You turn on the faucet in you home and what do you get? Water. You go to the beach or near river and what do you see? Water. You go to the super market or convenience store and what can you find bottle upon bottle of? Water. Every so often what falls from the sky? Water. We tangibly see water around us so often that is hard for us to grasp the concept at times that we may not have enough of it or look at it as a finite resource. When we do think of issues regarding water, most of the time the image is of some far off land and not our own state. In addition when it comes to local bodies of water with various issues the 2 that come to mind most quickly are the Boston Harbor and The Charles River. Less known are some of the problems regarding the Ipswich River.

            Environmental organization American Rivers named the Ipswich River one of the 20 most threatened rivers in the United States. In addition, the river is not compliant with Massachusetts Water Quality Standards. Part of the problems includes increase water withdrawals which can affect the aquatic habitat, water quality, and recreations use.  (Zarriello)

            The low flow problem has caused many tangible issues in the river especially during the summer time when the water demand is at its highest for things such as watering lawns and lower water levels in the river concur with each other. Natural flow patterns are also disrupted by around 70 dams and 500 bridges along the river. This has led to the dieing out of some of the rivers native fish such as herring and shad and having them be replaced with more general fish species that are adapted to pond conditions. (Ipswich River Watershed Association)

            We can look to an example of a near by river as well as historical conditions as to the type of fish that one would expect to find in the Ipswich River. The population of the near by Lamprey River in New Hampshire suggest that if stream flows where restored to historic levels in the Ipswich River, we could expect to see much higher levels of fluvial-dependent and fluvial-specialist species in the Ipswich River. (Armstrong)

            However not everything regarding the Ipswich River is doom and gloom. There have been some policy victories which are designed to help ease the streamflow isseus and the subsequent enviromental hardships on the river. Recently, the Town of Reading stopped using the Ipswich River wells which should lessen the damage to the Ipswich River in Reading. Furthermore, the Towns of Danvers and Middleton have aggreed to stop using their wells along the Ipswich river during low flow periods. (Ipswich River Watershed Association)

            On a personal level, I found it interesting to read about these problems in the Ipswich River. While I don’t consider myself an expert on environmental issues, I frequently read many of the local newspapers, watch local/national news shows, and read local blogs and have not heard that much if anything about the Ipswich River stream flow problems.

Works Cited

            Armstrong, David. Parker, Gene. Richards, Todd. “Assessment of Habitat, Fish Communities, and Stream flow Requirements for Habitat Protection, Ipswich River, Massachusetts, 1998-99” ma.water.usgs.gov/publications/wrir/wri014161/index.htm

            Ipswich River Watershed Association. 2008. www.ipswichriver.org/issues/index.htm

            Zarriello, Phillip. “Effects of Water Withdrawals on Streamflow in the Ipswich River Basin, Massachusetts.” 12/17/03. http://smig.usgs.gov/SMIG/features_0301/ipswich.html