For Marion Stoddard, Creating Hope is an Obligation, Randolph T. Holhut, American Reporter
The hope and hard work of a sole, determined person helped transform the Nashua River from a beautifully landscaped sewer to a natural treasure, writes American Reporter correspondent Randolph Holhut. Marion Stoddart moved to Groton, Massachusetts in 1962, into a house that the 'ecologically dead' Nashua River slugged past. At the time, the Nashua was one of the 10 most polluted rivers in America: Its color changed daily, and animals could walk across it on the paper pulp coating the top. Stoddart was appalled -- and impelled. She formed the Nashua River Cleanup Committee, prompting a Clean Water Act in 1966 to quell area mills' dumping practices. In 1969, the Committee became the Nashua River Watershed Association, creating a long-term plan to keep the river and its surrounding banks clean. 'We have to work just as hard to maintain what we've achieved,' Stoddard told Holhut from their canoes on the Nashua, 'and ever harder to make it better.'
--Abbie Jarman
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