The Charles River and other area water bodies would continue to be flooded with pollution under a plan that officials say “balances environmental responsibility with affordability” — a proposal that critics say is still far too dirty.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has submitted a draft of a so-called “long-term control plan” to address combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Authority officials and leaders from the cities of Cambridge and Somerville are touting the plan as the first in a series of “bold, progressive” steps to eliminate CSOs by 2050 and to prepare for heavier rainfall due to climate change.
CSOs collect stormwater and household and industrial waste destined for treatment plants in the same pipes. At the same time, they allow rain to overwhelm the system and dump sewage contamination through overflows.
Clean water advocates say combined sewer overflows have proven to be a “key source of pathogen and bacteria contamination.” They are calling for the MWRA to form a better plan to protect the environment.
“The plan falls short of what is necessary to achieve clean, swimmable rivers in Greater Boston and puts people at risk from sewage overflows into these heavily used rivers,” officials from the Mystic and Charles River watershed associations said in a release on Friday. “For over a century, Boston Harbor and the rivers that flow into it have been contaminated by raw and partially treated sewage discharged during heavy rain through events called combined sewer overflows.”
“The MWRA was created, in part,” they added, “to lead a decades-spanning effort to clean up the harbor and close CSO outfalls.”
MWRA officials are looking at a set of projects, including new storage tanks, sewer separation, and upgraded conveyance systems, that they say are projected to eliminate CSO discharges by 2050 in the Alewife Brook and the Charles and Mystic rivers.
The largest endeavor would be on the Charles River with the construction of two storage tanks containing 12.6 million gallons, 446 acres of sewer separation, and two storage conduits. Officials estimate the project to cost around $690 million and last 28 to 33 years.
The plan — including projects on the Alewife Brook and Mystic River — has a total price tag of $1.28 billion. The MWRA would split the cost with Cambridge and Somerville, before it’s ultimately passed on to ratepayers, according to planning documents.
This comes after the MWRA’s board of directors punted last November on a proposal that would have reclassified the Charles River as a water body that allows for maximum sewage overflows.
The Charles River Watershed Association feared that the proposed reclassification would have permanently dumped sewage into the 308-square-mile watershed, home to over 80 brooks and streams, 33 lakes and ponds and several major aquifers.
In February, the MWRA board approved an infrastructure plan that would allow sewage discharges into the Charles River, and against full sewer separation, stating that separation “is relatively expensive and can disrupt traffic and other community activities during construction.”
Clean water advocates say the new plan “only incrementally improves upon the previous one, still allowing for sewage discharges during heavy rainstorms.”
“We’ve seen what impact advocacy can have,” Charles River Watershed Association Executive Director Emily Norton said in a statement. “People want a swimmable Charles, and they raised their voices last fall to help us get a better plan. But we need to keep pushing. We aren’t looking for half measures. We need to eliminate sewage pollution. It’s time to Cut the Crap!”
MWRA Interim Executive Director Stephen Estes-Smargiassi said in a statement that the updated draft plan is a “significant and responsible investment of rate payer dollars that balances real environmental benefits and actual water quality improvements.”
“Today, we begin a five-month public comment period to solicit feedback from stakeholders and members of the public,” Estes-Smargiassi said on Thursday. “The best public policy decisions are made when all perspectives are heard, and we hope to hear from all interested parties during this review.”
Patrick Herron, the executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association, said addressing combined sewer overflows is a “regional issue that requires all of Greater Boston to buy in.”
“We all benefit from clean rivers and streams, and we are all connected by this underground infrastructure,” Herron said in a statement. “When the cost is spread out, it’s a small price to pay to realize the promise of clean, swimmable, boatable rivers.”
