On Saturday, September 7th, Save the Alewife Brook’s Ann McDonald and Kristin Anderson kayaked into Alewife Brook from the Mystic River to get a look at current conditions and see if the Brook was navigable by water. The plan was to paddle from the Mystic River all the way to Cambridge’s only urban forest at the Alewife Stormwater Wetland. We knew there had not been a CSO sewage discharge in several weeks but were still cautious about touching the water and sediment.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation recently finished their impressive debris cleanup effort in the Alewife Brook from Route 2 to Broadway Bridge. Though their Engineering Department was focused on addressing flooding, removal of the debris “dams” means it is now possible to get small boats through. Our adventure would simply not have been possible before DCR’s amazing cleanup work.
Still, we encountered three major obstacles on our voyage: a nearly impassable smelly CSO sewage blob under the Broadway Bridge, downed trees in the water behind Dilboy Park, and a massive amount of CSO sediment.
The Sewage
This blob of smelly sewage “floatables” from Davis Square toilets was recently freed from Somerville’s Tannery Brook CSO debris snag during DCR’s debris removal. When we put our paddles into it, nothing seemed to move. It was stuck under Broadway Bridge, wedged between some large logs. We need to end the dumping of untreated sewage into the Brook.
The Swan
Behind Dilboy Park: The curious Sunnyside Swan greeted us peacefully. Photo by Ann McDonald.
The Brook behind Dilboy Park at Sunnyside Avenue is quite beautiful. This section of the Alewife Brook sustains many species of wildlife. The Brook here is a natural channel – not trapped in concrete. We saw painted turtles sunning themselves on logs and several schools of swimming fish.
It appears that a storm felled a few large trees into the water there. So, with great difficulty, we navigated the Brook at Dilboy Park. The downed trees should be removed before they turn into dams, restrict water flow, and threaten more flooding.
We saw some trash in the water here, too, including a bike, an umbrella, and a plastic pink flamingo. We hope to return to collect this debris with the community canoe.
The Sediment
The largest obstacle we encountered on our voyage was the massive volume of sediment trapped between the concrete walls of the channel. In 2023, suspended solids from CSO sewage discharges contributed over 16 tons of new sediment to the already clogged Alewife Brook.1
The trees along the brook are gorgeous, making the paddling enjoyable in the densely covered stretch between Henderson Bridge and Route 2. But sediment levels here are extremely high, and the concrete channel does not sustain wildlife. You might encounter the odd duck but, despite waterfowl swimming on the surface, pretty much nothing can grow underneath in the concrete. That is why we call it “the concrete death channel.”
Dredging & Concrete Channel Removal
The Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Alewife Master Plan2 includes stream channel restoration, as shown above. Removal of the sediment, by eliminating historical contaminants, would provide an immediate improvement in water quality. Removal of the concrete channel would increase wildlife habitat and provide needed flood storage.
According to the 2003 Alewife Master Plan2, funding opportunities for dredging and concrete channel removal include the US Department of Transportation (USDOT), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). State sources for funding such restoration may also exist, including through DCR and MassDOT, as part of their stormwater management responsibilities, because DCR’s Alewife Brook Parkway and MassDOT’s Route 2 are both state highways that contribute runoff to Alewife Brook.
Beyond the Route 2 culvert, we navigated many fallen tree dams, making progress difficult as we continued upstream in the Little River towards Little Pond.
We beached at Cambridge’s only urban forest, by the Alewife Stormwater Wetland.
Thank you to East Arlington’s Good Neighbor George Laite, who helped us to get the kayaks into the water at the Lower Mystic Lake.
Footnotes:
- Suspended solids calculation according to the MWRA’s 2001 Notice of Project Change for CSO Long Term Control Plan for Alewife Brook, EOEA #10335. Download available here.
- From the DCR’s 2003 Alewife Master Plan.
This is amazing! It would be helpful to have a map showing exactly where you went and where you encountered the swan, sludge etc.