How Can Belmont Use the McLean Barn?

 July/August 2023, Newsletter  Comments Off on How Can Belmont Use the McLean Barn?
Jun 302023
 
How Can Belmont Use the McLean Barn?

By Carl Solander How can Belmont use the McLean Barn? The Land Management Committee of Lone Tree Hill (LMC), in consultation with the Belmont Historic District Commission, is seeking ideas to give new life to this remnant of Belmont’s agricultural past.  The McLean Barn, also known as the Brick Barn at Rock Meadow, was conveyed to the town in 2005 by McLean Hospital following the 1999 agreement that created the conservation land now known as Lone Tree Hill. The barn has been unused since that time, patiently awaiting the next chapter in its long life. In 1892, as the central [READ MORE]

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EPA Pushes for Alewife Sewage Cleanup

 Environment, May/June 2023, Newsletter, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on EPA Pushes for Alewife Sewage Cleanup
Apr 262023
 
EPA Pushes for Alewife Sewage Cleanup

By Kristin Anderson and David White We are at an important point in the history of the Alewife Brook. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) and the cities of Cambridge and Somerville are preparing a new long-term sewage control plan for the Alewife Brook/Upper Mystic River Watershed. Climate change, with its wetter rainy season, more intense storms, and sea level rise, is expected to result in more hazardous Alewife Brook sewage pollution and more flooding in the area. During some storms, the Alewife Brook floods into the houses, parks, and yards of area residents in environmental justice communities. Because of [READ MORE]

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Alewife Brook, Little Pond Get D Grades Again

 Environment, Newsletter, Sept/Oct 2022, Sewers, Water Quality  Comments Off on Alewife Brook, Little Pond Get D Grades Again
Sep 092022
 
Alewife Brook, Little Pond Get D Grades Again

By Meg Muckenhoupt In 1972, the Clean Water Act called for all waterways to be “fishable and swimmable” by 1983, and for all pollution discharges to end by 1985. That still hasn’t happened, as is shown by the new annual water quality report card issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the Mystic River in July. All of Belmont’s brooks received a D or D+ grade because they failed to meet state E. coli bacteria standards for boating in 45% to 55% of samples taken in 2021. Site 2021 2014 Grade Total Grade Total Alewife Brook D 47% D [READ MORE]

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Belmont’s Watersheds Cross Many Boundaries

 Environment, May/June 2022, Newsletter, Sewers, Water Quality  Comments Off on Belmont’s Watersheds Cross Many Boundaries
May 052022
 
Belmont’s Watersheds Cross Many Boundaries

By Anne-Marie Lambert Here in Belmont, we live on the edge of two large watersheds—the Mystic River watershed and the Charles River watershed. Understanding our role in these watersheds is more important than ever as storms in the Northeast grow more intense and more frequent, and as the rise in Atlantic Ocean sea levels starts to affect the underground water table.  The lack of alignment between our political maps and the topography of our watersheds can make it tricky to understand Belmont’s role. In the flat low-lying areas of town where there isn’t much gradient, waters flow in directions that [READ MORE]

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Mystic Collaborative Plans For Climate Change

 Climate Change, Environment, March/April 2022, Newsletter, Open Space, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Mystic Collaborative Plans For Climate Change
Mar 032022
 
Mystic Collaborative Plans For Climate Change

By Julie Wormser  Once upon a time, images of climate change featured skinny polar bears on melting ice floes, and hot, dusty desertscapes. Tragic for sure, but also very far away in time and space. Not any more. Last summer’s alarming weather—from 120 temperatures in the Pacific Northwest to record flooding rains here in the Northeast—has brought the immediate effects of climate change into sharper focus and more local concern. In Greater Boston, the most likely risks we need to prepare for are:  flooding from intense rainfall and coastal storms/sea level rise, hotter, drier summers, less predictable winter weather, and  [READ MORE]

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Fifty Million Gallons of Sewage Released

 Climate Change, Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Fifty Million Gallons of Sewage Released
Jan 032022
 
Fifty Million Gallons of Sewage Released

Discharges to Alewife Brook Have Persisted for Two Decades By Kristin Anderson and David White Fifty million gallons of sewage-contaminated stormwater have been discharged into the Alewife Brook from the cities of Cambridge and Somerville in 2021, according to websites for those two cities and the Metropolitan Water Resources Authority (MWRA) for the Alewife/Upper Mystic Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO). There has been as much sewage-contaminated water discharged into the Alewife Brook in 2021 as there was in 1997 before the implementation of a $200 million plan to modernize the area’s antique combined sewer systems.  Pollution persists in the Alewife sub-watershed [READ MORE]

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Belmont Waterways Get Failing Grades

 Newsletter, Sept/Oct 2020, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Belmont Waterways Get Failing Grades
Sep 032020
 
Belmont Waterways Get Failing Grades

By Meg Muckenhoupt The Mystic River’s most recent water quality report card, released on August 13, gives Winn’s Brook an F for 2019—and the Little River and Alewife Brook earned Ds. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) creates the  annual report card in collaboration with the Mystic River Watershed Association. It grades segments of the Mystic River’s lakes, river, and streams on how frequently they meet bacterial standards for swimming and boating. The Upper Mystic Lake and the Chelsea River got an A grade; they met boating and swimming standards 90% or more of the time in 2019. Winn’s Brook [READ MORE]

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Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset

 Environment, Historic Preservation, History, Newsletter, November 2019, Open Space, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset
Nov 042019
 
Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset

By Michael Chesson Clay Pit Pond on Concord Avenue was once the site of Belmont’s largest industrial enterprise, a brickyard run by John H. and Robert A. Parry. The brothers bought 20¾ acres of land in 1888 on Concord Avenue and Underwood Street, with its valuable blue clay that turned an attractive reddish color when fired, and their yard produced 200,000 bricks a week. Just as the oil, steel, and railroad industries consolidated, the Parry brothers’ business in 1900 merged with the New England Brick Company, which owned three dozen other brickyards in the region. The firm installed new dryers, [READ MORE]

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Belmont’s Underground Pollution Problem

 Environment, Newsletter, November 2019, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality  Comments Off on Belmont’s Underground Pollution Problem
Nov 042019
 
Belmont’s Underground Pollution Problem

By Anne-Marie Lambert If only the 504 gallons of household wastewater which had been pouring into Wellington Brook and Winn’s Brook through underground culverts every day had been more visible, perhaps we as a town would have addressed the necessary repairs more urgently. That’s what Belmont did when a student noticed an oil spill leaking into Clay Pit Pond during a freeze on December 12, 2003. A ruptured return line to the underground storage tank at Mary Lee Burbank Elementary school travelled through the town’s storm drain system carrying 1,000 gallons of oil to Clay Pit Pond. Alerted to the [READ MORE]

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Cambridge Redirects Runoff from 400 Acres

 January 2016, Newsletter, Stormwater  Comments Off on Cambridge Redirects Runoff from 400 Acres
Jan 122016
 
Cambridge Redirects Runoff from 400 Acres

Cambridge Sewer Separation Makes Alewife Brook Cleaner By Anne-Marie Lambert On December 21, 2015, Cambridge celebrated a major milestone of the Alewife Sewer Separation project, a massive public works that separates sanitary sewers from storm sewers. When these two types of sewers are connected, heavy storms drive raw sewage into local waterways such as the Alewife Brook—as has been happening at the Brook for decades. As of December 21, the city will now provide water quality treatment of stormwater runoff from more than 400 acres of the urbanized Huron Avenue and Fresh Pond neighborhoods by directing it to the 3.4-acre [READ MORE]

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