Concord River

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Concord River
Concord Massachusetts Concord River as seen from bridge.JPG
Data
Water code US :  619300
location Massachusetts (USA)
River system Merrimack River
Drain over Merrimack River  → Atlantic Ocean
Confluence of Sudbury River and Assabet River in Concord MA
42 ° 27 ′ 54 ″  N , 71 ° 21 ′ 30 ″  W
Source height 33  m
muzzle in Lowell MA in the Merrimack River Coordinates: 42 ° 38 ′ 38 "  N , 71 ° 18 ′ 13"  W, 42 ° 38 ′ 38 "  N , 71 ° 18 ′ 13"  W.
Mouth height 16  m
Height difference 17 m
Bottom slope 0.69 ‰
length 24.8 km
Catchment area 965 km²
Big cities Lowell MA
National Wild and Scenic River
Course of the Concord River in the catchment area of ​​the Merrimack River

Course of the Concord River in the catchment area of ​​the Merrimack River

Canoe hike on the Concord River

Canoe hike on the Concord River

The Concord River is a right tributary of the Merrimack River in the northeast of the US state Massachusetts .

The 25 km long river flows through a small rural and suburban region northwest of Boston . The battles of Lexington and Concord  - the first battles of the American Revolutionary War  - and a book by Henry David Thoreau from the 19th century make it one of the most famous small rivers in the United States.

geography

The river arises in Middlesex County from the confluence of the Sudbury Rivers and Assabet Rivers near downtown Concord , Massachusetts . From there it heads north and flows into the Merrimack River at Lowell . The landscape of the river hardly changes in its course. Its catchment area extends to Worcester County and includes 36 cities in Massachusetts.

history

The first settlers from England arrived around 1635 and gave the river its current name. On April 19, 1775, the North Bridge of Concord became the site of the Battle of Concord . The first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired here. A replica of the small wooden bridge is now under the protection of the National Park Service .

In 1849 Henry David Thoreau wrote his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers . This book described a seven-day boat trip with his brother on the two rivers. His brother was killed during the trip. In the book Thoreau tells of the exploration of the beauty of the rivers and his thoughts on important topics such as truth, poetry, travel and friendship. Even today, the river is a popular destination for canoe trips. The last two kilometers of the Concord River at Lowell are rated III and IV .

On April 9, 1999, parts of the two headwaters and a 12.8 km stretch of river from the confluence of these two at Egg Rock to Route 3 bridge in the Town of Billerica were designated as National Wild and Scenic River .

environment

fauna

Originally the river was the ideal habitat for many species of fish. Perch , the herring species of the genus Alosa , carp and river eel were native here. Native Americans fished the Alosa at the estuaries in the region. During the settlement of the catchment area, several dams were built in the river to increase the yield of the fields and to power the mills built there. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Alosa population in the river had been wiped out because the dams prevented the adult animals from reaching the lower reaches of the river . The Alosa is a migratory fish species . In May 2000, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service , the Massachusetts Riverways Program, and volunteers from the Sudbury Valley Trustees released 7,000 adult alosas in the Concord River. In August 2004, over 1,000 young alosas were counted in Heard Pond, which is traversed by the Sudbury River. US Fish and Wildlife Service biologists hope these fish will return to the Heard Pond to spawn after three to five years in the ocean. According to the biologists, the fish are able to cross the Billerica Dam on their way into the sea . On the way back they have to be transported around the dam. If a sufficient number of them return, the Fish and Wildlife Service will investigate better possible solutions, which could include modifying the dam, among other things.

flora

Native Americans gave the river the name Musketaquid (a river made of grass) because of the abundance of aquatic and marsh plants in its leisurely flowing waters. Its banks are lined with grass and reeds for miles .

