Connecticut River Watershed Committee  

Chair

Elizabeth Davis

Reporting on and advocating for Connecticut River health.

The Amherst League’s update/restudy of our existing sixty-year-old position on the Connecticut River was instigated by Elizabeth Davis in conjunction with the relicensing of five hydroelectric facilities on the Connecticut River.

The Amherst League of Women Voters voted to conduct a re-study/update of our existing position entitled “Connecticut River Basin Inter-League Program. ” The current position that was adopted in 1965 and 1966 does not reference climate change or the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Facility.

Our League’s involvement began about four years ago and culminated with the submission of our position statement to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in April 2024; and our statement to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in February 2025.

Those statements were based primarily on that 1965/1966 position plus the LWVUS climate change position. At the time that our existing position was adopted there was very little general discussion about climate change; further, the Northfield Mountain pumped storage facility had not yet been constructed (that did not happen until the mid 1970s). It became increasingly clear that our old position, in most respects excellent and relevant to today’s environmental conditions, needed to be updated taking into account the environmental and other changes that had occurred in the past sixty years.