This week, on 11/13/2025, the Somerville City Council voted unanimously to pass a CSO Funding Resolution. This decision sends a message to the State Delegation that MWRA must provide funding for the updated CSO Control Plan. The Resolution was sponsored by Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen and co-sponsored by Councilor-at-Large and Vice President Wilfred Mbah.
The message is clear. Massachusetts Water Resources Authority must provide financial support to Cambridge and Somerville. This funding is needed to finish the work started three decades ago in the first Long Term Sewage Control Plan, to end sewage pollution at Alewife Brook.
Councilor Ewen-Campen, Sponsor of the Resolution
Councilor Ewen-Campen stated, “We’re being asked to spend an impossible amount of money to burden rate payers, to do a project that is not good enough. So what is the solution? It is extremely straightforward: The MWRA needs to pay more. They need to get much more actively involved in funding this plan right now, the Alewife Brook plan.”
Councilor-at-Large and Vice President Mbah, Cosponsor of the Resolution
Councilor-at-Large and Vice President Mbah said, “MWRA has proposed a revision to the Water Quality Standard to avoid making required investments. A Water Quality Standard Downgrade would roll back decades of progress that has been made to clean up our rivers. It means more pollution and four times as much sewage by 2050 due to climate change. We cannot sit here and watch.”
Councilor Clingan
Councilor Clingan said, “People used to swim in the Mystic River over by the boathouse. I grew up in West Somerville. When I was a kid, it was cleaner. I used to fish at Alewife Brook… I’m happy to support this.”
Historical Precedent
The City Council’s request has historical precedent. Projects from the first Alewife Brook Long Term Sewage Control Plan were funded by MWRA through a Memorandum of Understanding and Financial Assistance Agreement. The costs that MWRA agreed to cover changed over time, going from $34.8 million in the year 2000,1 to $60 million in 2008,2 to $70.3 million in 2012,3 to $112 million in 2019.4 Significant sewer separation in Cambridge was completed because of MWRA’s funding. 7 CSO outfalls were closed and the Alewife Stormwater Wetlands was created in the first plan. That excellent work never would have happened without the MWRA agreeing to provide financial assistance. Now the MWRA needs to step up to help the cities finish the job to end sewage pollution at Alewife Brook.
Watch the video of the City Council discussion here:
Download the resolution here:
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Footnotes:
- https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/server/api/core/bitstreams/da137af0-1b2f-4a4b-9428-da60948f67c5/content ↩︎
- https://www.mwra.com/media/file/sept2008pdf ↩︎
- https://www.mwra.com/sites/default/files/2023-11/csoar2012.pdf ↩︎
- https://www.mass.gov/doc/fact-sheet-for-the-final-determination-to-adopt-a-variance-for-cso-discharges-to-alewife/download ↩︎