Water quality

During the 18th century, the center of the US Industrial Revolution was near the Concord River. Textile , paper and mining industries as well as tanneries discharged their wastewater in large quantities into the river, which was already heavily polluted by untreated wastewater . Industrial development reached its peak in the 1920s. In the early 1960s the industry reached a second peak with chemical and metalworking firms serving as subcontractors to the electronics industry in the Boston metropolitan area. In the 1960s, the Merrimack River was one of the ten most polluted waterways in the United States

The Clean Water Act of 1972 signaled a rethink in the USA. The law stipulated stricter controls for discharge points on rivers and other navigable waters. This led to the construction of three sewage treatment plants on the banks of the Concord River. One of them was built in Concord, the other two in Billerica. These sewage treatment plants helped prevent lasting damage to the river's ecosystem. Unfortunately, a lot of contaminants such as heavy metals and PCBs are still present as debris in the river. Due to the build up of mercury , fish is banned from most parts of the Sudbury River.

In August 2004, perchlorates were detected in the Concord River . At first it was assumed that explosives had been used for road construction. the cause of the pollution. However, an investigation by the city of Billerica found that a local medical supplies factory was the source of the pollution. The company processed around 1,000 liters of perchloric acid in a bleaching process and diverted its rinse water into the local sewage system. The company then voluntarily stopped its production until it had installed an ion exchange system that complied with legal requirements.

In May 2007, Billerica was itself the target of a lawsuit. The city was fined US $ 250,000 for discharging sewage into the Concorde River. According to the EPA, the introduction of phosphorus led to the river becoming oversaturated with nutrients and thus to excessive growth of aquatic plants.

Sights and buildings

In Concord, the Old North Bridge spans the Concord River. On April 19, 1775, the first shot of the American Revolutionary War of the 13 North American colonies against the British colonial power was fired on this bridge . This war lasted until 1783 and led with the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the formation of the Confederation in 1777 to its victorious conclusion and the creation of the United States of America.

literature

Web links

Commons : Concord River  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sudbury River in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
  2. ^ Concord River in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
  3. ^ A b c Sudbury Assabet & Concord Wild & Scenic River Stewardship Council: Wild & Scenic Rivers Program
  4. ^ Lowell Historical Society: Contributions of the Lowell Historical Society, 1913 , accessed December 11, 2008
  5. ↑ McAdow, Ron: The Concord, Sudbury and Assabet Rivers, A Guide to Canoeing, Wildlife and History, 2nd ed., Bliss Publishing Co. 2000, ISBN 0-9625144-0-3 (English)
  6. ^ American Whitewater Organization website , accessed December 11, 2008
  7. ^ National Wild & Scenic Rivers: Sudbury, Assabet & Concord Rivers, Massachusetts
  8. ↑ SuAsCo Watershed Water Quality Assessment Report 2001 (English) ( MS Word ; 1.3 MB), accessed on December 11, 2008
  9. ^ A b J. Ronald Engel: Teaching the Eco-Justice Ethic: The Parable of the Billerica Dam (English), accessed on April 5, 2018
  10. ↑ River Herring / Alewife Restoration, Report of the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust (English) ( Memento of 3 April 2009 at the Internet Archive ) retrieved December 11, 2008
  11. ^ Sally Heaney: Alewives' birth spawns hope for their return. Boston Globe article on August 22, 2004 , accessed December 11, 2008
  12. ^ Brewster, William: "Concerning the Nuptial Plumes Worn by Certain Bitterns and the Manner in Which They are Displayed", 1911 (PDF; 541 kB), accessed on December 11, 2008
  13. ^ Massachusetts Department of Health: 1915 Annual Report , accessed December 11, 2008
  14. ↑ a b Merrimack River Watershed Assessment Study. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, January 2003, accessed April 6, 2018 .
  15. ↑ "Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge: Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan," January 2005 , accessed December 11, 2008
  16. ↑ SuAsCo Watershed Community Council (English) retrieved December 11, 2008
  17. ^ Website of the CPEO - Center For Public Environmental Oversight, Report of September 10, 2004 (English) , accessed December 11, 2008
  18. ↑ Kathleen Sellers, Katherine Weeks, William R. Alsop, Stephen R. Clough, Marilyn Hoyt, Barbara Pugh, Joseph Rob: Perchlorate: Environmental Problems and Solutions, CRC Press 2007, ISBN 0-8493-8081-2 , pp. 11ff. (English)