Environmental Justice
The COVID-19 pandemic and its disparate impacts on vulnerable communities have brought to the surface long-standing, yet historically ignored, environmental injustices. Environmental justice is a civil rights principle in which all people have a right to be protected from the pollution of their environment and to live and work in a clean and healthy environment regardless of race, income, religion, or language differences. Historically, that has not been the case: factories, incinerators, and fossil fuel infrastructure are often located in communities of color; air pollution from industrial facilities and highway traffic disproportionately impacts Black, low income, and immigrant neighborhoods causing asthma and other chronic health issues; historical underinvestment in parks and green space in these same communities exacerbates climate change impacts like heat island effects and deprives residents of access to nature. The effects of environmental injustices touch every corner of our state, from the South Shore to the Merrimack Valley to Western Massachusetts to Boston.
CRWA supports pending legislation (H.4264, S.464, and S.453) that would start to remedy these harms by providing equal protection to these communities under the law. The passage of these bills would empower communities, advocates, and legal practitioners to address historical inequities by fostering a system in which decision-makers and policymakers consider neighborhood demographics not only when making decisions about who will bear (or continue to bear) the burden of environmental hazards, but also when creating programs to alleviate existing disparate environmental and health impacts. Without environmental justice, we cannot build truly sustainable, resilient communities.
CRWA supports pending legislation (H.4264, S.464, and S.453) that would start to remedy these harms by providing equal protection to these communities under the law. The passage of these bills would empower communities, advocates, and legal practitioners to address historical inequities by fostering a system in which decision-makers and policymakers consider neighborhood demographics not only when making decisions about who will bear (or continue to bear) the burden of environmental hazards, but also when creating programs to alleviate existing disparate environmental and health impacts. Without environmental justice, we cannot build truly sustainable, resilient communities.
Protecting Our Parkways
Governor Baker is proposing to transfer control over several parkways, including Soldiers Field Road and Storrow Drive, from the Department of Conservation and Recreation to the Department of Transportation. This proposed transfer directly affects parklands along the Charles, and CRWA strongly opposes it. Parkways are intended to be slower, scenic roads that provide a direct connection between people and parks. They are an integral part of a park system, and if done right, provide safe access for vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians alike. If these roads are transferred to MassDOT, we will be giving up that vision. They will likely be used to carry even more vehicles at higher speeds, becoming barriers to our parks rather than bringing people to them.
Transferring parkways to MassDOT would also foreclose the possibility of ever returning those lands to parkland. In this era of climate change, we need to make decisions about land use that consider future climate conditions, not just current traffic needs. Located along waters like the Charles River and Boston Harbor, parkways are already flooding. The flooding is only going to get worse and transferring them to MassDOT won’t solve the problem. If there is a possibility of returning these lands to parkland in the future, they may be able to enhance Boston’s climate resilience by providing a greater buffer between the river and communities. A MassDOT highway does not afford that same opportunity, and in fact, only exacerbates the problem.
Transferring parkways to MassDOT would also foreclose the possibility of ever returning those lands to parkland. In this era of climate change, we need to make decisions about land use that consider future climate conditions, not just current traffic needs. Located along waters like the Charles River and Boston Harbor, parkways are already flooding. The flooding is only going to get worse and transferring them to MassDOT won’t solve the problem. If there is a possibility of returning these lands to parkland in the future, they may be able to enhance Boston’s climate resilience by providing a greater buffer between the river and communities. A MassDOT highway does not afford that same opportunity, and in fact, only exacerbates the problem.
Public Lands Preservation Act
In 1972, Massachusetts voters approved Article 97 of the state constitution to provide greater protection for open space lands such as parks, conservation areas, forests, and watershed lands. Disposing of or changing the use of such municipal or state land requires a favorable two-thirds vote of each branch of the legislature. Preserving public lands is important because these lands promote storage of CO2 in trees and soil, help mitigate the effects of floods, provide clean air, protect drinking water supplies, support wildlife biodiversity and habitat, support recreation and tourism, and promote physical and mental health as people get outside and into nature. The Public Lands Preservation Act (PLPA) would require “no net loss” of lands or easements protected under Article 97, meaning that replacement land of comparable acreage, location, and natural resource value would have to be provided for each disposition. It would also require that alternatives to a proposed disposition be examined and promote transparency by requiring notice to the public of any proposed dispositions before they occur.
CSO Notification Bill
Combined sewer systems are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe. (This design was an improvement over 19th century sewage ditches running along city streets.) During heavy rains, the system overflows, discharging excess wastewater directly to rivers in order to prevent sewage from backing up into homes and businesses. Right now, there is no general public notification requirement for CSO discharges in Massachusetts, meaning that people using rivers for recreation, downstream communities, and the general public usually don’t know that there might be a health risk present. This bill would institute a statewide sewage discharge notification system that issues alerts within 2 hours of CSO discharges, and enhance other methods of public notification. A notification system is only truly effective if it provides alerts as CSOs are happening, letting people know whether our rivers are safe.
Drought Management Bill
The 2016 drought was devastating for our rivers and public water supplies, with rivers drying up and drinking water supplies depleted. And here in the Northeast, more drought is in our future according to climate predictions. However, even during severe droughts, the state cannot require outdoor watering restrictions, it can only recommend them. And since water does not respect municipal boundaries, overuse in one community impacts other communities. This bill would give the state the power to require uniform outdoor watering restrictions at the regional level during declared droughts, ensuring consistency and fairness, and protecting our rivers and water supplies.