CRWA in the News

City moves ahead after pollution warnings 

By Ariel Dekovic/ Newton Tab

Wednesday, August 3, 2005

The city of Newton is making progress on addressing their pollution problems in the Charles River as a result of a focused cleanup effort and improvement to the city's stormwater management program. The city is working to comply with the deadline imposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency last November, which warned the city to clean up their polluted stormwater or face possible fines.

The EPA mandate occurred when water testing of the Charles River in Newton showed spikes in bacteria levels, most likely caused by discharges from the sewer system. The federal agency took action, threatening to fine Newton if they did not fix the problem. Waltham, Brookline and Watertown received similar warnings.

These discharges are caused by infrastructure connections of sanitary sewer systems to the stormwater drainage system, according to Kate Bowditch, senior environmental scientist at the Charles River Watershed Association. Polluted stormwater runoff and these illicit connections are the top threats to the water quality of the Charles River and other water bodies in Newton.

Officials say that after working on the problem for eight months, the city has made some progress addressing these issues. Bill Walsh-Rogalski, an EPA attorney, is confident in the direction Newton is heading. "Newton is moving successfully on the known problems in their stormwater system, and also is moving ahead on the soup-to-nuts look at the system," he said.

"We share the EPA's goal of a clean river," said Jeremy Solomon, director of policy and communication for Newton. "We are nearing halfway on the inspections of our one hundred outfalls to the Charles, and we're doing our due diligence to complete the project."

This comprehensive look at the storm drainage system is the City's Stormwater Management Work Plan, a plan that will eventually become part of the national stormwater requirements that Newton must fulfill annually to keep in compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act.

Other towns provide a peek at what Newton will have to do to satisfy the requirements of the federal agency. EPA recently lauded the Town of Brookline's improvements to their illicit connection detection efforts, which according to Jay Hersey, an environmental engineer with the town, cost the city an estimated $200,000.

Bowditch, who worked with Brookline's Conservation Commission on the restructuring their system, said that this price is worth it. "When one illicit connection is eliminated, it prevents raw sewage from being discharged directly into a heavily-used river. Brookline's investment made sure that eighteen of these connections were found and cut off," she said. "This work is a great model for other towns to emulate."

Newton produced their 2004 annual report on their stormwater management system in May of this year, another requirement of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the EPA's regulatory program to control the discharge of pollutants to waters of the United States. A preliminary analysis by the Conservation Law Foundation found that Newton's report lacked specifics when it came to goals and deadlines for their stormwater management program.

According to Kendra Kinscherf, who works with the Conservation Law Foundation, and has begun an analysis of the annual reports of the nine towns in the Lower Charles River, the absence of setting measurable goals is "a common problem shared by all the towns. EPA requires towns to have measurable goals to gauge compliance and program effectiveness, but across the board, most towns do not have adequate goals set in place."

Todd Borci, from the Office of Environmental Stewardship at EPA, agrees there are still steps to be taken before Newton's work is complete. "We're about 80 percent there," he said.

Charles River Watershed Association and Conservation Law Foundation are working in collaboration to address stormwater management issues in the Charles River watershed. For additional information on stormwater management issues, visit EPA's Web site at www.epa.gov or CRWA's website at www.charlesriver.org.

Ariel Dekovic is the Publications Manager of the Charles River Watershed Association. This year, CRWA is celebrating 40 years of using science, advocacy and the law to protect, preserve and enhance the Charles River and its watershed.

CRWA home | Site map