Improving access to the area's waters is well worth pursuing, but such waters are worth accessing only if they are clean. And thanks to the enormous investments in waste water treatment facilities and enforcement of septic tank rules our waters are much cleaner than than were twenty years ago.
That said, the price of clean waters is eternal vigilance, which translates into the need for aggressive sampling as described today in the Telegraph
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/1010114-469/local-rivers-at-six-times-usual-flow.html
The article notes the need for volunteers willing to wade into the water in the early morning and draw samples for delivery to a local waste water treatment laboratory. The whole evolution took me about half an hour this AM, and I encourage others to volunteer at swawatertesting@gmail.com.
One footnote; for reasons that are entirely unclear to me, New Hampshire sets acceptable bacterial levels for swimming in public waters roughly three times lower than does Massachusetts. Maybe there is a genetic basis for this disparity but I doubt it!
This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.
The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?
