For decades the back cover of the college catalog featured a photograph of a stone bridge crossing the Devon River. Fund raising brochures and alumni publications often include pictures of students admiring Devon Falls on the north side of the campus. The river is as much associated with the college as Old Main and the hundred-year-old clock tower.¹ The Devon's grassy banks have been popular places for students to relax, picnic, read, or sunbathe. The Devon has been one of the college's main draws. Campus visitors are universally drawn by the sound of water rushing over massive boulders to the river bank.

Now massive development has come to the Devon River.² The university has approved construction of a 300 room dorm along the river, clearing ten across of woodland for the building and parking lot. Upriver, the county's largest subdivision, Devoncrest, nears completion. Some 200 condominiums and 450 apartments will be occupied by next spring. The surge in population will greatly increase the amount of sewage flowing into the fifty-seven-year-old treatment plant at English Beach.³ In addition, new storm sewers will feed more water into the river, as will runoff from the new parking lots being built on the banks.⁴

The Riverwest project on the opposite shore will have even a greater impact on the Devon. Three high-rise office towers and a new shopping mall with parking for 800 cars will occupy a half-mile strip of newly cleared riverbank. Designed on an incline, the mall parking lots will send rainwater cascading into the river, eroding the denuded riverbank. Already mud slides have shorn ten feet off the edge. In winter tons of snow will likely be plowed from the new parking lots and dumped into the river. ⁵

This development will cause the narrow Devon River to flood in the spring. Five years ago the state erected a series of levees to protect the marshes from floods and possible oil spills. These levees protect the bird sanctuary very effectively, but they limit the marshland's ability to act like a mammoth sponge, which previously absorbed much of the spring runoff.

As a result, we can expect flooding as more water enters the river near the new parking lots. ⁶ Mud slides will add to the problems. The sewage treatment plant, located on the flood plain, may be easily overwhelmed and release raw sewage into the bay. Sewage spills could contaminate beaches and have a dramatic effect on fishing, boating, and tourism. The value of beach property could plummet.⁷

In our rush to capitalize on the beauty of our river, we are threatening the bay, which generates jobs and income. We must lobby the university and developers to take steps now to limit runoff from parking lots and to plant fresh vegetation to prevent further erosion of the riverbanks. If steps are not taken now, the new condos and office towers will overlook nothing but a stream of mud and debris. ⁸

1. How effective is the introduction? Does the student assume readers are familiar with the campus and the Devon River?
2. This essay was directed to a local audience. How would it have to be revised for a wider readership unfamiliar with the campus?
3. What transitional devices does the student use?
4. Where does the student use persuasion?
5. How does the student establish the value of the river? Are enough details provided to prompt readers to see the river as a precious resource? How effective is word choice and connotation in describing the river and dramatizing the environmental threats?

1. Introduction offers background to issue and establishes value of river.   (back)
2. Describes change to environment.
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3. Effect of new construction.
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4. Environmental effect of new construction.
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5. Effect of new construction.
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6. Result of construction.
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7. Economic impact of pollution.
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8. Conclusion ending essay with persuasive call to action to save river.
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