By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Four months since the 100-year flood in May, Epsom selectmen are hopeful about a new grant proposal for money to study the effects of the Suncook River’s change of course.

“It’s a hurry-up-and-wait kind of situation,” said Epsom Selectmen Co-chairman Joni Kitson.

Grant deadline

In August, state Department of Environmental Services representatives approached the board about the opportunity for a watershed restoration grant, 60 percent of which would be federally funded. Selectmen have until Friday, Sept. 15, to submit the grant proposal.

The restoration studies would provide much-needed data about water quality, habitat and the physical characteristics of the river, said DES Rivers Coordinator Steve Couture.

Study being done

Such information has been purely speculative since the Suncook forged through one of its banks on May 15 and 16, and carved a new mile-long course through a sand and gravel pit before returning to the channel it’s been following since the ice age.

Couture said the studies would provide a comprehensive look at how the rivers’ ecology ­ both upstream and downstream of the breach ­ is evolving.

“You’re looking at the physical characteristics of the river, and at what it wants to do in a particular location,” he said.

What it would cost

Couture estimated the cost of the studies to be about $75,000 to $80,000, and said the grant hinges on local sources obtaining the remaining 40 percent of the total cost.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department may be able to contribute some money, said Couture, but the town of Epsom would have to foot the rest of the bill.

“Ten- to 15 thousand (dollars) would be the minimum the town would have to provide,” said Couture.

Kitson said it’s not yet decided where the town’s contribution may come from ­ whether it would be built into the operating budget or put to voters in the form of a warrant article at Town Meeting in March.

Warner residents approved a $10,000 warrant article when they were looking to match the watershed restoration grant, Couture said.

Kitson said that discussion may be premature.

“It’s a competitive grant, so we’re taking it as it goes,” said Kitson. “Everything has been kind of bing, bang, boom so far.”

Two attempts by DES to secure federal funding for river studies since the floods have already been unsuccessful.

The department made a request for technical assistance to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aquatic ecosystem restoration program. The Corps responded that the project fit their eligibility requirements, but the Corps was too short on congressional funding for the year, said Couture.

A request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also fell by the wayside.

“This just didn’t seem to fit any of their funding sources,” said Couture. “It’s not every day that a river creates a new path.”

Changes caused by flood

In the meantime, scientists from a number of local agencies have been analyzing aspects of the river since its change.

A group of scientists ­ including one from Saint Anselm College ­ has transported more than 1,000 endangered mussels found after the breach caused a portion of the riverbed downstream to go dry.

The brook floater mussels were transported north to the Suncook in Chichester.

Scientists from the University of New Hampshire have been monitoring the water quality on a weekly basis, said Couture, and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department has tracked fish populations since the floods.

Support for rerouting river

Just weeks after the floods, a crowd of people gathered at a selectmen’s meeting showed an almost unanimous show of hands in support of returning the river to its former course.

“That’s not completely ruled out ­ the studies could show us things we’re not even thinking right now,” said Couture.

As things stand, however, “From an eco-restoration argument, it would be a hard case to make,” Couture said.

Problems linger

As scientists target the river, and as local government agencies try to track down funding, problems above and beyond the riverbed linger.

Epsom Water Commissioner Gary Kitson said one of the town’s two wells has been largely inaccessible since floodwaters carried sand and silt to the area of Water Street, near Epsom Central School.

Tests of the wells’ water quality have returned with good results, said Kitson, but parking and access to the well need to be rebuilt.

“We’re going to fix up the area, and hopefully we won’t get 14 inches of rain in 10 days again,” Kitson said.

Safety officials are still concerned about fire coverage north of the breach, in the area of the Route 4 traffic circle.

What was a slowly meandering path of water has turned essentially to rapids, as the water moves more quickly toward its new course, bypassing two 19th century dams.

The low water levels give the fire department little supply from which to draft, said Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton.

“There’s nothing to hold the water back,” he said.

Yeaton said the fire department has changed its mutual aid plan so that tankers from other departments could assist emergencies in the area.

“We’re planning for the worst and hoping for the best,” said Yeaton.

Yeaton is also one of the many property owners who’ve been adversely affected by the rerouting of the river.

He, along with his brother and school board member Bill Yeaton, run a dairy farm which was flooded by the river’s new path.

The brothers are short about 800 tons of feed this year, said Yeaton, after the floodwaters dumped silt and debris throughout their cornfields.

“We’re doing our best,” said Yeaton.