CLEANING UP THE CHARLES RIVER

1
CLEANING UP THE CHARLES RIVER

• Rebecca Scibek
• Charles River Watershed Association
• www.charlesriver.org

2
Charles River Watershed Association

• Founded in 1965
• - One of the nations first watershed
  associations
• Advocacy, lobbying to protect the Charles
• Science based work monitoring water
  quality/quantity
• 12 employees, including engineers, scientists,
  policy analysts and planners providing sound
  information to better manage our water resources

3

• CRWAs mission is to use science, advocacy,
  and the law to protect, preserve and enhance the
  Charles River and its watershed.

4
What is a watershed?

• An area of land
• that drains to a
• specific waterbody.
• Water flows
• downhill!

5
Massachusetts Watersheds
28 Distinct Watersheds
6
Charles River Watershed

• 80 miles
• 500 foot elevation drop
• 20 dams
• 308 mi2
• 35 towns
• 1 million residents

7
(No Transcript)
8
Late 1800s
9
(No Transcript)
10
CHALLENGES TO WATER QUALITY IN THE CHARLES RIVER
WATERSHED
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Causes of Water Quality ProblemsLAND USE
DECISIONS URBANIZATION

• Intense growth traditional engineering
  approaches to
• Water supply
• Wastewater collection and disposal
• Development and impervious surfaces
• Resulting in
• More withdrawals and sewering
• Less groundwater recharge and less baseflow, so
  less water available in streams or for
  pumpling/human use
• More stormwater runoff
• Higher peak flows, with water draining directly
  erosion, etc.
• More CSO activations
• Poor water quality

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
Causes of Water Quality Problems

• NON POINT SOURCES
• Hard to trace
• Urban areas - roads, parking lots, impervious
  surfaces
• Neighborhoods and households
• Litter, chemical waste, and natural pollutants

18
NON POINT SOURCE Stormwater
Polluted Stormwater Runoff is the 1 Water
Quality Problem (U.S. EPA)
19
Contributes to algal blooms, like this year!

• Caused by excess of phosphorus in water (from
  stormwater, treatment plants) plus warm water
  temperatures
• This year, worse than usual amount and type
• Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae can secrete
  toxins and cause health problems for people and
  animals

20
Causes of Water Quality Problems

• POINT SOURCES
• Easily traced back to source
• First regulated by Clean Water Act in 1972
• Factories Industries - Regulated but hard to
  control, unmapped pipes illegal connections
• Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs)

21
(No Transcript)
22
Combined Sewer System Dry Weather
23
Combined Sewer System Wet Weather
24
Causes of Water QUANTITY Problems

• URBANIZATION
• Decreased aquifer recharge due to lack of
  pervious surfaces
• INFLOW INFILTRATION
• Otherwise clean groundwater leaks into pipes
• Nearly half the water being treated at Deer
  Island is I I severe drain on groundwater
  resources!
• Water is discharged up to 30 miles away from its
  source, into Massachusetts Bay, instead of
  locally.

25
Inflow and Infiltration Sewered areas with
leaky pipes!
26
Stormwater Hydrograph
http//serc.carleton.edu/images/introgeo/socratic/
examples/Hydrograph.jpg
27
Causes of Water QUANTITY Problems

• SUPPLY DEMAND
• Current summertime demand exceeds supply, in more
  rural areas of watershed
• Aquifers being overpumped, and then cant support
  streamflow
• Water being imported from reservoir in Central
  Mass, but that is not a long-term or sustainable
  solution!

28
PUBLIC GROUNDWATER SUPPLY WELLS

• AQUIFERS

CHARLES RIVER
WELL ZONE IIs
29
(No Transcript)
30
WATER QUALITY SOLUTIONS
31
CRWA was instrumental in advocating the
preservation of natural wetlands as flood
control, water purifiers, and natural habitat
32
CRWA PROJECT AREASScience based workUrban
planning and policyLegislation and advocacy
33
CRWA Monthly Water Quality Monitoring

• 10-year program
• 37 stations
• 70 volunteers
• Test for e. coli bacteria, nitrates, phosphorus,
  and other parameters

34
(No Transcript)
35

Wet weather sampling - more than 1 inch of rain
in previous 24 hours
1996-97 Wet weather bacteria results
36
Flagging Program

• Public notification of rivers health during
  summer months
• Estimate the probability of the river being safe
  for boating, based on sampling and statistical
  rainfall models
• 10 sites from Newton to Boston

37
Reducing Pollution

• Upper Charles Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)
  project for nutrients and bacteria
• Modeling used to determine how much to reduce
  stormwater and wastewater pollution
• Stormwater cleanup
• Comments on draft Stormwater bylaws
• Find it and fix it program

38
Reducing PollutionFind It and Fix It

• Find non-point source pollution problems through
  visual surveys and monitoring, with the help of
  volunteers
• Fix problems by designing solutions and
  implementing them with help of municipalities
• Educate the public about the impacts of non-point
  source pollution

39
Fish Restoration Measures

• Development of Target Fish Community river
  fish vs. pond fish
• Fish Ladder Repair and Maintenance
• Release of more than 1.5 million American Shad
  fry this past July

40
American Shad fry release, July 2006
41
More CRWA Science Projects

• Water budgets for all 351 towns in MA accounts
  for all human impact, positive or negative, to
  track problems and changes. Like balancing a
  checkbook!
• Flow trading trying to restore water balance
  and flows by trading between water supply,
  wastewater, stormwater
• Microbial source tracking developing toolkit of
  indicators to ID human vs. non-human bacteria
  pollutioni sources

42
Urban Restoration Blue Cities
InitiativeHarvard/Allston, Zakim North,
Longwood Medical and Academic Area

• Working with neighborhood groups, regulatory
  agencies and developers
• Encourage development that enhances urban
  environments and follows NATURAL hydrology like
  natural water cycle
• Identify sustainable solutions to help decrease
  water problems and runoff

43
Urban Restoration in North AllstonRoot of the
Problem
44
Before (top) and after (bottom) scenarios of
proposed redevelopment area
45
Urban Restoration in North AllstonBefore (top)
and after (bottom) scenarios of proposed
redevelopment area on Travis Street
46
Urban Restoration at North PointExisting
Landscapes
47
Litigation and Advocacy Efforts

• CRWAs comments on Water Management Act permits
  have helped formulate new DEP policy
• Assisted the Ipswich River Watershed Association
  with litigation against the towns and DEP, on
  water withdrawal permits - prevent rivers from
  drying up in summer!
• Outcome for CRWA has been better WMA permits in
  the Charles with conservation measures

48
Other CRWA Projects

• Annual Charles River Cleanup in April - More than
  1,500 volunteers at over 60 sites all along
  river started in 2000.
• Run of the Charles Canoe Kayak Race 24 years!
• Parklands protection

49
Charles River Report CardFrom the U.S. EPA
50
Our goal A fishable and swimmable Charles River!
www.charlesriver.org
51