Merrimack River Restoration and the Clean River Project

• In 1951, National Geographic termed the Merrimack River “a veritable slave in service of industry”.

• Has a terrible reputation due to toxic dumping and the “sludge” that formed due to industrial dumping

• Today it serves as a model for river restoration in America

• State level and federal policy change sparked the Merimack’s River restoration

• Clean Water Act – states must ensure levels of pollution in its waters are below a standard considered “healthy”

• The efforts of private environmental groups make a huge impact

• Clean River Project and Mill River Restoration

• MRR-remove dams and culverts throughout “mill rivers”

• CRP- 8,000 tires, 40 cars, construction materials, and electronics.

• CRP started as a small group of three men

• Did a “scavenger hunt”

Cody Case

William Bartram,

Botanical & Zoological Drawings,

1756-1788.

A mythological narrative has grown up around Henry David Thoreau and Rachel Carson that depicts them as the parents of the American environmental movement. In reality, each followed in the foot steps of even earlier naturalists. Michael L. Auger

Environmental Studies

“The Physiological Needs such as breathing, food, drink . . . are . . . requirements. When they are not fulfilled, people become preoccupied with filling

those needs above all else . . . [S]tarving people in a war zone can be oblivious to danger when in search of food.”

- Abraham Maslow

“Billerica is like a little slice of Texas in Massachusetts.”- Town Meeting Representative to Representative Jamie Powers

Air Quality

Jamie Powers