Please attend Thursday’s Cambridge City meeting via Zoom.
6 – 8 pm Thursday, May 28
via Zoom
What is Thursday’s City Meeting about?
The City is legally required to address the worst raw Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in the entire MWRA system at its Alewife MBTA Station CSO outfall (CAM 401A). Cambridge’s Alewife MBTA Station CSO discharges approximately 70% of all sewage that gets dumped into Alewife Brook. The City is in violation of the court.
On Thursday night, the City proposes an undersized concrete storage tank, instead of a climate change resilient solution that includes sewer separation. It’s a less than bare minimum approach to the problem, with nothing but a tank at Sherman Street and ZERO sewer separation.
SAY YES! to:
Sewer Separation
Green Stormwater Infrastructure
New Alewife Stormwater Wetlands
Why Sewer Separation?
Cambridge finished half the Sewer Separation at Alewife ten years ago. Sewer separation and the Alewife Stormwater Wetlands was Cambridge’s strategy for the first CSO plan. It’s time to FINISH THE JOB OF SEWER SEPARATION in the new CSO plan, while the city can use MWRA’s funding to pay for it.
Sewer Separation is modernizing and upgrading the sewer infrastructure by removing stormwater from the sewer system.
Removing stormwater from the sewer system means:
CSO* Elimination
Fewer SSOs**
Less Localized Flooding
Fewer Basement Backups
Increased Local Sewer System Capacity
Increased Regional Sewer System Capacity
* CSO = combined sewer overflow
* SSO = sanitary sewer overflow
At Alewife Brook, all CSOs and SSOs are untreated.
What about the tanks?
99.9% of the Alewife CSO Plan is tanks. When the tanks fill up, 100% of additional sewage is dumped into the brook. Raw sewage floods into the park, the bike path, yards, and homes. The plan will result in 15 million gallons of sewage pollution being dumped into the brook in a single 5-year storm event.
At Alewife Brook the answer is not tanks and tunnels. The answer is sewer separation with green infrastructure. Sewer separation eliminates CSOs by removing stormwater from the sewer system and green stormwater infrastructure reduce flooding and cleans the stormwater.
It’s financially irresponsible for the city to refuse MWRA funding for sewer separation and green stormwater infrastructure.
Please make your voice heard. Say YES to sewer separation and green stormwater infrastructure, not 99.9% tanks!
END SEWAGE POLLUTION AND RAW SEWAGE FLOODING