Thank you to the over 200 supporters for coming out against sewage pollution at the November 15th CSO Meeting #3.
Many Somerville supporters came out! Cambridge was there! Arlington showed up! Folks from Belmont and Medford and Winchester were there! There is power in numbers and over 300 supporters registered for this meeting. Thank you.
Residents of Somerville and Cambridge care deeply about the Alewife Brook and want the sewage pollution to end. This is a regional issue that doesn’t end at the cities’ municipal borders.
MWRA, Cambridge, and Somerville presented options they are considering for CSO control but there are no specific proposals yet. However, it is clear that Cambridge needs to finish their sewer separation work. And Somerville needs to be more aggressive about sewer separation work in the Alewife sewershed.
You can watch the video of the meeting here.
CLIMATE CHANGE IS BEING CONSIDERED IN THE PLAN!
Cambridge has been doing amazing Climate Change research with Dr. Indrani Ghosh. Dr. Ghosh’s work shows more future rain, and a predicted increase of two to four times as much Alewife Brook CSO sewage pollution by 2050. And we will see drought years, as well as rainy years. The Brook smells really bad during drought conditions, when the CSO sediment is exposed to open air.
It is so important that Climate Change is being considered in the planning. We deeply appreciate that EPA required that.
Save the Alewife Brook and the Charles River Watershed Association made it clear that we want the planners to include larger storms in their Future Typical Year modeling. This could result in less sewage pollution.
MWRA CAN FIX THE PROBLEM!
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s representative Jeremy Hall proposed several effective approaches to addressing the Alewife CSOs. Mr. Hall stated that the most aggressive approach to the CSO problem is what they call “conveyance.”
Conveyance is system pipe and facilities upgrades and improvements. This would help address the fact that the MWRA’s regional sewer system is already failing to meet capacity. It will need to be upgraded to meet future demands. The state needs to start planning NOW for the future! The densely populated and flood-prone Alewife neighborhoods should not be used as an open sewer just because MWRA wants to save money.
Jeremy Hall also presented the CSO storage option and used the Union Park CSO Detention and Treatment Facility as an example. The Union Park storage tank exists on a 1.3 acre site. It includes a CSO treatment facility and a 2.2 million gallon CSO storage tank. And it is situated right next to an MWRA pump station. Similarly, the Alewife’s Dilboy Park is located next to the MWRA’s Alewife Brook Pump Station. Dilboy Park is 22.65 acres and is located on State land.
A BOLD GREEN STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN!
The Charles River Watershed Association and Somerville Environmentalists successfully rallied for a more bold Green Stormwater Infrastructure plan to reduce flooding and sewage pollution, along with all of the community benefits of GSI.
MYSTIC RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION ASKS FOR COMPLETE CSO ELIMINATION!
Patrick Herron, Director of MyRWA, closed the meeting by asking that the planners set a goal of CSO elimination.
Addendum & Planning timeline
The Massachusetts Legislature created the MWRA in 1984 to manage and modernize the Boston metropolitan area water and sewer system, for the preservation and improvement of the health, welfare and living conditions of the citizenry. The MWRA has done wonderful work for Boston Harbor, but has completely failed in the Alewife sub-watershed. Because the Alewife has been neglected for so long, it will require additional investment and effort to fix the problem.
