One of the treasures of the Connecticut River, as we learned there are many, is Annette Spaulding, master diver and water world explorer. Affectionately known to Connecticut River Defenders as the “little mermaid” of especially this heritage river, as designated in 1998.

Of all her underwater world travels, Annette joyfully claims the Connecticut River as her most loved. So many people turned out to the Great Falls Discovery Center on this lovely Sunday afternoon June 8 to share in that love and awe Annette so gleefully displays for this majestic four state, National Blue Way, (designation in 2012).

Annette has uncovered Indigenous artifacts and petroglyphs along with remains of the devastating logging industry and other remains of the colonial past. CRD stand together with our Indigenous friends and neighbors to ensure that their historic and ongoing relationship with the river is honored, recognized, prioritized and unhindered. Before the dam, before the industry that followed was the Indigenous people thriving on, along and with the river.

Annette’s enthusiasm for uncovering the history living in the river is unrivaled and contagious. She has the ability with her words and camera to bring us all along with her to meet her friends, a huge carp among them.

While Annette gives us hope as she reports on massively improved visibility in the deep waters of the Connecticut, she also offers warning and grave concern for the short-nose sturgeon, on the federal endangered list since 1967. While these prehistoric creatures gained a boon in 2017 when Holyoke Dam offered an improved fish ladder easing the great fishes travel further upstream. Until recently it was thought that the Short Nose Sturgeon were as far as the Turners Fall Dam. Just this year this illusive creature has been found and filmed above the dam, in the man-made pool between Vernon NH and Turners Falls. Unexpected and exciting news; however the threat posed by NMPS casts an ever greater shadow over the fate of these endangered species.

The devastating impact of Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage on these waters and its denizen is insidious, as FirstLight Power Canadia-owned international conglomerate continues to manhandle the waters, daily pulling it backwards and uphill. The power of turbines grabbing the water and all those who dwell there in, can be felt for over three miles downstream. It also is the release of the water from atop Northfield Mountain back to the river that generates electricity at a high cost to the ratepayer and more to the natural world, that as the water crashes back to its origins in the river wipes out nesting grounds of bass, sturgeon and other amazing creatures.

Connecticut River Defenders is one of the appellate to argue the case for the river. Not surprising the state Department of Environmental Protection with the ball in its court decided to choke, not only themselves but the river by approving a clean water certificate. Forget the fact that FirstLight is killing countless of fish, and all aquatic life that gets sent up the mountain. It also spews out death and chum at a high force. We strongly and vehemently disagree with the relicensing of the massive fish grinder on the river which is troubling not only our waters but our minds. It’s hard at times to find peace in aging. So many grandparents share grave concerns for a viable livable future for the coming generations.

What we are witness to today is what the indigenous people here and globally have endured since at least the 15th century. Now it is “us” settlers who will be and are being displaced. Most of us see far back enough to recognize this well-worn pattern of corporate power’s destructive greed causing demise, denial and death. Its colors may change but it employs the same strategic tactics of divide, conquer and steal.

We are at a historic crossroads where we need to trust our regulatory agencies and our government leaders to help us work collectively toward global solutions. . But instead we are given political fronting and no effective action. We are fed contradictions. For example cutting down forests or using untouched land for industrial solar placement. All things even the sun can be commodified by an industry seeking to take all it can from nature and the vulnerable. We see and live with the evidence of how corruptible our systems are, we experience it in our everyday lives and in the failure of our elected officials from Gov. Maura Healey to Tim Jones to insist on better; and not to be swayed by power but by scientific evidence and truth.

Regulations were created with better hindsight and meant to keep industry within acceptable perimeters. This is anathema to the visionary thinking that we require today to find our way safely through. There are too many loopholes, not enough monitoring and too many fluctuations in political, economic, and public support. The influence of lobbying and propaganda from the very industries being regulated pose challenges and real threats to genuine progress.

In many ways regulations set limits on how much toxic pollution is acceptable. Specifically in the case of FirstLight we know it powers up off the grid, which is primarily fossil fuel, and nuclear energy. The impact of these off gases downstream contributes to the high asthma rates for our neighbors in Springfield.

That is not what we need now! We need to stop the ongoing destruction of our shared planet our home and return all federal and state lands under the auspices of the local indigenous peoples. Further we all must join in this effort for restoration of the Connecticut River not tying the river to a 50-year death sentence. Let’s put this old debilitated machine to bed. We know this the wrong solution. Our time is urgently running out. We can do (much) better.

Dorothea Melnicoff lives in Greenfield.