Lawrence residents complain Spicket River stinks from garbage

LAWRENCE, Mass. — Dawn Costigan said she won’t let her 11-year-old son go anywhere near Spicket River.

“There’s [sports] balls there, propane tanks, there’s so much trash, it’s horrible,” Costigan said.

Costigan and other longtime Lawrence residents said river pollution has been an issue for years, but more people lately are complaining about the odor accompanying all that floating garbage.

“Sometimes over here it smells like a dead body,” resident Ann Cooney said. “They’re trashing and polluting it, and it’s disgusting.”

The 17-mile long Spicket River runs from New Hampshire into the Merrimack River, cutting through the City of Lawrence along the way. On Monday evening, mattresses, propane tanks, children’s toys, a plastic lawn chair and other garbage and debris were visible from a bridge on Haverhill Street near the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center.

The forecast in Lawrence Tuesday calls for heavy rain. Costigan said floods often push all that trash into the streets.

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“It floods up here, and then you get all the backwash and all that nasty stuff coming up our way,” Costigan said.

Rocky Morrison, founder of the Clean River Project, said the pollution in the Spicket River is severe and needs be dealt with.

“There’s couches, TVs, tires and a lot more upriver waiting to come down,” Morrison said. “I get a lot of complaints from the residents. They call us at our office and complain about this all the time, but there’s only so much funding that goes into a small river like this.”

Costigan said it’s not just the trash that bothers her, but the message it sends to her 11-year-old son.

“People just don’t care. People are lazy and disgusting and they just don’t care that they are ruining our environment,” she said.

Acting Lawrence Mayor Kendrys Vasquez did not respond to an email requesting comment.

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