Taking Good Care of Our Rivers
Commentary by Mary Illick
November 4, 2010, page 2.....

All of Charlotte’s river conditions are mapped, and management guidance is now available.  But I am discouraged because well-educated Charlotters have not been compelled to understand and respond to this information. It shows where to avoid hazards and property loss due to predictable flooding and river erosion/migration in our town. I do not understand why the town has chosen not to use this information from the State of Vermont, which has one of the best river management programs in the country. The Lewis Creek Association (LCA) has provided this information free of charge to Charlotte planners, landowners and Selectboard members for some years now. While LCA and landowners in other towns have successfully applied this new information to river conservation efforts, Charlotte somehow seems not to care.
 The affordable housing project on the Laplatte floodplain and the Lewis Quinlan Bridge restoration project, a combined investment equivalent to one million-plus dollars, are examples of not using river corridor guidance information. Somehow, with best available science in hand, Charlotte is moving ahead while knowing this million-dollar investment is vulnerable to loss due to predicted flood and stream migration hazards in the areas of building investment. The town was informed that this could cost us dearly tomorrow or in 20 years.  And the icing on the cake today is that Charlotters now know that risks are even higher with more extreme weather events to come due to “peak oil” and climate change. Yet Charlotte passively chooses to act without safety and avoidance in mind. Do we relish risk, are we just wealthy enough to pay another bill to “fix it,” or do we think Uncle Sam will just save the day? Are we thinking of ourselves before our children? I honestly do not know.
 If I could make a wish come true, people would come to life, choose to observe their relationship to the land and rivers around them, and take good care. They would find a way for their Lewis Creek and LaPlatte River to have all the space they need to regain their beautiful and long-lost meander patterns. They would remind themselves of the recent Bristol-Lincoln floods and FEMA’s disaster in New Orleans’ ninth ward. They would not have to be egged on to provide for more floodplain access at the Quinlan Bridge before spending $500,000 to repair it, and they would, without a blink, buy the development rights along the LaPlatte at Spear Street to keep future Charlotte families out of harm’s way. They would let the Laplatte regain its rightful flood storage lands so Shelburne and Hinesburg Villages would be safer and more affordable as places to live. They would see the simplicity and cost savings of how green infrastructure can save the day and keep small town government challenges focused on libraries, schools and nice meeting places.

Marty Illick, Executive Director,
Lewis Creek Association