The Annual Taunton River Festival
Will return to the Wild and Scenic Taunton River’s Weir Riverfront Park on Sunday, September 12, 2021, 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM.

Help us make this event a special celebration.

Our fair is admission free, and we will offer a variety of activities for the entire family, including live music, a food court, a craft fair, river activities, education and more.

If you are a school group, service club, community group, church, environmental organization or local business, we invite you to participate. You can:

• Sponsor an event
• Sign up for a table
• Or present an event

We need volunteers too.

If you are interested, please email Director@savethetaunton.org, call (508) 828-1101 or message us on Facebook to volunteer or request an exhibitor (nonprofits) or vendor registration form.

Benefits include:

• A chance to meet new customers and catch up with regulars you haven’t seen in person recently
• Postings of business/nonprofit information on Facebook
• A chance to introduce your nonprofit to potential members or donors
• The chance to inform the public on how your organization is working to protect the Taunton River and make the watershed more resilient to climate change and how they can help

We are looking forward to meeting out new participants and catching up with those who have participated before.

Come early.  Set up time is 9:00 – 10:00. Table locations (bring your own table) are awarded on first come first served basis.

Any city or state Covid regulations in effect on the day of the event (September 12, 2021), such as distance between exhibit tables or mask requirements, will apply.

TRWA is pleased to announce the TRWA Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program will resume on Tuesday, August 10, 2021 this year! Existing and new volunteer monitoring training will be held Saturday, July 31, 2021 at TRWA’s Sweets Knoll State Park Office in Dighton, MA (on Rt 138 just South of the Bristol Aggie traffic light – 1387 Somerset Avenue, Dighton, MA). On July 31^st we will have sign-in and an informal get acquainted and Q/ A session from 9:30am to 10:00am and the training will run from 10:00am to Noon. If you want to participate but can’t make the July 31^st training date, contact the TRWA office at director@savethetaunton.org and we’ll see if a make-up day is needed.

TRWA volunteers will sample the first Tuesday of the month for the remainder of the sampling season August, September, and October (3 months). Teams take their samples form 2 or 3 locations anytime between 5:00am to 8:00am and drop them off at the Taunton WWTP lab no later than 8:30am. As we have done in the past, and as noted above the refresher sampler/new volunteer training is on the last Saturday morning of the month before sampling begins which is Saturday, July 31, 2021 this year.

August is an important month for water quality monitoring. As the veteran samplers know TRWA teams of volunteers sample 20 locations (4 on the main stem of the Taunton River and 16 locations on tributary rivers/streams) the second Tuesday of each month during our sampling season (normally April through October). We have a MassDEP Quality Assurance Plan approved sampling program. We do 2 duplicates and 2 blanks each month (1 for every 10 samples for Nitrate, Total Phosphorus and Bacteria the most important pollutants we monitor). TRWA monitoring is important because it documents along with MassDEP Mount Hope Bay continuous monitoring the need for upgrading all seven major wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the watershed to remove nitrogen and for the four WWTPs in the upper freshwaters of the watershed to also remove phosphorus. It also highlights the need across the entire watershed for better stormwater controls for new and existing development to reduce bacteria, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from stormwater discharges.

TRWA delayed the start of the sampling program to give our volunteers time to obtain their vaccinations so we can be safe working with each other and so we won’t risk bringing the virus to our program partners at the Taunton wastewater treatment plant. For both the training and sampling we are following CDC Guidelines. Those that are fully vaccinated (2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine) can participate normally. Those not fully vaccinated or with a compromised immune system must wear masks and practice social distancing.

We look forward to seeing you at the training session on July 31^st. If you are a veteran sampler and your team needs sample bottles you can contact Rick McCormack at the Taunton WWTP lab (508-823-3582) to make arrangements to pick them up or contact Steve Silva the sampling program coordinator (steve124@gmail.com). The TRWA 2021 Standard Operating Procedures guide is on the TRWA website https://savethetaunton.org/ at the monitoring tab as well as our simple one-page sampler instructions sheet, chain of custody form, instructions for filling out sample bottle labels, Google map of sampling locations, and 2021 blank reporting forms which show in the lower section which locations/teams will collect duplicate and blank samples each month. This webpage generally has anything you might want to review concerning the sampling program.

