Repayment ((better)): Mia River

“You don’t just restore a river,” she says, standing at a newly constructed fish passage. “You apologize to it. You show up every day. That is the repayment.”

The results are tangible. This spring, for the first time since 1992, a tagged sturgeon was found spawning above the old Harlowe Dam site. Farmers downstream have reported lower veterinary bills, as livestock are no longer drinking contaminated seep water. The Repayment’s final phase—a $12 million wetland reconstruction—is the most ambitious. Skeptics call it a boondoggle. Supporters call it the minimum moral obligation. mia river repayment

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That loan came due in 2018, when a fish kill stretching fourteen miles wiped out the shad and herring runs. Tests revealed heavy metals and siltation at ten times the legal limit. The Mia River was technically alive, but it was bankrupt. “You don’t just restore a river,” she says,

“We asked, ‘What does the river need to be made whole?’” explains Dr. Lena Akayo, director of the Mia Watershed Collective. “The answer was 1.2 million cubic yards of dredged material removed, 8,000 linear feet of buffer replanted, and the removal of two obsolete dams.” That is the repayment