By Christopher Moore / Tribune Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004
WALTHAM -- The Environmental Protection Agency has given Waltham and Newton until the end of 2004 to come up with plans to find the presumed sewage leaks that are spilling high levels of bacteria into the Charles River.
William Walsh-Rogalski, an EPA attorney, said testing of the Charles at various points has revealed high bacteria contents in Waltham and Newton, which indicate sewage somehow reaching into the river.
On Tuesday, the EPA ordered the two cities, along with Watertown and Brookline, to remove "illicit connections" that are leading to the pollution.
Walsh-Rogalski said an illicit connection could be an actual pipe connecting a sewage line to a stormwater line, or it could simply be a leak. The cities have until Dec. 31 to determine how they will find those illicit connections, and until Feb. 28 to actually find them. The connections have to be removed by April 23.
"We've said, 'If those are unrealistic, let us know and we'll negotiate them,'" said Walsh-Rogalski.
The cleanliness of the Charles has come under closer media scrutiny lately, with the exploits of clean water activist Christopher Swain. On Oct. 12, Swain began swimming in the river's headwaters in Hopkinton. He intends to swim its entire length by Nov. 12 as part of an initiative to see the Charles swimmable by Earth Day 2005.
The EPA has found bacteria at several sites along the Charles between the Moody Street dam and the Watertown line, from water samples taken at the mouths of drainpipes and in the river itself. Walsh-Rogalski said one of those sites had bacteria at more than 1,000 times the legal limit for swimmable water.
"The law says that if you own these things you can't discharge over certain limits," said Walsh-Rogalski. "Under the Clean Water Act, they're required to not discharge pollutants without a permit. If they were discharging regular old stormwater, then it would be a permitted discharge."
Yesterday's order to clean up came after a series of communications between the cities and the EPA. The EPA brought the matter to the attention of city officials and asked for detailed information and a cleanup schedule. If the city does not stop the leaks, the EPA could impose fines.
"Waltham basically said 'We'll give you more information in our next update,' and never gave us a schedule," said Walsh-Rogalski. "They gave us more information, but it wasn't the kind of information we were looking for. It wasn't as detailed, and they didn't seem to be moving on it quickly enough."
Walsh-Rogalski said Newton's response was more immediate, and that it has has either dealt with or scheduled repairs for most of their spills.
"The technical people in Newton have talked to our people, but we haven't heard anything from Waltham yet," he said.
Jeremy Solomon, Newton's director of policy and communications, said the city had already entered into an agreement with the EPA to fix all of bacteria problems by Dec. 31.
"Whenever we've found outflows that are not up to code, we would fix them," said Solomon. "We would have done so with or without this order."
John Bradley, director of Waltham's public works department, said that in May the EPA contacted the city about the bacteria leaks and requested a corrective action plan. Bradley said the city prepared and began to implement that plan, then provided the EPA with a quarterly report outlining how the city would locate the sources of the contamination.
"Then we got this order in the mail," said Bradley. "I have not gotten any feedback on the quarterly report that we filed."
Regardless, Bradley said the city would be making every effort to locate the leaks and adhere to the EPA's timeline.
"We are taking it seriously," said Mayor Jeannette McCarthy.
At Monday's city council meeting, McCarthy submitted a budget proposal to boost the DPW staff by hiring one full-time engineer with water and sewer experience and another half-time engineer. She said on Wednesday she expected the council to vote on the item on Nov. 22, and if it is approved she'll begin the hiring process immediately.
No one from the EPA or either city would hazard a guess as to how much a locate-and-cleanup process would cost.
"It really depends on the situation," said Walsh-Rogalski.
Robert Zimmerman Jr., executive director of the Waltham-based Charles River Watershed Association, said the EPA's order did not surprise him. He said water quality in the Charles peaked around 2000, when it met swimmable standards roughly 70 percent of the time.
"We have seen a steady, very slow erosion of those numbers since 2000, which has been accelerating in the last year," said Zimmerman. "The deterioration in water quality we've seen over the last year is probably directly attributable to the deterioration of these systems."
Unfortunately, Zimmerman said, there are no easy and lasting fixes for the problem.
"These kinds of problems are endemic," said Zimmerman. "Pipes in the ground fail over time. You fix them, then a little bit of time goes by....It's like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. By the time you're done it's time to start all over again. But pipes in the ground aren't like the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge you can see; a pipe in the ground, nobody can see."
