at Yale also found that environmental amenities also tend to positively affect property values.
The Allegheny Trail Alliance commissioned a study to determine the economic benefit of trail systems and found that spending related to trail activity amounted to up to $14 million a year.
But the real benefit in Pittsburgh became apparent when a Denver-based technology company called EchoStar chose to locate its newest facility in a community on the north side of Pittsburgh.
"They told us their decision was driven by the access for their employees to recreation," Gould reports.
Richard Florida, a professor at the Heinz School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, is finalizing a paper on the connection between amenities like water access or bicycle trails and the location of large populations of young talent.
Florida explains: "There's a large body of research that indicates that amenities, particularly natural amenities, have a lot to do with the location of young, talented students."
Through focus groups and statistical studies, Florida found that technology hot spots like Austin, Portland and Seattle have in common a high education level and natural amenities.
He asserts that young people choose a place to live for two reasons: lifestyle and job market. But because jobs are less permanent than ever before, lifestyle is becoming the dominant factor. The lifestyle that's attractive is a health-conscious one with recreational outlets for the high-stress jobs in technology and other knowledge-based industries.
Scott Biniak, an account supervisor for Wieden & Kennedy, an ad agency in Portland, Ore., in many ways typifies his generation. A native of Cleveland and a 1992 graduate of Fairfield University, Biniak left Connecticut because "It was missing accessible hiking, camping, mountain biking, running, river rafting, etc."
Portland, Biniak says, "has job opportunities, culture, music, food. It also has great access to the outdoors. It has the largest park within city limits in the entire country. It is close to Mount Hood, the Columbia River gorge and the coast."
"I was looking for a work hard-play hard lifestyle that would let me take maximum advantage of my play time. It helps keep me healthy, which makes me feel good about myself, gives me energy, clears my head, keeps me alert and reduces stress," he adds.
When young people choose to live in a new place, away from family and friends, they look for "visual cues [people rollerblading, riding bikes, rock climbing or rowing] that a place is 'with it.' It's very youth-friendly and young people can plug into it very quickly," Florida says.
Cities that have these kinds of natural and recreational amenities are "talent magnets," he adds. "And once you're a talent magnet, you win."
But how does a city become a talent magnet?
Hanink says, "The most important place to start is to have high water quality. If it smells bad, it's not good."
He points to cities like Cleveland and Baltimore, which have transformed themselves from heavy cargo ports to more mixed-use ports that make the most of their waterfronts. When there is a transportation alternative or recreation available at a port, "It becomes like a subway station, a good place for retail development."
When a river is clean, adds QRWA's Mushinsky, "It can be nice to live next to the river."
Clean water and trail systems are also tourist magnets. And, according to Hanink, tourism is now the biggest sector in the global economy.
"New Haven is a great city for tourism. Recreation is probably the one thing that's it's missing," Hanink says.
But converting from heavily industrial economy to recreation- and tourism-based economy is not easy, Hanink admits: "People fear the loss of jobs, the loss of money and the loss of income. What they don't realize is once the stuff gets cleaned up, they will employ more people and bring in more income than before."
Cleaning up industrial sites or a contaminated harbor is also "fantastically expensive," he says.
Not only that, but New Haven Harbor is the third-largest port in New England and the most active commercial port in the state.
"It's a vital, vital port - not just to New Haven, but to the entire region and even the state," according to Karyn Gilvarg, executive director of New Haven's City Plan Department.
The city and the state are looking at some viable options for the harbor including improvements to the rail lines that will allow cargo that arrives by ship to leave by train instead of truck. Nearly 90 percent of the cargo delivered in New Haven is liquid home heating oil and petroleum. But it also serves as a depot for steel and aluminum deliveries that are then trucked out to manufacturers around the state.
Gilvarg believes that New Haven should "never, never discount the economic impact of the industrial port."
But Providence, which in the last year has created Waterplace Park in its downtown area, is now looking to get rid of much of its old industrial waterfront.
In his inaugural address last January, Providence Mayor Vincent A. (Buddy) Cianci Jr. declared that "The industrial waterfront today contributes very little tax benefit to the city, and very little employment opportunity as well...We cannot, and will not, allow this situation to continue. The waterfront is the most important asset that the new Providence has. In the 21st century, the rivers of Providence will be the centerpiece of a revitalized and vigorous city."
"We are way ahead of Providence," according to Gilvarg.
Projects like the redevelopment of the waterfront between Grand Avenue and Ferry Street have replaced urban blight with access to the river for canoeing and kayaking. Apartments and condominiums across the street from the Quinnipiac River Linear Park provide uninterrupted water views.
Peter Davis, a member of QRWA and the city's official Riverkeeper, leads regular canoe trips to promote understanding and enthusiasm for the river among residents of the area. Davis also spends a lot of his time cleaning up litter in the three parks that abut the river: Dover Beach, the Quinnipiac River Linear Park and the Quinnipiac Park athletic fields.
As much as six bags of trash and litter accumulate at Dover Beach each week, according to Davis.
"I'm more optimistic than I was six years ago," Davis says, because "New Haven is serious about cleaning up the sewage problems and the mayor is serious about supporting the canoeing programs."
He refers to the city's continuing efforts to separate storm sewage from sanitary sewage. Like many old cities, the New Haven sewer system was built as a combined system nearly a century ago. Heavy rains, therefore, overburden the system, forcing it to discharge untreated sanitary sewage into the river. The separation is being implemented in stages, with the east side and the peninsula being completed and much of the rest of the city sewer system yet to be redesigned.
The city is also working on a $30 million project to build "Boathouse Landing" between the Rusty Scupper and Long Wharf Pier just beyond the mouth of the river. The Yale boathouse next to the current Tomlinson Bridge will be moved to the new site as part of the bridge reconstruction projects and the Amistad - a replica of the eponymous historic ship - will be docked there, along with an exhibit explaining the history of the rebellion aboard the slave ship.
Improvements in technology for storm water runoff and sanitary sewage treatment give environmentalists and scientists hope for the Quinnipiac, but the reality is that with these improvements come the ability to develop more and more land.
"There is a link between water quality and protected open spaces," the QRWA's Gadwa emphasizes. "It's a tie that isn't generally appreciated."
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