For the first time in over 20 years, the Bellamy River in Dover is now open to shellfish harvesting.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Kaufman has more.
Standing in front of Royalls Cove where the Belamy River feeds into Great Bay, Ken Moraff told a small audience that re-opening the Bellamy is something to be proud of.
Moraff is with the Environmental Protection Agency’s New England office.
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We work on a lot of difficult and complex environmental problems and sometimes we do wonder how much progress you’re making but it’s achievements like this that make you want to get up and go to work in the morning
For Bruce Smith, with the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game, the occasion was particularly special.
He used to swim here, hunt ducks, and back in 1960s, he harvested oysters.
Smith read from a biological survey from 1944.
2:20 at one time the Bellamy river had the reputation of producing the largest and best clams of this entire region, there was scarcely a square foot along the 16 miles of shoreline at the proper depth of water where clams could not be found
Smith went on to say that even in the 1940s, biologists blamed pollution for the declining clam population.
Because clams and oysters are filter feeders they concentrate pollutants making them unsafe to eat.
It wasn’t until the late 90s that clean-up got underway.
The major pollution sources were the sewers in the city of Dover.
Chris Nash is the Shellfish Program Manager at the Department of Environmental Services.
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Up at headwaters around sawyer mill pump station that would routinely overflow, what would happen when it would rain that water not just get into the storm sewers where its supposed to go but it would get into sanitary sewers where human waste is, infrastructure can’t handle that much water so it would back up and flow into the river
Nash says over the last six years, the city has re-routed sewer lines, sealed manholes, and upgraded pump stations.
The result is a less contaminated river, safe for harvesting.
Jennifer Hunter is with the New Hampshire Estuaries Project.
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by having water that’s of good enough water to harvest shellfish from the water quality is good for other uses, swimming, boating and the creatures and the critters that rely on the estuaries as a home
Right now, only the southern part of the Bellamy river is open for harvesting.
And that’s with some conditions…it will be off limits in June and July because of high bacteria in the summer months.
And it'll be closed in August to ensure oysters and clams aren’t over harvested.
Rainfall can also be a factor.
Over an inch of rain can bring high levels of bacteria.
And Wednesday night, before the river's opening, DES's Chris Nash points out, the area received a lot of rain.
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The question on everybody’s mind right now is can we go shellfish harvesting
A water quality test that comes back tomorrow/today should have the answer.
For NHPR news, I’m RK
