The midnight dumper who snuck down to a bank of the Connecticut River might have thought that “out of sight, out of mind” applied to tons of construction debris.
It doesn’t. The discovery last week that someone had defiled a reach of river in Hadley has triggered a multi-town and multi-agency investigation. We hope the person or persons responsible for this particularly egregious case of illegal dumping are held to account.
There’s a chance they will. The dump site isn’t that easy to find, suggesting that someone had local knowledge of the narrow and steep access road that runs west from the intersection of Stockwell Road and River Drive.
And while there are plenty of broken appliances tossed out everyday, it’s not often someone is called upon to dispose of a massive pile of construction debris – so much of it that heaps of broken concrete pieces lie strewn over 75 feet. Someone needed heavy equipment to commit this environmental atrocity. That may help narrow the field of suspects. The access road lies on the east side of the river well away from I-91, making it an unlikely target for someone just passing through the region.
The property’s owner, Edward Gralinski Jr., is rightly upset, as are Hadley officials. The town just held a communitywide cleanup ahead of Memorial Day. The state Department of Environmental Protection well knows the ways of midnight dumpers and it, too, is on the case.
This affront is hardly out of sight. The rubble sits in plain sight for those who travel the river, an ugly memorial of someone’s disregard for others.