Why does the town hate the Canton River?

Editor’s note: The Canton River, also called the East Branch of the Neponset River, passes through downtown Canton and through the former Plymouth Rubber factory site. A portion of the river has been redirected into a man-made diversion channel constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Dear Editor:

Why does the town of Canton hate the Canton River so much? Has it insulted, injured or disturbed you in any way?

If not, then why has the town DPW, with the blessing of the Conservation Commission, directed the Plymouth Rubber developer, on behalf of the town, to destroy the remnants of the Canton River by means of clear-cutting, poisoning with herbicides, removing all vegetation, including all native wetland plants, stripping off the rich topsoil on the riverbank that took 50 years to develop, and finally, and most egregiously, bulldozing out the bottom of the river, which had come to support a unique, vibrant, and diverse community of fish, turtles, frogs, birds, bees, butterflies, earthworms, and countless plants since its creation in 1962 (to divert the Canton River around the Plymouth Rubber factory to avoid flooding caused by the too-small culvert that was initially built to carry the river under the site)?

Is it because Canton hates the great blue herons that used to fish in the river? The yellow-rumped warblers that used to nest there? The brook trout and perch that used to swim in it? Or is it the three gargantuan, 50-year-old snapping turtles that have invoked the wrath of the town?

Before gutting out the river bed, the town’s engineering firm calculated the flood control capacity of the channel — after all the trees, shrubs and grasses had been cut out of it — and determined that the capacity was still the same as when it was originally built, thereby meeting the requirements of the Army Corps of Engineers. So I can only fathom that it was some great hatred for the river itself and the beautiful community of God’s creatures that dwelt there that the DPW and the Conservation Commission deemed it necessary to bulldoze out every last bit of life living in the bottom, sides and banks of the Canton River.

I have worked in the environmental protection field in Massachusetts for 27 years and I have never yet experienced as environmentally lame a community as Canton. I am ashamed to call this town my home.

Ann McGovern MacAdam

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=34352

Posted by Canton Citizen on Sep 23 2016. Filed under From One Citizen to Another, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.