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By Jill Kaufman

At 400 miles long the Connecticut River is one of the biggest water bodies in our region, stretching from Canada to Long Island Sound. It starts out narrow enough to leap across and widens into a broad estuary. People today water ski and kayak on the Connecticut, but raw sewage is still dumped in places. And in many communities people are cut off from the river by Interstate-91 or railroad tracks. A group of river enthusiasts are trying to draw people closer to the Connecticut in an unusual way. As part of a collaboration with Northeast stations through NPR’s Local News Initiative, WFCR’s Jill Kaufman reports on a Connecticut River song-writing contest.