PETITCODIAC RIVER

The 'Petitcodiac River' is a Canadian river located in southeastern New Brunswick.
Because of its colour, it is often nicknamed the "Chocolate River". The river is 129 km long and has a drainage basin of more than 2,000 km². There are approximately 175,000 people living in the watershed.

Contents

River course

Tidal Bore

Fisheries

Cultural Settlement

Causeway

Further reading

External links

River course

It originates in various tributaries throughout the Caledonia Highlands of northwestern Albert County and western Westmorland County. The river itself begins at the village of Petitcodiac where the Annagance River meets the North River.
Major tributaries include:

★ Anagance River

★ Little River

★ North River

★ Pollett River
From Petitcodiac, the river flows due east through a broadening valley past the village of Salisbury and then passing by the cities of Moncton and Dieppe and town of Riverview. At this point the river turns sharply south and drains past the village of Hillsborough before discharging into Shepody Bay at Hopewell Cape.
It is this 90º change in the course of the river at Moncton that gives it the name 'Petiticodiac'; the name is derived from the Mi'kmaq word for "bends like a bow". Incidentally, one of the early names for the settlement that became known as Moncton was "The Bend".

Tidal Bore

The Petitcodiac exhibits one of North America's few tidal bores, a regularly occurring wave that travels up the river on the leading edge of the incoming tide, and hence a tidal wave in the truest sense of the term. The bore is actually caused by the extreme tides of the Bay of Fundy which, due to the rapid rise of water levels, forcibly sends a wave of water flowing upstream in rivers that normally flow into the ocean. This wave can vary in size depending on several factors including lunar phase and atmospheric pressure (storm surge) and is also influenced by the shape and the depth of the river. The incoming bore travels up the river on top of the outgoing water flow.

Fisheries

A commercial fishing industry existed on the Petitcodiac until the late 1960s (see Petitcodiac River Causeway) with species such as the Atlantic Salmon, Gaspereau (Alewife), Smelt and Sturgeon being important.

Cultural Settlement

The lower Petitcodiac River Valley was originally settled by Acadians in the early 18th century and they established a number of farming communities on the shoreline and adjacent marshes. The valley fell under English control during the Seven Years' War, after the fall of Fort Beausejour in 1755. The Acadian population was subsequently expelled with English resettlement beginning in 1766 with the arrival of seven Pennsylvania Dutch families at The Bend (Moncton); re-establishing the pre-existing farming community. Shipbuilding and railways would drive the valley's economy during the 19th and 20th centuries and would lead to the region becoming a major transportation, logistics and manufacturing area in the province.
Commercial shipping on the Petitcodiac River decreased in importance after the end of the wooden shipbuilding era in the 1870's, but the wharves of Moncton and Hillsborough remained active until the middle of the 20th century.

Causeway

:''See also: Petitcodiac River Causeway''
Historically, the river was a tidal estuary downstream from the farming community of Upper Coverdale, approximately 10 kilometres upstream from Moncton-Riverview.
In 1968 the construction of the Petitcodiac River Causeway created a permanent blockage to the natural flow of the river, resulting in the creation of the freshwater 'Lake Petitcodiac' on the upstream side of the causeway. Downstream from the causeway, the river began to fill with silt, reducing the effect of the once-famous tidal bore and severely altering the river course for several kilometres. The river was formerly navigable to medium-sized commercial vessels as far as Moncton, a distance of 50 km from the Bay of Fundy, however siltation caused by the causeway has filled the navigation channel upstream from Hillsborough.
The Petitcodiac River Causeway was constructed in 1968 to supplement the pre-existing Gunningsville Bridge as a connector between Moncton and the growing bedroom community of Riverview. The causeway is about a kilometer long, with only a narrow sluiceway which normally is kept closed in order to create a recreational headpond called 'Lake Petitcodiac'.
The construction of the causeway radically changed the ecosystem of the river with the following effects:

★ Rapid siltation occurred downstream. The river at Moncton was shallow in any event and it did not take much siltation to clog the channel and close the river to navigation.

★ The narrowing of the river channel due to siltation drastically reduced the size of the tidal bore, effectively destroying one of the region's better known tourist attractions.

★ The commercial fishery in the Petitcodiac was obliterated.

★ To add insult to injury, it was decided in the early 1970s to locate the regional garbage landfill to a point along the Moncton shoreline just below the causeway in order to allow for a "land reclamation" project.
By the 1990s, the damage to the river ecosystem was so apparent that activists began to lobby to have the causeway removed, or at least to have the sluice gates opened up for a more natural water flow. This proposal has met with stiff opposition from boaters and from landowners along the shoreline of 'Lake Petitcodiac' who were quite upset that the recreational headpond would be lost.
Proponents seeking the removal of the causeway eventually formed a local chapter of the Riverkeepers movement. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the area on several occasions to lend his support. The landfill was closed and relocated to an area several kilometres away from the river during the 1990s. A number of studies were subsequently commissioned by the Petitcodiac Riverkeeper and also by the provincial and federal governments in order to determine how best to rehabilitate the river, the most comprehensive of which was released in 2005. This study stated in no uncertain terms that the causeway should be removed and replaced with a bridge to allow for natural water flow.
In August 2007, the provincial government announced that the causeway gates would be opened and a 300-metre bridge would be constructed to replace the causeway at a cost of $70 million pending federal assistance.

Further reading

★ Esther Clarke Wright, ''The Petitcodiac'', Sackville: Tribune Press, 1945

★ Edward Larracey, ''Chocolate River; A Story of the Petitcodiac River from the Beginning of Habitation in the Late 1600's Until the Building of the Causeway at Moncton,'' Hantsport N.S. Lancelot Press, 1985

External links

★ Pictures of the Peticodiac River

★ Petitcodiac Watershed Monitoring Group