Great news from Boston City Council!
Boston calls for virtual elimination of CSOs.
The Boston City Council voted unanimously in support of Virtual Elimination of Combined Sewer Overflows in the Charles River, Alewife Brook, and Upper Mystic River.
Virtual Elimination means no CSO sewage discharges into the three rivers except during a storm expected only about once every 25 years under 2050 climate conditions.
Council President Liz Breadon introduced the resolution, which rejects the inadequate Draft Sewage Overflow Plan and calls for an end to CSO sewage pollution in our rivers.
We are grateful for this leadership and vision for cleaner, healthier waterways. It is especially important that Boston is calling for cooperation with the municipalities and state agencies involved in this regional plan.
“We should not accept a long-term plan that allows untreated sewage to continue entering our waterways when there are infrastructure solutions to significantly reduce these discharges. This will require coordination between the MWRA, Boston, our neighboring municipalities, and state agencies.” - Boston City Council President Liz Breadon
ORDERED:
That the Boston City Council calls on the MWRA, the City of Cambridge, and the City of Somerville to ensure that the Final CSO Long-Term Control Plan (LTCP) for the Charles River, Alewife Brook, and Upper Mystic River puts forth recommendations that will achieve effective CSO control through modern infrastructure solutions, resulting in no discharges except during a 2050 25-year storm or larger; and
BE IT FURTHER ORDERED:
That the City of Boston work to coordinate with neighboring municipalities and state agencies to ensure all future infrastructure planning prioritizes the elimination of CSOs and the total protection of the Charles River and the Boston Harbor watershed.
Does Boston have a powerful voice?
The City of Boston and the Boston City Council have the moral and political authority to play a major role in ending sewage pollution in the Charles, Alewife, and Mystic Rivers. Still, the resolution does not, by itself, legally bind MWRA, Cambridge, or Somerville. But Boston has lots of power here.
The Mayor of Boston appoints three of the eleven members of the MWRA Board of Directors, more than any other city or town. Six votes are required for Board action. Three seats give Boston a powerful voice in the regional decisions ahead. See the MWRA Board of Directors.
Boston also gets the most sewer-separation in the draft sewage plan. The draft plan includes 366 acres of partial sewer separation in Boston, compared with only 88 acres in Cambridge, and 95 acres of sewer separation in Somerville. Alewife Brook gets pretty much no CSO sewage abatement through sewer separation, with the woefully inadequate Alewife plan being 99.9% storage tanks and a tunnel on state parkland.
Maps of the inadequate draft plan, which does not end CSO sewage pollution.
Boston City Council has now made its position clear: Greater Boston is capable of building modern infrastructure that keeps rainwater out of sanitary sewers and sewage out of our rivers.
A Huge thank-you to Boston City Council President Liz Breadon, the lead sponsor, and to Councilors Brian Worrell, Henry Santana, Enrique Pepén, Erin Murphy, Ruthzee Louijeune, Ed Flynn, John FitzGerald, Miniard Culpepper, and Gabriela Coletta Zapata for your unanimous vote to end sewage pollution in the Charles, Alewife, and Mystic.
Ending CSO sewage pollution is affordable.
Money is not a reason to leave our rivers open sewers. Based on MWRA’s own projections, moving from the recommended plan to the strongest 25-year level of control would cost about $45 more per household per year in 2026 dollars. That is less than $4 per month. It’s LESS than an average annual sewer rate increase.
Please. You can make a difference today.
Send Governor Healey your Public Comment.
Tell Governor Healey, MassDEP, and EPA that you support modern infrastructure and an end to CSO sewage pollution in the Charles River, Alewife Brook, and Mystic River. It takes about two minutes to create a public comment, and we will hand-deliver it to Governor Healey.
Click here to see our suggested public comment talking points.