Group Leads Tour
Of ‘Orange River’

This past summer the West Branch of the Ompompanoosuc River has turned more orange than usual, possibly as a result of work done at the Elizabeth Mine Superfund Site.

Now interested citizens are invited to see for themselves during an "Orange River Tour."

"The purpose of this Superfund project, whose cost to date is over $18 million, is to improve the water quality in the West Branch," said John Freitag of Citizens for a Sensible Solution, which has opposed many aspects of the Superfund program. "Unfortunately things have gone terribly wrong," he said.

On Saturday Sept. 8 at 2 p.m. Citizens for a Sensible Solution will lead a guided tour of the Ompompanoosuc, including stops at the confluence with Copperas Brook and two testing stations downstream.

The tour will leave from the corner of Rte.132 and Furnace Flat Road (about two miles southeast of South Strafford Village) There is no cost, but participants are advised to wear hiking shoes.

The orange color in the river is due to suspended minerals, mostly iron, that are present in the waste piles, called "tailings" at the former copper mine site. The mine, once one of the biggest copper sources in the East, closed in the mid-1950s.

The discoloration, experts say, has no impact on human health, but the dissolved minerals may negatively affect the aquatic biota, the tiny plants at the beginning of the food chain.