National Guard Cleans Abandoned Cars Out of Neponset River in Norwood-August 8, 1994

Canton Rotary Club’s Adopt-A-Stream Program Teams Up with Bridgewater Engineering Unit to Remove Decades-Old Rusted Vehicles Off Route 1

NORWOOD — On a sunny Saturday morning along the winding banks of the Neponset River, a front-end loader strained against a rusted car axle embedded deep in the muddy riverbank off Route 1 near Vanderbilt Avenue. When the metal caught on tall, narrow trees, National Guard Sgt. Joseph Boutin stepped forward with a chainsaw, made a clean slice through the stubborn trunks, and freed the axle. Boutin was part of a 10-member crew from the Bridgewater-based Charlie Company 101 Engineers who spent four hours hauling six rusted, decades-old cars and car parts out of the water.

The successful environmental cleanup was organized as part of the Canton Rotary Club’s ongoing Adopt-A-Stream Program, which has worked since 1991 to clear the river stretch from Foxboro to Boston for swimming and fishing. Club member Ken Beauregard, who heads Canton’s river initiative, explained that the operation began after a canoeist reported the submerged vehicles last year. Because dense overgrowth prevented standard tow trucks from reaching the site, organizers spent a year coordinating with Norwood selectmen, the conservation commission, and the National Guard to orchestrate the volunteer extraction.

For the Guardsmen, the community service project offered valuable hands-on training. Sgt. Michael Abington noted that removing the junk cars makes the river safer and more pleasurable for canoeing, while Sgt. Frank Delongchamps and Sgt. Boutin emphasized that operating heavy machinery in tight quarters provided ideal nonemergency practice for building temporary roadways or clearing forest obstacles. Following the extraction, Tom’s Auto Transport of Stoughton hauled the scrap metal to a Bridgewater recycling facility free of charge. Beauregard noted that the vehicles likely dated back 15 to 20 years, having been abandoned or illegally dumped in an era when discarding cars was common practice for fraudulent insurance claims.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger