Zach Crowley, David White, Steven Nutter, Gwen Speeth, Brian Arrigo, Gene Benson, David Stoff in front of the flooded-out Alewife Greenway path. Photo credit: Kristin Anderson
DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION & RECREATION, SAVE THE ALEWIFE BROOK, & GREEN CAMBRIDGE Take A Tour of Alewife Sewage Pollution, Flooding, & Inequity
A Perfectly Stormy Day
A storm rolled up the eastern seaboard and into Boston on Monday, December 18, 2023. This was the day of our Alewife Tour with the new Commissioner of the Department of Conservation & Recreation, Brian Arrigo, and his Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Public Affairs, and Administration, Zach Crowley. The state-owned parkland along the Alewife Brook is managed by DCR, which is why we were so excited about meeting the new DCR Commissioner.
The weather made this an epic meeting, and a remarkable opportunity to offer DCR Commissioner Arrigo a “boots-on-the-ground” view of the flooding and sewage pollution problems of the Alewife, through the lenses of Climate Change and Equity.
We might have canceled the walking tour of the Alewife Combined Sewer Overflows, except the wind was dying down and we are rugged New Englanders, up for an adventure no matter the weather. Besides, it was a warm 60 degrees out and what’s a little rain?
What’s a Little Rain?
A little rain in the Alewife, even less than an inch of hard rain, can result in discharges of untreated sewage pollution into the brook. This storm was not so little. According to the official Boston storm report, rainfall totaled about 3.5”. This resulted in an estimated 1.2 million gallons or more1 of raw CSO sewage pollution into the Alewife Brook.
First Stop: The Hungry Great Blue Heron
Our hike began at Broadway and Route 16 (Alewife Brook Parkway). The Alewife Reservation greeted us with hard rain and a chance encounter with a gorgeous Great Blue Heron, long legs submerged, hanging out at the water’s edge. Looking lean and hungry, feathers unfluffed by the rain, our heron friend may have been wondering why there were no fish. The answer was just upstream.
Follow Your Nose to Somerville’s Tannery Brook CSO
The smell of sewage was noticeable as we walked northward towards Somerville’s Tannery Brook Combined Sewer Outfall (aka SOM001A.) Raw sewage from Davis Square had been discharging from the Tannery Brook CSO an hour prior. Toilet paper from a previous storm was hanging in the trees – a violation of minimum control measures required for compliance with Somerville’s NPDES permit.2
Somerville’s Tannery Brook outfall is the Alewife’s worst CSO. It is out of compliance, which is to say that it does not meet the goals set forth twenty years ago by the federal court, as part of the Boston Harbor Cleanup Court Case. 3
Third Stop: Sewage Flooding the Alewife Greenway
We followed the DCR Alewife Greenway Path towards the MBTA Alewife T station, past two more CSOs, flanking both sides of the Mass Ave bridge at Route 16. One of these CSOs had been discharging sewage during the storm, but we could not see the outfall because the water level was so high.
Soon the path became impassable. The brook overtopped its banks, completely covering the Greenway and sending sewage water all the way up to Boulevard Road.
At this point, we had not received CSO notifications from Cambridge, Somerville, or MWRA. But if the brook overflows its bank, we suspect that there is untreated sewage in the water.
Last Stop: Flooded-Out Homeless Encampment
We continued the hike towards Cambridge’s worst Alewife CSO, CAM401A. This CSO is located behind the Alewife T parking garage. It had been dumping raw sewage pollution into the brook before we arrived. On the other side of the brook, just feet from this CSO, we saw a flooded-out, abandoned homeless encampment on MBTA property. The scene was terribly depressing and apocalyptic. You have to watch the video below to believe it. There had been people living next to this Alewife CSO! What an unbelievable situation in one of the wealthiest cities in the United States.
The wooded area around Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s Alewife CSO is another spot where folks who are lacking housing camp out.
These are the places that people go when they have nowhere else.
And they are not safe places to be.
Needed: Concern, Determination, & Grit
Our new DCR Commissioner hiked with us for over two hours, in the wind and rain, to see sewage discharges and flooding because he wants to understand our perspective of the Alewife Reservation. This level of concern, determination, and grit is exactly what the Alewife Brook Reservation needs from the Commonwealth now.
Arrigo Announces $28 Million for Dam in the Mystic
In his first act for the Alewife, Commissioner Arrigo just announced a $28 million dollar investment to make Climate Resiliency improvements at the Amelia Earhart Dam and the Draw Seven Park, to protect a number of cities and towns in future storms from coastal storm surge flooding. This protection includes the Alewife.
We are grateful that the Healey Administration has chosen Brian Arrigo to head the Department of Conservation and Recreation and hope that the Commonwealth will work to make the Alewife Brook area a safe place to live for humans and wildlife.
Footnotes:
1. This is the estimated volume reported by the cities of Somerville and Cambridge, available here: https://www.somervillema.gov/cso
https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/publicworks/combinedseweroverflowreporting
2. See “Floatables” chapter 7, page 7-1: https://www3.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/owm0030.pdf
3. See section 3.3.1 on page 21 https://www.mwra.com/cso/pcmpa-reports/042823-annualcso.pdf