Please attend the Cambridge City Council meeting in person or via Zoom at 5:30 pm on Monday, June 9, at City Hall in Central Square. Speak up for Alewife Brook! Since the sewage that flows into Alewife Brook mostly comes from Cambridge toilets, feel free to speak-up, regardless of which town you live in!
Please sign up now for the meeting as a member of Save the Alewife Brook.
The policy order is here. It asks the MBTA to immediately amend its Alewife garage redevelopment RFP to include ending sewage releases into Alewife Brook as a priority, not as an afterthought.
Ending sewage pollution requires land and the 10-13 acres of the Alewife garage – state-owned land – are perfectly situated for green and gray infrastructure. The Policy Order asks for 3-acres of wetlands (green infrastructure) to hold and clean stormwater, as well as concrete tanks (gray infrastructure) to hold sewage that will later be released when there is sewer capacity to send it to Deer Island for treatment.
3-acres could be another stormwater wetland almost the size of the existing Alewife Wetland which was built to clean stormwater from the Huron/Concord neighborhood while also providing relief from heat, improved air quality, more habitat and better health and well-being.
This pivotal policy order would help shape the future of Alewife Brook and the health of our neighborhoods. Sponsored by Councillors Zusy, Siddiqui, Vice Mayor McGovern, and Councillor Wilson, this order urges Governor Maura Healey, the MBTA Board of Directors, and MBTA General Manager Philip Eng to take decisive action as the huge Alewife Garage site undergoes demolition and redevelopment.
Each year, tens of millions of gallons of untreated raw sewage is dumped into Alewife Brook and about 2/3rds of it flows right through MBTA land next to the garage. In 2023, 26 million gallons of raw sewage discharged into the brook — the highest volume in the entire Greater Boston area. The Alewife Greenway Path, a vital corridor for residents, is directly impacted, with raw sewage sometimes flooding into yards, homes, parks, and onto public walkways used by children, runners, and families.
The Policy Order recognizes the rare opportunity presented by the planned demolition and redevelopment of the MBTA Alewife Garage. This 10-13-acre site includes the two outfall pipes responsible for most of the area’s sewage discharges, making it the ideal location for green stormwater infrastructure and a major underground storage tank. These improvements would reduce sewage overflows, expand open space, improve air quality, and protect public health as a major new housing development is also anticipated at the garage site.
You can sign up ahead of time to comment via this form. The Agenda Item is “Ending Alewife Sewage, Policy Order #3.”
If you can’t make it to the meeting or by Zoom, it’s still worth dashing off a note to the Council before 5:30 at council@cambridgema.gov and CC the clerk at cityclerk@cambridgema.gov