One of the most important things we want to accomplish at the training is to ensure that we have teams of people with at least one veteran sampler ready to cover each sampling location. We will assign new volunteers to teams with veterans for hands-on training and to ease them into the program. If you know anyone who might like to get fresh morning air, knowledge, and be part of an important effort to save our environment, please invite them to the training.

If you are a veteran sampler and are no longer able to participate in the sampling program, please let Steve Silva (steve124@gmail.com) know to help us with planning.

Hello TRWA Sampling Volunteers and Potential New Volunteers,

I hope this email finds you and your families well.  Happy 2021!  I’m hopeful better times are coming soon.

As you know we cancelled the 2020 sampling program to keep our volunteers and the personnel at the treatment plant safe.  In 2021 we are hoping there will be enough folks vaccinated to do a last Saturday morning of some summer month refresher training session at Sweets Knoll and sample though the later part of the sampling season.  We will contact you as we see how the vaccination program progresses.

We really want to get the program back to normal (April to October sampling) for 2022.  Thanks to your great work, we were fortunate going into 2020 having four prior years with very complete data  from two dry years (2016 and 2017) and two wet years (2018 and 2019). This gives us a pretty good idea that 2020 a hot and dry year was probably much like 2016 and 2017 even though we couldn’t sample.  In 2022 it will be a new story because three large up-river treatment plants Brockton, Bridgewater and Taunton will start to remove nitrogen so we want to have monitoring to start to evaluate the water quality impact of this important change.

We miss seeing you all and appreciate the contribution you make to promote water quality improvement of the Taunton River.  Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.  Also, we always have to add a few samplers each year to expand teams that have lost members because folks have moved away or for other reasons.  When we do restart the program, please consider reaching out to others who may be interested in joining us.

Stay safe!

Best,
Steve

On November 23, 2020 TRWA submitted comments strongly supporting the upgrade of the Taunton Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF). We are requesting rapid approval of the Final Environmental Impact report (FEIR) and loan assistance requests by the City so that the phase 1 total nitrogen (TN) removal schedule of June 30, 2022 is achieved. This date is similar to the scheduled TN removal completion dates for Brockton (4/01/2022) and Bridgewater (5/01/2022).

MassDEP continuous monitoring at two locations in Mount Hope Bay documents summer algae blooms and dissolved oxygen criteria violations which these upgrades are designed to reduce. With completion of the Taunton upgrade 5 watershed WWTFs will have been upgraded for TN removal by the end of June 2022 (Taunton WWTF and all the plants upstream).

In light of the well documented water quality problems caused by nitrogen over-enrichment in the Taunton river estuary, TRWA also strongly requests that EPA and MassDEP re-issue the other 2 remaining watershed WWTFs, Somerset (12 years overdue) and Fall River (15 years overdue) with TN effluent limitations as soon as possible. The TN wasteload allocation for Somerset was included in the Taunton NPDES draft permit fact sheet. Fall River located furthest down-bay may initially be issued with intermediate level TN limits and upgraded with a flexible plant design to allow for modification as needed based on additional bay monitoring. The schedule for Fall River should be integrated with their combined sewer overflow abatement effort so that the most environmentally beneficial work is completed first.

Re-issuance of the Somerset and Fall River permits is necessary to further reduce summer algae blooms and dissolved oxygen criteria violations, achieve the full benefit of the 5 WWTF TN removal upgrades scheduled by end of June 2022 and make the Taunton River watershed more resilient to climate change. Over the months ahead TRWA is planning to petition EPA and MassDEP as well as federal and state political leaders to join us in requesting that these long expired and obsolete CWA permits be replaced. We will be reaching out to our membership and other environmental groups for help with this effort.

A copy of TRWA’s comments may be found at this link.

