The Quinnipiac, Considered

Welcome to New Haven — a part not everyone ends up seeing. A new exhibit offers a glimpse.

This tranquil scene is one of many captured by photographs now on display in the City Hall atrium. The exhibits reveals the beauty and connection to nature offered by the Quinnipiac River, its history, its productive shellfishing beds, its industrial pollution — and the individuals who have fought to save it, and are still fighting.

Several dozen river-lovers munched their chicken kabobs and stuffed mushrooms (pictured on the table below the towering centerpiece of Quinnipiac River native flora) and listened to stories about the Q at the opening of the exhibit, ​“Consider the Quinnipiac,” Wednesday evening.

Will Ginsberg, CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (pictured), told the story of how the funding for Christmann’s project — and many others in the past 17 years — was provided through the Quinnipiac River Fund. The fund was set up in 1990 from a settlement with the Upjohn Company, which had been sued for its contamination of the river at its now-closed chemical plant in North Haven. Ginsberg noted that the Q was the first river in Connecticut to have such an endowment, which has distributed $1.4 million since 1992 and is now worth $2 million. He said, ​“Twenty years ago the river itself was known far and wide as the dirtiest river in the state and the Quinnipiac River valley was the industrial backyard of greater New Haven, largely to be exploited and not treasured. That has certainly changed. ​“We have come a great distance but there’s a long way to go,” he concluded, adding that environmental philanthropy is not as developed as in many other arenas.

Ginsberg said the river has often been overlooked as an asset to New Haven and the seven other towns it traverses in its 38-mile trip to Long Island Sound. ​“But not tonight,” he added. He said he hopes the exhibit will encourage people to ​“consider the Quinnipiac, to appreciate it and to protect it.”

He introduced North Haven’s Nancy Alderman (pictured with Gordon Geballe, associate dean of Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies), who told the story of how the settlement with Upjohn came about. She said she had worked for a year, along with the former executive director of Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE), to gather proxy statements from people who owned Upjohn stock. She herself bought two shares, which enabled her to speak at the company’s annual meeting in Michigan, representing shareholders with a total of 110,000 shares of stock. She told the company’s movers and shakers that people in North Haven had been trying for almost a decade to find out what Upjohn was releasing into the air that was creating noxious fumes. She noted that air pollution was the main problem, but it was discharges into the Q River that allowed CFE to sue the company. Instead of a new speech, Alderman read the audience the same statement she had read at the shareholders’ meeting. Click here to listen.

For two years, Ian Christmann (pictured), who lives at the river’s mouth in Fair Haven, took photos of ​“moments” on the Quinnipiac River. He photographed the river in different seasons, its natural habitat, and human impacts, both positive and negative. He thanked his wife for letting him run out ​“chasing a sunset or a snowstorm, or somebody in a raft on the river or the guy who made his own boat. Most of what was taking place on the river was moments, and those you can’t plan for, you can just respond to.”

The only photos in the exhibit that Christmann didn’t shoot were historical pictures provided by Joe Taylor (pictured) and Colin M. Caplan.

Native Americans lived along the river from ancient times. European settlers also exploited its abundant fishing and shellfishing grounds. They built communities along the river, and they contributed pollution along the way, from millions of tires in a tire pond to chemicals from factories and surface runoff.

New Haven’s Cordalie Benoit is a member of the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association and the New Haven Land Trust, which owns property along the river, so she knows a lot about it, but she said the photos added another dimension. ​“These pictures bring it to the heart, and they really make you realize that despite the degradation, it’s still a very, very beautiful place.”

This reporter has many fond memories of the Q: Capsizing (twice) on the QRWA​’s maiden outing on the Canoeable Trail one November day several years ago. Getting lost in the upper river basin while surveying the wildest lands you could never imagine in Connecticut. Accompanying ten girls in my Inner City Outings group as they stocked the most beautiful trout along three spots in the river last year on the opening day of fishing season. Squealing and dropping their five-gallon buckets as the foot-long fish splashed inside.

This exhibit, which will travel to other towns in the river’s watershed, will perhaps encourage other residents to ​“consider the Quinnipiac,” and to treasure it.