35 Years at NHDES: Walt Henderson

In honor of NHDES’ 35th anniversary, we are asking staff who have been here since the agency’s formation to look back at their time here and what they see for our future. In this edition, we hear from Walter Henderson Jr., the Limnology Center Coordinator at NHDES. Walt started in 1986 with the Water Supply & Pollution Control Commission, which became part of NHDES in 1987, as a Water Pollution Technician.

What made you want to work at NHDES in the first place?

I have always been an outside type of person. I wanted to work with/in the environmental field since for as long as I can remember. I wanted to make and leave this world a better place.

My major was in Wildlife Management but at the time of my graduation there were few, if any, jobs in that field. I found a temporary job with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, working on the restoration of Atlantic Salmon to the Merrimack River. I then found employment with New Hampshire Fish and Game (NHFG) raising trout and salmon at one of their hatcheries. After a while I realized with my wife’s help that this was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. We saw an ad in the newspaper (yep, that’s how you found jobs back then) for a job in the Water Supply and Pollution Control Commission. After a few phone calls, I determined that this would be a position that would allow me to work on making the environment and the world a better place. 

How many and what types of positions have you held at the agency?

I have had three different positions, all three are similar in a broad way. As a technician, I helped conduct limnological surveys on New Hampshire’s great ponds. I also did toxicity testing on effluents being discharged into our rivers and streams from businesses. Back then many companies discharged wastewater into the rivers. Many of these discharges were proven to be quite harmful to the ecosystem. We worked with companies to clean up the discharges and improve the water quality of the rivers.  When I became a biologist, I continued to do limnological surveys, but handed the biotoxicity monitoring over to another person. The Biologist II position took me away from doing some of the lake survey work, and I started concentrating on exotic species within our lakes, ponds and rivers. This position also has me helping in the management and operation of the Jody Connor Limnology Center. All three positions have allowed me to work outside in the field where I always wanted to be; I was never meant to get behind a desk.

What were the biggest environmental challenges of the day when you first started?

Acid rain and industrial effluents were the highest priorities. It was not uncommon for the rain to have a pH in the high 3’s or low 4’s when I started; now most are in the mid to upper 5’s and we even see some just over 6 now, it has been quite the change for the better and proof that we can do something that will change our environment in a positive way. At that time there were a lot of industrial discharges into our waterways. We used daphnia (water fleas) as a barometer to measure the toxicity of the effluent. I can remember a few that even at a 50% dilution killed all the test subjects in less than 24 hours. Now all discharges have permit requirements that require pre-treatment or actions before it can be returned to the rivers or lakes. 

What do you feel has been the biggest environmental advancement over the last 35 years?

I would have to say the implementation and compliance with both the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts. Both have acted to greatly improve our environment. Close behind (very close) are the technological advancements in equipment and monitoring. We can now chemically look at effluents and not have to subject water fleas and fish to possible death. We can gather data sometimes continuous, using sondes and probes without having to have a person in the water. There are so many new (and for the most part better) ways to treat water, to control nutrients. We now use a lot less chemicals, and a lot more electronics in our testing. With computers, wireless networks, cell phones, etc., data can be collected and stored and analyzed much quicker than before.

How has the agency changed over the last 35 years?(The good, the bad, the size of the agency, the focus of the agency, etc.)

The size part is a no-brainer. When I started, what is now called the biology section of the Watershed Management Bureau consisted of five people. Now it has 12 people. And under normal conditions during the summer months that number is doubled by interns hired to help with the project and sampling load. It is similar with other sections within NHDES, too. As more and more issues are brought into focus, we have created more and new positions to handle them.

Over the years we have done much good: the reduction of acid rain; the reduction of sewage or wastewater being directly added to our lakes and rivers; the reduction of atmospheric transport and deposition of mercury; better underground storage to reduce the amount of gas, oil, and other chemicals from leaking into the soils and groundwater; and solid waste management has really changed. We used to just throw everything into a landfill. Now we recycle and create energy from waste. And NHDES is continuing in that direction.

Another good, and I speak for my section, are the volunteer programs we have started and are now in place and working well. Both the Volunteer Lake Assessment Program as well as the Volunteer River Assessment Program (VLAP and VRAP) have made it possible to get samples from so many more sites compared to when it was just our field personnel. We used to get 30 to 40 lakes a year while now we have 100+ lakes that have volunteers sampling for us.

Is there a project that you worked on that you are particularly proud of?

Not really, I have worked on so many, and I am proud of all of them. In the beginning, the lake survey work I did was just to establish baseline data on the condition of our lakes and to start a database that would after multiple years of surveying tell us if a particular lake was changing and in what way over time. I am proud of that because without that data we would have nothing to compare new data to and make suggestions to keep the lake from deteriorating more or faster.

I’m proud of the many diagnostic and feasibility studies we did on our lakes to determine inputs and issues that were causing the degradation of that lake. Beaver Lake in Derry put sewer lines in around the lake after our study showed the failing or leaking septic systems around the lake were contributing to algae problems. They also implemented changes in watershed management to reduce nutrient runoff from entering the tributaries and the lake. The Webster Lake study led to changes in logging procedures and other agricultural runoff issues that were determined to be causing a decline in water quality. 

What do you think the biggest environmental priorities for the next 5, 10, 15 or 35 years? And what do you think NHDES can do to tackle these challenges?

The biggest I think will be climate change followed by water conservation and purification. As time moves forward, I think landfill leachates and solid waste disposal will continue to evolve as an issue, invasive species will continue to be an issue, and habitat protection/restoration will become more important. I also think ocean preservation will become more of an issue.  

I think NHDES will need to continue to hire bright and enthusiastic people who are eager to take on these issues. Continue to work with the federal government, other states, and universities to keep up to date with new and upcoming methodologies, and to boldly go forward with new technologies. We have done a good job of being at the forefront of technology and ways it can be used to aid the environment. More than once I have heard that we were the first or one of the first to try out something, and we will need to continue in this way. We should embrace early detection rapid response. It is much easier to take care of issues as quick as possible; the longer one waits to act the more action they will need to take.

If you were making a “Back to the Future II” where they go ahead in time 35 years, what futuristic invention would you include that would help our environment?

I think they came up with one of the best options in the garbage-to-fuel fusion devices (Mr. Fusion). Converting waste, both food and non-food waste into clean non-polluting power solves a group of issues. Landfills and their waste byproducts, clean air, free power, freedom from fossil fuels. The clean air would lead to cleaner water as fewer air-born contaminates would be deposited. Although this still would lead to an issue later on, if we convert matter to energy, that matter disappears and does not come back (no recycling) and eventually the world would start running out of minerals, nutrients, etc. If I had to come up with something different, I would probably come back with something that made de-salination and water purification cheaper and cleaner. I do believe one of our biggest issues in the future will be having enough clean water for drinking as well as farming. As polar icecaps thaw, we are slowly diluting the oceans, a device that could create freshwater for drinking or irrigation while also returning the removed chemicals to the oceans may give us needed fresh water and allow the oceans to maintain their salinity levels so that marine life will not be impacted.