MassDEP’s Meeting on the Section 401 Water Quality Certificate In-person and Virtual
In Person – Shea Theater, Turners Falls, or by Zoom
Register Here – https://forms.office.com/g/eHAwXD9KAq
An ongoing eDNA study led by the Connecticut River Conservancy (CRC) has found persuasive evidence of Shortnose Sturgeon living in the Connecticut River above the Turners Falls Dam and on up into Vermont! Shortnose Sturgeon are listed as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act and are protected by MA law as well.
Read more about the CRC study and its findings in this press release from CRC eDNA Confirms Shortnose Sturgeon in the Connecticut River Between Turners Falls MA and Bellows Falls VT (ctriver.org) and in this article from the Gazette.
The CRC findings are very significant for the relicensing of the Turners Falls Dam and Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Project, both owned by FirstLight Power. Read more here.
FirstLight has denied the presence of Sturgeon above the dam, even though citizens have reported seeing them and even catching them for years. FirstLight even submitted its own, deeply flawed, eDNA Sturgeon study to FERC in 2018, sampling only surface waters of the Connecticut River even though Sturgeon live in the deepest channels of the river.
This means that the licenses, as proposed by FirstLight, contain no protections for Sturgeon, even though, by FirstLight’s own admission, fish, larvae, and eggs that get sucked up into the Northfield turbines have no expectation of survival!
FirstLight has applied to MassDEP for a Section 401 Water Quality Certificate which FirstLight must have in order to obtain new licenses for its facilities. We want MassDEP to require the addition of significant protections for Shortnose Sturgeon to the FirstLight licenses or deny FirstLight’s application for a certificate altogether.
Advocate for Sturgeon and the CT River!!
