Fall-In

Dartmouth is shrinking. Dartmouth is floating away.

The College-owned land below Occom Ridge declines at a steep angle into the Connecticut River, making the soily bank particularly susceptible to erosion. Three decades ago, when the New England Power Company backed up the river waters by building Wilder Dam, it agreed to line Dartmouth's river bank property with rip-rap, fist-sized chunks of rock, to minimize erosion.

Two years ago, part of the fortification collapsed. Soil and trees have been sloughing into the river ever since. A delegation from the Connecticut River Watershed Council took a canoe trip in late August to inspect the fall-in. According to one of the members, the erosion has resulted from rapid draw-downs of water levels by the power company and from power boat waves which pummel the shoreline. Dartmouth apparently has not discussed the problem with the power company or local boat owners. "Maybe we're not diligent," says Gordon DeWitt '60, director of planning at the College. The soil conservation service took a look at the problem over a year ago and submitted recommendations for seeding the river bank.

The problem is not confined to Dartmouth. The shoreline of other property owners also is slipping into the Connecticut. But Carolyn Tenney, a member of the Hanover Conservation Council, says that natural forces, over time, eventually stabilize erosion.