Decades-long fight to protect Taunton River succeeds

Many residents of the watershed deserve credit for undertaking this rewarding stewardship planning process. Town and city officials, community representatives, and environmental professionals all met to identify the outstanding resources needing protection: agriculture, ecology and biological diversity, the estuaries and fisheries, regional history and achaeology, recreation and scenery. Now, because of the national support championed by our Senators and Representatives, the Taunton River Stewardhip Council will be able to guide the process through the next steps of implementing recomendations that will enhance the appreciation of the River for all the community: protecting water quality and natural flow; protecting rare and endangered species; promoting our national heritage and biodiversity; and restoring fish populations. This is a program that will encourage residents to participate in their local environment and will leave a legacy that the future generations will also enjoy.

Congratulations Carolyn and the rest of the Watershed Alliance!!! I live in Middleboro right near the Oliver Mill Park and greatly appreciate your efforts to help preserve this beautiful river. Well done!!!!!!!!

I now live in the Pacific Northwest but grew up on the Taunton River in Dighton in the 1960's-early '70's. The river and lagoons were my playground as a child and it's near to my heart still. I saw the filth from industry and residents pour into the river and the earliest efforts to stop it and begin clean-up. I've only been back a few times in the intervening years and I'm very pleased with what I've seen.

I now play on bays, rivers and beaches on the Pacific coast but they pale in comparison to my old playground.

And people wonder why Fall River is a dying city. This designation will prevent LNG from building a liquified natural gas terminal, which was Barney Frank's goal in pushing for such status (and also for blocking the demolition of the Brightman Street Bridge, as the bridge would prevent ships from getting through). Goodbye hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs.

Look, no one is "pro" pollution, and this is not meant to start a comment-war where people talk past each other. Industrial development should be closely monitored to determine the pollution externalities are minimized. However, Fall River is on the decline because of a lack of jobs for those without advanced degrees. This designation completely neutralizes what could potentially be a huge positive for the region (access to waterways).

The sucking sound caused by jobs moving south will only continue. Mass will continue to be a great place to live/work for the liberal elite with advanced degrees. But the blue collar folks who would have had jobs at the LNG terminal now can get into the uemployment line with other victims of "progressive" thought, such as the former employees of the dog tracks.

Shaking my head....

The proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in the Taunton River would win a title for weird industrial development if we did not already have the much weirder LNG terminal in the Mystic River, just upstream of downtown Boston. Those facilities bring few jobs but enormous hazards. Even ones now proposed several miles offshore are taking brickbats for environmental risks. Warehouses and all forms of bulk commodity shipping belong as far from centers of population as practical. They hoard resources and tend to discourage economic productivity.

Let's put an LNG plant in Reality's backyard and see what his/her next post will say...

wull this effect the Brockton waste plant on the Salisbury Plain River ?
What about "the muck" and the small pond at Tukis playground (I'd like to see that cleaned up)

having spent several years of my childhood living in Lakeville, I applaud the Taunton River's new designation. there has to be some rational balance between industrial commerce and the environment. we're not going back to an 18th century agrarian society. here's a solution for all the so-called environmentalists and gas bags like Barney Frank who are against LNG terminals. open up our domestic natural gas reserves containing trillions of cubic feet of gas. that negates the need for foreign gas that needs to be liquified for transport. also lessens our dependece on foreign energy sources. think.......

Let's face some facts that are not included in this story. The Taunton River is perhaps the most polluted river in all of New England due to the Brockton and Taunton and other prehistoric municipal sewage treatment plants that are in violation of the U.S. Clean Water Act. This is because the towns along the Taunton still use it as their waste disposal facility. Because of this, Mount Hope Bay is nearly dead as a functioning estuary and nursery ground for fish. There is still a long, long way to go. If you want to know who the problem is, it is your own city and town governments along the river. It is "we" who are polluting and killing the Taunton. As Pogo said.

If you don't want natural gas production and distribution, stop using it. The LNG plants and their tankers need to be put somewhere. The only logical places are near the ocean shoreline. Fall River, New Bedford, and Providence don't want them. Where would you put one? The anti-everythings would say, "Put it someplace else". Where? Putting them someplace out-of-sight and out-of-mind does not get them built.

I am very fond of the river since I spent most of my late teen age years and twenty's on it . I even helped an old timer mark the channel and in the winter put in the winter sticks. I really in joyed it .it made me feel as if i was helping in some small way .I also made my carear choice because of my love of the river.Their are some parts of that river that seem like it's been untouched by modern man.it just amazes me how something so wonder full could go uncared for and abbound I am A boat mechanicn and i would like to get fundding to clean up the river maybe i could run tours and tell everyone of its wonder heriger .if anyone els is on the same page as me please email me back