In December 2023, Save the Alewife Brook took Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Brian Arrigo for a dramatic tour of Alewife Brook’s sewage pollution, flooding, & inequity. 

Hopes were high that something great would come from the meeting. This month we found out what!

There were rumblings that something was afoot this spring when Charles “Chuck” Green of DCR’s engineering staff came down to the Brook. Chuck came by to catalog stream snags on a GPS device. Things went quiet for months. But on August 12th, Chuck was back! He brought a crew from DCR’s subcontractor, New England Disposal Technologies, a hazardous waste management company.

The NEDT crew are phenomenally hard workers. They worked on clearing debris from the brook for almost three weeks, from August 12th to August 30th, filling more than six 40-cubic-yard dumpsters of debris. Using a boat, a backhoe, a bulldozer, chainsaws, and a wood chipper, they cleared the channel obstructions from the culvert at state Route 2 all the way down the Alewife Brook channel to Broadway.

Along with the woody snags, the crew removed tires, bikes, a slew of traffic cones and, of course, another safe; this time with a crowbar in it! Removing these debris dams should help reduce flooding in smaller storm events.

Somerville’s Smelly Tannery Brook CSO

Nowhere are the results more dramatic than at Tannery Brook, the site of Somerville’s Alewife Brook CSO that discharges raw sewage from Davis Square. This was the smelliest debris dam in the Brook! The odor has been so bad here that a single whiff of it induced nausea. 

Hard Work Leads to Amazing Results

It took a lot of work. Contributions came from the DCR commissioner and the agency’s engineering staff. There was also pressure from Save the Alewife Brook and State Representative Dave Rogers to make this clean-out a reality.

We expect the benefits to include reduced sewage flooding during small storm events. Plus, we now have a clear stream that fish and small boats can navigate!

THANK YOU!

to the Healey Administration,
DCR Commissioner Brian Arrigo, 
DCR Chief Engineer Rob Lowell,
DCR’s Charles “Chuck” Green,
& NEDT workers.

Thanks also to Representatives Dave Rogers & Sean Garballey.

And thank you, dear reader, for your continued public support!
This wouldn’t be possible without you.

The folks who donned hazmat suits and went into Alewife Brook have our special thanks, and Save the Alewife t-shirts, too! Photo by David Stoff.

Charles “Chuck” Green of DCR’s engineering. Photo by Ann McDonald.