My Beloved Reservoirs

Last week I drove up and down the streets where I first fell in love with the town of Framingham. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried to see the beautiful vistas and amazing wildlife views forever lost to me. I still long to live in a place that looks so much like paradise. One of the homes I wanted desperately had this picture for an advertisement:


Who wouldn't fall in love?



This is the gatehouse on Dam #1 of Reservoir #1 (Stearns Reservoir), located off Winter Street north of Long Avenue in Framingham - definitely one of our favorite spot when we lived on Salem End Road because we walked here from the apartment on many an evening!



I saw a Bittern taking a shower in the falls once, and my husband saw the same sight on another occasion. It was glorious! Another photographer caught a Great Blue Heron showering in the falls, but I can't find the author to get permission to use his amazing photo!

A view of the reservoir itself:



I experimented with my new telephoto lens (which I suck at using, I know), but I did capture a swan hanging out with a family of Canadian Geese across the reservoir. I would never had seen them otherwise!



Another picture of the falls:



Across the street is another small maintenance facility.



Which is right next to the path where my husband and I often walked in the evening.



Last week I saw two mallards across the street(both males, and all pretty poor photos!)







and I saw a cheerful springtime Robin!



I hate to be negative, but in the spirit of Earth Week, I feel compelled to remind people that all is not well here. There are scary signs everywhere:



REMEMBER THAT THE PROBLEM OF NYANZA DOESN'T END AT FRAMINGHAM'S BORDERS. SUDBURY, CONCORD, WAYLAND, LINCOLN, AND OTHER "HIGH END" TOWNS ARE EQUALLY AFFECTED!

Why?



All the water you see tumbling over these falls is water being released into the grand Sudbury River. The water is a combination of water from Reservoir #2 (flowing north directly from the Nyanza site) and water from Reservoir #3 (flowing southeast from the Foss reservoir in Framingham and the Sudbury Reservoir in Southborough).



Once released into the Sudbury River, the contaminated water travels north for at least 26 miles. Mercury from Nyanza has been found at elevated levels in Great Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary (a federal sanctuary located Sudbury and in other towns listed above).

Nyanza and other toxins are problems for all of us! A million dollar home can't save you. Ignoring these issues won't help.