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- Covers
approximately 40,000 acres.
- Spans
seven townships in CT and NY.
- Length
20 miles, elevation drop 962 ft.
- Watershed
population: 65,587 people (1990 census).
- Major
tributaries: Silvermine River, Comstock Brook.
- Public
reservoirs on upper Silvermine & Comstock.
- Good
recreational fishing at many sites.
- Major
oyster beds at mouth, in Long Island Sound.
- Important
transportation corridor (US Rte. 7).
Recent
News at NRWA
Grants
- A
series of helpful grants made a number of important projects
possible.
-
Fairfield
County Community Foundation grant of $10,000 in 2007 helped
to fund the position of NRWA's part-time Executive Director.
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The
Jeniam Foundation in 2007 gave a $5,000 grant to enable
the Executive Director to add more hours each week for
fundraising efforts.
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Connecticut
DEP awarded a grant that made the printing and distribution
of the brochure "How to Manage and Maintain Your Property"
possible to Norwalk and Wilton residents this past June.
- Recently
The Sounds Conservancy gave a grant of $250 to help NRWA
revise its website - a summer project we hope to complete
by September 2008.
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The
Norwalk River watershed lies in an area that's bounded by the
Housatonic River watershed on the north and east, the Hudson
River watershed on the west, and Long Island Sound on the south.
Within this area (shown in here in yellow), the Norwalk is one
of several rivers that flow SSE into the Sound.
Its neighbor to the east is the Saugatuck River, which arrives
at the Sound in Westport. On the southwest its neighbor
is the small Fivemile River (not shown on this map) and the
Rippowam, which drains the area above the source of the Fivemile
and brings its water down to Stamford. Above the Rippowam,
the land west of the Norwalk River drains into the Hudson via
the Titicus River (in the greyed-in part of the map). |
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The
Norwalk River enters Long Island Sound at Veteran's Park in
South Norwalk, 40 miles northeast of Manhattan. At the
river's mouth is a tidal estuary and harbor used by hundreds
of pleasure and fishing boats. Marine life is abundant,
and oyster fishing has been an important activity going back
to pre-colonial times.
Educational tours of the harbor are offered by the Maritime
Aquarium, and an annual Oyster Festival is sponsored by
the Norwalk Seaport Association. One mile offshore is
a chain of islands which serve as a wildlife refuge and, in
specific areas, as a popular destination for boaters.
One particular attraction is the historic
Sheffield lighthouse. |
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Upriver
from Norwalk, one first reaches the town of Wilton and then
the town of Ridgefield. These two towns, combined with
the city of Norwalk, contain more than 78 percent of the watershed.
Their western neighbors, New Canaan and Lewisboro (NY), contain
nearly 16 percent, entirely within the sub-watershed of the
Norwalk River's largest tributary, the Silvermine River.
The towns to the east, Weston and Redding, contain just 6 percent
of the watershed. This is shown in more
detail here. A wealth of online information is available
concerning the upriver communities of Wilton, Ridgefield, Lewisboro,
and Redding. For the entire county of Fairfield CT, an excellent
online resource is the blue pages.
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| Two-thirds
of the households in the watershed -- mostly within the urban
and village districts -- obtain their water from public water
supply systems. Most of the rest get their water from private
drilled wells, and a small number use private dug wells.
Sewage disposal is predominantly by public sewage systems in
the urban areas and by private septic systems in the more rural
and suburban areas. The ratio for the entire watershed is 56
percent of all households using public sewage disposal systems.
This is shown graphically here. |
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| Many
pollutants reach the Norwalk River through stormwater runoff
from urban zones, roads, and other impervious areas. Some
common misconceptions about water runoff are discussed by the
Natural Resources Defence Council, and runoff from roads is described by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Another EPA document describes the economic benefits of controlling stormwater runoff. Technical details
on this subject are available from the North Carolina State
University concerning runoff from: urban areas,
roads, construction projects, and industrial sites.
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| The
Norwalk River's banks have undergone human modification in many
places, often to the detriment of the river's water quality
and posing threats to the plant and animal life that lives along
the river. The importance of these streamside "riparian"
areas is discussed here. In June 1998, several local groups joined forces to
restore a section of the Norwalk River's riverbank in Wilton
to a more natural condition. (See article here.) Similar projects are being planned for other points
in the watershed. "Toolbox"
of riparian buffer management developed by the Long Island Sound
NEP. Check our events calendar
to see what has been scheduled. |
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The
most serious problem in the recent water-quality tests on the
Norwalk River is the presence of bacteria, part of which may
come from unmaintained or malfunctioning septic systems.
Background information about septic-system maintenance can be
found here.
Questions about local regulations and practices should be directed
to local health departments. For an in-depth explanation of
the subject, various books
can be consulted. Some technical details are available
online about septic systems, and on the related, important subject of underground storage
tanks. Alternate
Sewage Treatment Systems- White Paper (PDF)
Throughout the Norwalk River watershed, a new lending arrangement
termed a watershed improvement loan is
available to provide local property owners with another method
for handling certain types of critical improvements, such as
repairs to malfunctioning septic systems or removal or replacement
of in-ground fuel tanks. |
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| Discharges
from "point sources" such as wastewater treatment plants and
industrial discharge pipes are not nearly as severe a problem
as they were ten or twenty years ago. But despite the
many improvements, some serious areas of concern remain. |
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of the most dramatic changes that's currently taking place within
the Norwalk River watershed (and throughout much of North America)
is the displacement of the native plant life by aggressive invasive
species. Read more about specific Invasive threats in our
Invasive Species Section. Also available:
A list of Invasive Species in the Norwalk River Watershed are
listed here.
Multiple links to Invasive Species Information is listed on
our links
page. |
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Flooding
is a natural process for rivers, and it produces many beneficial
side effects such as the distribution of fresh water over
a wide area to replenish groundwater supplies that are critical
for the private wells that many households depend upon. But
in a congested region like Fairfield County, floods can also
pose a great threat to life and property.
The Norwalk River has not had a significant flood since 1955.
A modern repeat of the 1955 flood would
do over $21 million in damage along the river, according to
a Connecticut study, and the State has identified the region
as a "high risk basin in immediate need of better flood control
management and hazard mitigation." The immediate danger
can be reduced by adopting a flood warning system (see
article), by increasing building setbacks from the river,
and by setting aside as open space property adjacent to or
upland of the river system in order to reduce impervious surfaces
and increase absorption.
Do
your part...Excess leaves can clog culverts, fill ponds or
the backside of a dam, and make the river shallower and more
prone to flooding or the need for expensive dredging. Property
owners should let anyone who works with them or for them know
that this material should not be blown or dumped into any
river, pond, or wetland. No matter which waterway or wetland
is a dumping target, dumping in those sensitive areas can
have serious consequences (see
article).
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