The Taunton River Watershed Alliance is pleased to announce the winners of our digital photography contest and that we were able to produce not one but two different calendars.  We will be publishing our traditional Taunton River Tide calendar with images that showcase our Nationally designated “Wild & Scenic River,” and we will be publishing a one time only “Avian Edition Wall Calendar.”  (Well, what do you do when 117 of your 348 entries are photographs of birds?)  2020 has been an interesting year, and with the social distancing requirements, we knew people were spending more time outdoors.  Just how much more time became evident when the photo contest deadline rolled around and the TRWA servers regularly started to go down because of the amount of emailed entries.  The quality and range of the submissions were breathtaking and our TRWA Board Member judges are still upset about how many images got left on the table because even with two calendars, there was room only for 26.  The volunteers who worked to publish the calendar are fondly calling the special bird calendar a “pandemic buster.” At the TRWA we hope it will brighten peoples days a little bit more in 2021.  

This year the two calendars combined feature the work of 19 area photographers and nature enthusiasts. Pictures are of the wild life and scenery within the Taunton River Watershed, 562 square miles in all of or part of 43 Southeastern Massachusetts cities and towns. 

This year’s Tide Calendar winners are:

Cover
“Waiting on the River,” Taunton River, Berkley, MA – Ruth Langlan

January:
“Ice Boat,” Long Pond, East Freetown, MA – Douglas Desjardins

February: 
“Old Bridge Street Bridge,” Nemasket River, Lakeville/Middleborough, MA – Chad T. Lovett

March:
“Great Horned Owl with Owlet,” East Bridgewater, MA – Bernard Creswick

April:  
“Black Backed Gull Fishing at Oliver Mills,” Middleborough, MA – Janet MacCausland

May:
“Oriole in Apple Tree,” Berkley, MA – Ronald Tomawski

June:
“Bee and Lady Slipper,” Middleborough, MA – Bud Morton

July:
“Takin’ A Walk,” Sweets Knoll State Park, Dighton, MA – Donna Berthelette

August:
“Wood Turtle,” Undisclosed Location, Taunton River Watershed – George Bancroft

September:
“Great Blue Heron,” Lakeville, MA – Mohamad Ojjeh

October: 
“Foggy Morning,” Taunton River, Dighton, MA – Mary Lou Nicodemus

November:
“Fall Cranberry Harvest,” Betty’s Neck, Lakeville, MA – Alex Perez

December:
“Nemasket River,” Plymouth Street Bridge, Middleborough, MA – Janice McGonagle

Our special one time only Pandemic Buster “Avian Edition Wall Calendar” features the photography of:

Cover
“Green Heron,” Taunton, MA – Mohamad Ojjeh

January:
“Mockingbird,” Brockton, MA – Bernard Creswick

February: 
“Northern Flicker,” Great River Preserve, Bridgewater, MA – Bernard Creswick

March:
“Golden Light,” Dighton, MA – Anna LeBlanc

April:
“Oriole Feeding,” Bridgewater, MA – Ruth Langlan

May:
“Orioles in Spring,” Assonet, MA – Carolyn DiFrancesco

June:
“Tree Swallow Sing-A-Long,” Tamarack Park, Lakeville, MA – Bud Morton

July:
“Young Bald Eagle Branching,” Dighton, MA – David Ennis

August
“Phoebe with Water Drops,” Berkley, MA – Ronald Tomawski

September:
“Gone Fishing,” Norton, MA – Alison F. Kidder

October:
“Ms. October,” Female Kingfisher, Assonet River, Berkley, MA – Pam Lowell

November:
“Drippy,” Broad Cove, Dighton, MA – Rita Eva Spier

December:
“Cardinal in the Snow,” Assonet, MA – Carolyn DiFrancesco

The TRWA will have a vey limited amount of copies for sale for $15/member, $20 non-member at its office starting November 16th.   Please call ahead at 508- 828-1101 for times when the office will be open. 

Calendars are always available print-on-demand. The TRWA is excited to use all the options of this new technology. The print-on-demand calendars can be printed from any month in the year with the tide data from the Taunton River or any other of the 3,500 NOAA tide stations. Or, if you like to write appointments into your calendar, you can order a calendar printed up without the tidal data.  People purchasing the calendar can even customize their calendar with their own photographs. Half the proceeds from the online $19.99 purchase price goes directly to the TRWA to support its ongoing mission protecting and restoring the Taunton River watershed, its tributaries, wetlands, floodplains, river corridors and wildlife.

