Last week I visited Newmarket to see first-hand the progress being made on the town’s new sewage treatment plant. In 2013, the town’s citizens voted to bond the cost of a new plant that would adhere to EPA permit requirements that – for the first time – will result in dramatic reductions in nitrogen pollution.…
Jun 30
2016
2016
Jun 29
2016
2016
Video: How Nitrogen Enters the Great Bay Estuary
As I’ve discussed in prior blogs, excess nitrogen is severely degrading the health of the Great Bay estuary. Click the video above to learn how nitrogen finds its way into the Bay.
Jun 28
2016
2016
Great Bay–Piscataqua Waterkeeper Vessel Launched for 2016!
The Great Bay-Piscataqua Waterkeeper vessel is back on the water for its third season. Following our launch earlier this month, the weather did not cooperate until last week. Interest is keen from folks who want to climb aboard and explore Great Bay and the Piscataqua River to identify and discuss the challenges facing our local…
Jun 17
2016
2016
Northern Pass is Not a Green Answer
… Those leading that fight include the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Conservation Law Foundation, New Hampshire Audubon, the Sierra Club, numerous municipal and regional planning authorities, and grass roots citizen organizations. Read more here…
Mar 10
2016
2016
Improved Net Metering Legislation on Track in New Hampshire
Note: This blog post has been updated in light of the March 9 vote. Thanks to your advocacy and an amazing outcry of public support for rooftop solar and net metering, an improved version of House Bill 1116 passed the New Hampshire House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee unanimously, and on March 9 passed the…
Feb 9
2016
2016
Why Have Presidential Candidates Been Silent on Northern Pass?
The next president of the United States will decide only one issue that uniquely affects New Hampshire residents. Yet as candidates of both parties blanketed the state in the final weeks before today’s primary, that issue received scant attention. The next president will decide whether to authorize the cross-border connection to Canada’s Hydro-Québec needed for…
Jan 8
2016
2016
Northern Pass Enters a New Phase
The Northern Pass transmission project has entered a new phase, as the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee begins an extensive state permitting process for the controversial project. Northern Pass as proposed will span 192 miles, traveling from the Canada/U.S. border in Pittsburg, through New Hampshire’s north country, down the spine of the state to Concord, and,…
Jan 8
2016
2016
Exeter Forges Ahead on the Fertilizer Front
The Healthy Lawns-Clean Water committee in Exeter, NH, is forging ahead with new fertilizer restrictions in the town. Established by the Town and funded by a grant from the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), interested folks – myself included – have convened numerous times to give serious thought to how to reduce nitrogen discharge in…
Nov 5
2015
2015
New Hampshire Oil Spill Practice Deployment
What happens if there is an oil spill at a power plant or distributor on the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth or Newington, New Hampshire? If the first responders at these facilities fail to immediately control the spill, who responds as that oil moves upriver and into Little Bay and Great Bay? Enter the New Hampshire…
Sep 2
2015
2015
Great Bay is Cleaner Today
On August 13th, Seven Rivers Paddling of Newmarket and Timberland of Stratham teamed up with Jeff Barnum, CLF’s Great Bay–Piscataqua Waterkeeper, to patrol several areas of the estuary, picking up whatever refuse they could find. “Great Bay is an estuary of national significance – one of only 28 in the U.S. – and deserves our…