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TOWNS WILL PARTICIPATE IN PROTECTING THEIR WATER
RESOURCES By Kate Bowditch/ Special to the Tab Water, as everyone knows, is one of our most valued
natural resources – playing a major part in the region’s growth,
livelihood and enjoyment. That
is why so much work is being done by both public and private organizations
in the Greater Boston area to protect the region’s water supplies, to
clean up our rivers and streams, and to design new ways to manage water in
the future. A decade ago, Earth Day 1995, the Clean Charles
Initiative kicked off with the goal of making the Charles River fishable
and swimmable by Earth Day 2005. A
coalition of public and private groups was established by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up the river, with
specific focus on polluted stormwater.
By then, it had been established that the pollution carried into
the river by storm drains was still bad enough to cause the river to
violate the standards set for fishing and swimming after even moderate
rainfall. Today, nearly ten years and millions of dollars
later, the Charles is undoubtedly cleaner then it was when the Earth Day
initiative was put in place. But
is it fishable and swimmable? So
far, the answer is “most of the time.” But persistent problems with Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs,
which are designated pipes along the river that discharge a mixture of
sanitary sewage and stormwater from old systems where the two are
combined), contaminated sediments that get stirred up in heavy rain, and
polluted stormwater still cause the river to exceed safe water quality
levels 10 – 20% of the days in an average year. The progress of this clean-up project is the subject
of a public hearing on February 15, 2005.
It is an opportunity for people to evaluate the progress of nine
Charles River towns, including Newton, on one of the most critical steps
towards the 2005 goal—cleaning polluted water carried into the river by
storm drains that cause the river to violate the standard set for fishing
and swimming. The intention of the public hearing, to be held from
1-3 pm on February 15, 2005 at the O’Neil Building at 10 Causeway
Street, Boston, is to review the stormwater management plans for the nine
towns whose stormwater flows into the lower Charles.
The EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) regulate all stormwater discharges, and all cities and
towns that have storm drains are required to have a permit.
The permits call for the towns to follow a basic set of practices,
including regular street sweeping, cleaning and inspecting catch basins,
tracking down sewage that finds its way into storm drains, educating
people about stormwater, and passing local bylaws to reduce stormwater
pollution. The ultimate goal
of the permit project is to ensure that stormwater discharges do not
violate the federal Clean Water Act.
For those who cannot attend the meeting, EPA is accepting written
comments through February 17. The nine towns, Weston, Wellesley, Dedham, Needham,
Newton, Waltham, Watertown, Brookline and Cambridge, have all made
significant improvements in the past decade. However, stormwater remains one of the factors causing the
river to exceed state water quality standards for fishing and swimming,
and testing of the water that comes out of the end of storm drains shows
that there are still serious problems, especially in some communities. How does Newton compare to the other eight towns in
the lower Charles? An
analysis by the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) shows that
Newton does well at some things, such as tracking information and
educating the public, but still has problems in others, especially with
persistent sewer leaks into the storm drain system.
Newton needs to do more, and undoubtedly will do more, as the river
is a priority for many Newton residents and town officials. The Charles River wraps itself around nearly three
quarters of the City of Newton, separating Newton from Needham to the
south, from Wellesley, Weston and Waltham to the west, and from Watertown
to the north. Newton has more
river mileage than any other town on the Charles except Needham, as well
as some of the best recreational access to the river, and a high level of
environmental awareness. It is no surprise that Newton is one of the most
actively involved watershed towns when it comes to riverfront projects.
Continuing the efforts to clean up stormwater and meet the goal of
a fishable, swimmable Charles River is clearly one of Newton’s
priorities. Cleaning up stormwater, like so many pollution
problems, is complicated by the way our cities and towns were designed,
before people knew or thought much about pollution. For many years, no one
considered stormwater pollution to be a significant factor in the
pollution marring our waterways. “The theory was that rainwater was fairly clean,
and so collecting it off of streets, parking lots and rooftops, and
putting it into drains that flow out to the river would be no problem,”
said Peter Shelley, Vice President of the Conservation Law Foundation, an
organization working with CRWA to ensure that stormwater runoff is
properly managed. “Unfortunately, the theory was wrong.
Much of the water draining out of those storm drains and into the
river is polluted; some of it is very polluted.” The Charles River can be thought of as the major
artery of the towns, cities and communities along its path.
There has been significant progress by communities to successfully
meet the requirements of the Clean Charles 2005 Initiative but there is
still more to do to address the storm water pollution problems and create
healthy, sustainable water systems for the towns and cities that impact
the river. Kate Bowditch is Senior Environmental Scientist at
the Charles River Watershed Association.
For more information about the Charles River, or the public hearing
on February 15, go to CRWA’s website at www.charlesriver.org. Return to
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