To order our TIDE calendar, follow this link: http://www.calendarlink.org/trwa/home.html.
To order our BIRD calendar, follow this link: https://www.calendarlink.org/trwa2021bird/home.html

For a step by step guide for going through all the customizations on the order form, click on this link.  how_to_order_online_flier )

For over 30 years, TRWA has been a voice for the river, an advocate for environmental protection, sustainable development and responsible stewardship of our precious water resources. We are an Alliance of concerned residents, businesses, and organizations united to restore and properly manage water and related natural resources within the Taunton River Watershed.  Your purchase of these calendars helps to support our work.  Thank you!

TRWA has sent a letter to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office (MEPA) supporting removal of the aging Town River Dam in Bridgewater as soon as possible. In its comments TRWA pointed out that with complete deconstruction and removal of the dam, approximately two hundred feet of river channel upstream would be restored to a stream that supports fish passage. The proposed project would reconnect  ten miles of riverine habitat and restore spawning access to Lake Nippenicket. Water quality would improve as a result of the restoration of a free-flowing river.  The proposed project would also eliminate the risk of dam failure and restore stream bank habitat.

In a letter dated March 14, 2020 the Taunton River Watershed Alliance (TRWA) took a strong position urging the Bridgewater Planning Board to deny a request from Claremont Corporation to amend zoning laws and waive resource area protections on a parcel of land located on the shoreline of Lake Nippenicket in order to allow construction of a restaurant.

TRWA after hearing from many residents of Bridgewater carefully reviewed the proposal and concluded the proposal affects not only our members who are residents of Bridgewater, but the mission of TRWA, which is to protect and restore the watershed’s natural resources for current and future generations, to build and support responsible stewardship of our fragile ecosystems, water quality, forests, farmland, and wetlands; provide opportunities for people to enjoy the river and the watershed’s open space; and be a voice for threatened land and water resources.

TRWA opposes this request because the proposed construction  would harm the water quality in Lake Nippenicket[1] and the ecological communities that inhabit the site and surrounding area. These impacts would occur as a result of earth removal and other work during construction, the rendering of a large portion of the property to impermeable surface, and the discharge of polluted stormwater runoff after the project is completed. Not to mention, this project sets a dangerous precedent for other future potential developments that may be planned within sensitive areas within the Town.

TRWA would like to thank the Bridgewater residents who called this matter to our attention and the many residents who attended the Bridgewater Planning Board Meeting to express their concern about the proposed zoning change.

For more information see our comment letter.

[1] Eutrophication has been recognized as a serious concern in Lake Nippenicket due to its shallow depths.

A riverfront resident called yesterday (June 22, 2019). He had six female terrapins crawling around his yard looking to nest. He grabbed them for us. Melissa and I collected and processed them right away. (George was away for a family hike in New Hampshire this weekend. He’s going to be very jealous when he finds out.) Two were already PIT tagged (i.e., recaptures).

Upon entering their data we found the following;

1. We now have 73 marked individual terrapins in the Lower Taunton River.
2. We now have three recaptures. Still a small number, but we tripled our total this weekend – thanks to this resident.
3. The “first” recaptured animal, 7041, was caught last year in the same yard after she nested on June 19, 2018. Her shell measurements are very similar to last year’s. (Differences are likely due to individual observer differences in reading the calipers – 0.5%-2% differences. Her mass was 13% (200g) greater this year. This is at least partially due to her still being gravid.
4. The second recapture is 7053. We counted her with eight annuli last year and (thankfully) counted 9 on her yesterday. She processed very similarly to 7041 – shell metrics within 2% and was 9% (100g) heavier this year. HOWEVER, there was something VERY exciting! In 2018 we caught her in a trap in Broad Cove.

We have been wondering about the movements of terrapins between Broad Cove and Assonet Bay turtles and their movements up and down the river. At some point since last year, 7053 moved from Broad Cove to Assonet Bay. When did she get to Assonet Bay? Did she do so just to reach this particular nesting area? If so, why? There is a nice nesting area, use by several terrapin, in Broad Cove? How long will she stay?

All six turtles were released back at the same yard by the end of the day.

If you happen to see any terrapins (turtles) trying to nest in your yard please notify TRWA at director@savethetaunton.org or 508-828-1101. We would love to add more to our study. They are endangered and can use a little help with safe nesting areas.

PS: Update – we are now up to 88 marked turtles!