Naugatuck Valley Chapter: Naugatuck River, Connecticut

Naugatuck riverkeepers collect data from the Naugatuck River. The Naugatuck Valley Chapter trained 25 riverkeepers to monitor water quality and survey fish populations. (Naugatuck Valley Chapter photo)

A sewage treatment plant discharges into the Naugatuck River. Six plants along the river were upgraded as part of a watershed-wide restoration plan. (Naugatuck Valley Chapter photo)

The Naugatuck River in western Connecticut historically supported a coldwater fishery including migratory fish runs of brown trout, American shad, alewife, and blueback herring. However, decades of unmitigated industrial use along the river throughout the 1800s left the Naugatuck severely polluted. Local Trout Unlimited volunteers, in partnership with Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and other partners, have begun implementing an ambitious watershed restoration program involving seven dam removals, wastewater treatment plant upgrades, revegetation of areas along the river corridor, and fishery management plans to clean up the river and restore fish populations. Ironically, the project began with a request from the City of Waterbury to release more waste in the river while they re-built a wastewater treatment plant. The potential amount of waste entering the river would have exceeded Clean Water Act standards, and required a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Naugatuck Valley Chapter member Albin Weber stepped up as an intervener and worked with the EPA and the Connecticut DEP to negotiate a mitigation agreement with the City of Waterbury. Ultimately, TU and its partners secured 4.5 million dollars for restoration projects, including the removal of obsolete dams from the Naugatuck and the upgrade of 5 other treatment plants that discharge to the river.

Union City Dam was one of several dams that contributed to poor water quality in the Naugatuck River. The dam was removed in 1999. (Milone&MacBroom photo)

A portion of the Naugatuck River flows freely after the removal of Union City Dam. Ultimately, seven dams will be removed from the Naugatuck River, opening 32 miles of habitat to brown trout and other fish. (Milone & MacBroom photo)

Dams on the Naugatuck provided power, cooling water, rinse water, and boiler water for industries during the industrial revolution. Now, however, most of the dams are obsolete and serve no useful purpose. Three dams, Anaconda, Freight Street, and Union City, were completely removed in 1999. The dams were four to twenty feet high and 100 to 330 feet long. In addition, six more dams are scheduled to be removed or modified for fish passage, including two removals on the Mad River, a tributary of the Naugatuck. When the comprehensive project is completed, fish passage will be restored along the entire length of Naugatuck's mainstem. (A separate hydropower dam currently has a functioning fishway.) In addition to negotiating with the treatment facility and securing funds for restoration, the Naugatuck Valley Chapter actively educated the communities along the river about the benefits of a clean river and the potential for the Naugatuck to be a high quality coldwater fishery. The chapter sponsored public meetings and gave presentations at schools in an effort to garner support for restoring the Naugatuck, a river that had been ignored for generations.

The Naugatuck Valley Chapter's efforts go far beyond the dam removals; volunteers continue to be involved in the watershed restoration plan. A group of chapter volunteers, called Riverkeepers, regularly monitor water quality. In 1998, the chapter secured funds from one of the companies along the river to hire a professional River Steward to monitor and advocate for the Naugatuck watershed full-time. The Chapter is also sponsoring the River Bend Park, which will be the first riverside access park along the Naugatuck. The town of Beacon Falls donated land and the chapter received a $40,000 grant to develop the park, which will include interpretive displays about the history of the Naugatuck (using a kiosk plan developed by TU's Pisgah Chapter in North Carolina) and access to the river. The park is due to be completed by the end of 2001. The efforts of the Naugatuck Valley Chapter and all the restoration partners along the river have allowed fish to return, including reproducing populations of sea-run brown and brook trout in the tributaries. In addition, the Connecticut DEP has stocked the Naugatuck with trout for the first time in hopes of restoring a healthy trout fishery.