DATELINE: Cooper River Park

Cooper River Park overcame tainted past

Reprinted from the Courier-Post, April 24, 2000

Photos by AL SCHELL / Courier-Post

The Hopkins House Gallery, on the south side of the Cooper River in Collingswood, is just one of the attractions of Cooper River Park. The park spans four municipalities and 346.55 acres.

By CARL A. WINTER
Courier-Post Staff

The story of Cooper River park is one of a comeback - particularly for its prime feature, the Cooper River.

"Twenty-five years ago, you dare not step into the water, " said Camden County Freeholder Annette Castiglione-Degan, who oversees the parks. "Now, we host triathlons there, and soon three national rowing championships."

Because it has a 1.25 mile straightaway protected from currents or crosswinds, the Cooper River between Cuthbert Boulevard and Route 130 has been selected as the site of this year's NCAA women's championship, the Intercollegiate Rowing Association's men's championship and the U.S. Olympic trials.

That means hundreds of athletes and thousands of onlookers will be drawn to the usually tranquil acres along the historic creek, displacing the park's usual joggers and lunchtime picnickers.

That's quite a change from 1976.

In that Bicentennial year, a wagon train headed for Philadelphia camped out in the park.

But the horses were not allowed to drink from the river. It was too polluted.

Boaters who fell into the river during that time were wise to get gamma globulin shots to prevent hepatitis.

Now, the water is swimming safe - thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972.

It mandated that all sewage treatment plants that dumped inadequately treated effluent into the river be replaced, which gave birth to the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority in the mid-1970s.

The river and its tributary creeks are as clean now as they have been in a century.

People started settling along its banks in the 1690s, and almost immediately Cooper and Newton creeks became important waterways for farmers to transport goods to Philadelphia markets and for local merchants to move goods back.

By the time Camden had broken away from Gloucester County in the 1840s, the river was already choked with the byproducts of humankind.

The park was not a return to nature but a human invention - thanks to the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency designed to put people to work on such projects as post offices and parks.

WPA workers took swampland surrounding a creek and reshaped it with heavy equipment.

They built a dam, moved tons of earth, filled in the swamp and shaped the creek into the narrow lake that now graces the park.

SHELDON L. SNEED / Courier-Post

But the new park had a cloud over it.

As Delaware Township grew from a rural town to become the suburb known as Cherry Hill, its inadequate sewage treatment plant dumped poorly treated effluent into the river.

It was one of several towns to do that, and the river became dangerous to swim in or eat fish from.

Camden County residents have known about the river's - and the park's - comeback for years. A sign of the return is the growth of what was once a concession stand into The Lobster Trap restaurant.

Another, Freeholder Castiglione-Degan said, is the growing attendance at concerts at nearby Jack Curtis Stadium.

Maintaining the river takes constant work, the freeholder said. "The environmentalists hold our feet to the fire, and that's a good thing."

The benches at Cooper River Park Stadium
are a perfect spot for Simon Marks of Pennsauken
to relax and catch some rays.

The string of rowing events began Saturday with the Atlantic 10 Women's Championship and concludes Sept. 9-10 with the USRowing Masters National Championship.

The three premier events - the two collegiate championships and the Olympic trials - will take place in May and June.

Recreational sailors skim over Cooper River on a recent spring day. The river is a mecca for sailing enthusiasts and has developed a reputation as a world-class competitive rowing venue.

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