| Newsletter #16
April 22, 2022 |
Contents:
- Earth Day Celebration at Jerry’s Pond this Sunday, April 24!
- Alewife Brook’s Dirty Little Secret
- Pitch in at the Saturday Cleanup, Arlington Side of Alewife Brook
- Neighborhood Paths Ongoing Discussion
- Update on Alewife Development Moratorium
Earth Day Celebration at Jerry’s Pond this Sunday, April 24
1:30-5:00pm, at Russell Field Parking lot, next to Comeau Field
- Join neighbors and celebrate planned reopening of Jerry’s Pond
- Meet members of IQHQ design team, hear updates about plans
- Help clean up around the pond and build community
- Music, Bengali Dance, Arts and Crafts, Live Turtles, Ice Cream, Juice samples, Activities for Kids and Adults
- Visit ASG table to see current plans for pedestrian/bike paths around Russell Field and IQHQ site, ask questions, and share your thoughts about the paths
- Sponsored by Friends of Jerry’s Pond (FOJP)
- Cosponsored by IQHQ, Mayor Siddiqui, Alewife Study Group (ASG), Mass Audubon, Green Cambridge, Just-a-Start, and Devine Native Plantings
- For more information, see FOJP and IQHQ flyers in the News Section of the ASG website: alewife.org/news
Alewife Brook’s Dirty Little Secret
In 2021, 60 million gallons of water with untreated sewage* flowed into Alewife Brook from pipes called Combined Sewer Outfalls (CSOs). That’s because the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) designed pipes to carry both raw sewage and rainwater. But during heavy storms, there are CSOs that send extra wastewater and raw sewage not to Deer Island for cleaning, but into rivers as a pressure release valve for the entire sewage system for 17 communities: Everett, Somerville, Cambridge, Arlington, Burlington, Lexington, Malden, Melrose, Wakefield, Stoneham, Medford, Reading, Woburn, Wilmington, Winchester, Belmont, and Bedford. The MWRA now has a two-year window to create a new Long Term (pipes or) CSO Control Plan. The public can weigh in. Stop Sewage Flowing into Alewife Brook: Sign the Petition. Our first chance to say no-more-dumping-raw-sewage in Alewife Brook is through this petition created by the group Save the Alewife Brook (StAB). https://savethealewifebrook.org/please-sign-our-petition/
*60 million gallons is the equivalent of approximately 250 gallons of untreated water for each man, woman and child living in Cambridge, Arlington and Somerville.
Pitch in at the Saturday Cleanup, Arlington Side of Alewife Brook
T-Shirts, Sewer/CSO Pipe Tour, cleanup of the Alewife Path this SATURDAY, 9:15am, April 23, Thorndike dog park. You’ll recognize the organizers by their red Save the Alewife Brook T-shirts. Please bring gloves, water and a garbage picker, if you have one. Bags provided. FREE shirts for volunteers. And, bonus? A TOUR of the sewer pipe outlets!! Steady rain date, Sunday April 24. Sign up here
Neighborhood Paths Ongoing Discussion
On April 3, the Alewife Study Group held a kick-off community meeting to discuss paths through and near Russell Field. There will be more opportunities for community feedback. The IQHQ project provides a chance to make the paths around our neighborhood’s biggest park as safe and pleasant as we can. Send your comments and suggestions through the www.alewife.org website (at the bottom of the homepage) or e-mail us at contact@alewife.org.
With ongoing input from neighborhood advocates, one key feature of IQHQ’s plan is a path to direct faster bike traffic between Linear Park and the Minuteman Trail to go through IQHQ’s property rather than through the Russell Field paths. A missing link is safe walking and bike paths under the Alewife T Station Access Road “tunnel,” but that is not on IQHQ’s land.
A common theme of the April 3 meeting was safety, primarily for people and pets walking near fast bikes and electric bikes/scooters/etc. and for cyclists from cars. The most frequently mentioned top areas of concern were the Parkway tunnel, Rindge Avenue, and the path intersection where the path to the T headhouse meets the path connecting Rindge Avenue to Linear Park. Several suggestions were made for these areas.
ASG will have a table at the Earth Day event this Sunday (weather permitting) to show some of the plans for pathways, to answer questions, and to get more thoughts from path users. We hope to see you there.
Update on Alewife Development Moratorium
On April 7, the City Council Ordinance Committee voted to support a petition to allow time for development rules in the Alewife area to catch up with City plans before more lab or office projects are approved. Except for two absences, all City Councilors gave a favorable recommendation to the petition, which follows a similar ruling by the Planning Board. The next step is for the petition to be considered at a regular City Council meeting.
Under state law, the ruling would affect all projects that don’t (or didn’t) require city permits before the first official discussions of the petition were announced early this year. Development of housing would not be affected. The IQHQ project is outside of the area affected by the petition, which extends from the Alewife Reservation to the Fresh Pond Reservation plus Fresh Pond Mall.
Meeting information packet: April 7 Ordinance Comm. Agenda Packet.
ASG Newsletter
ASG will send email updates about once a month during this busy time in the development of the IQHQ site.
Click here for previous ASG Newsletters
Anyone can sign up for this newsletter by completing the Contact Form at the bottom of the ASG home page: alewife.org We also welcome your questions, comments, ideas, and offers of help!