 | Newsletter #49July 13, 2025 https://alewife.org |
The ASG Newsletter includes the following announcements:
- Alewife Study Group Help Request
- Red Line Hi-Rail Tunnel Update
- Cambridge, Arlington, and Community Groups Urging Action on Sewage Dumping Around Alewife Station
Alewife Study Group Help Request
Last month, the Alewife Study Group (ASG) observed our 30th anniversary as a North Cambridge neighborhood group. We work to learn about issues affecting our community. We then share our findings with the community, listen to the community, and work with the community to advocate for policies that protect and benefit our community.
To reach as many North Cambridge residents as possible, ASG is looking for help interpreting and translating between English and other languages commonly used in our neighborhood. If you are bilingual or multi-lingual, and willing to occasionally help with this, please contact ASG at https://alewife.org/contact
Red Line Hi-Rail Tunnel Update
Since last fall, ASG has been reporting in our newsletters on the MBTA’s proposal to build a Red Line Hi-Rail Access Tunnel at Alewife Station. For background information and previous updates, see ASG Newsletters 39-46. And, in the Explore Issues section of the ASG website, see Asbestos, Transportation, and Habitat and Ecosystem.
ASG is currently reviewing all of the MBTA’s Response to ASG’s Comments on the MBTA’s draft RAM Plan for this project. For more about this, see “MassDEP RAM Plan Updates” in ASG Newsletter 45. Once ASG completes our review, we will share our comments with the MBTA, MassDEP, other stakeholder organizations, city and state staff and elected officials, and the community at large.
Cambridge, Arlington, and Community Groups Urging Action on Sewage Dumping Around Alewife Station
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the Cities of Cambridge and Somerville continue to work towards an updated Long-Term Control Plan (LTCP) for combined sewer overflows (CSOs) along the Mystic River and Charles River, to reduce the dumping of raw sewage into our rivers. Alewife Brook is the site of the largest untreated sewage discharges in the Greater Boston area. Two of the locations where much of this sewage is pumped into Alewife Brook (CAM401a and MWR003) are next to the Alewife T station, run by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA).
The MBTA is currently looking for a private developer to rebuild Alewife Station. Several community groups, including Green Cambridge, Save the Alewife Brook, and Alewife Study Group, have been urging government officials to begin a process for public input on the design and permitting of this project. For example, we want to use the station redevelopment as an opportunity to add green infrastructure (such as stormwater wetlands, like we already have at Alewife Reservation), and grey infrastructure (such as underground storage tanks for CSO discharges), to help reduce sewage going into Alewife Brook.
In September of 2024, Arlington sent a letter to the MBTA and Governor Healy asking for cooperation between agencies to help make this happen. This letter can be found here (thanks to Save the Alewife Brook for posting it). On June 16, 2025, after weeks of effort by many community advocates, Cambridge passed a policy order that similarly asked for such cooperation. Many community residents spoke at the City Council in favor of reducing sewage flowing into Alewife Brook. The full policy order can be downloaded from the City of Cambridge by clicking here.
This coming Fall, MWRA, Cambridge, and Somerville will present their plans for managing CSOs. ASG and the other community groups hope that these plans will be changed to include CSO reduction through the redevelopment of Alewife Station. Their plan will be formally submitted at the end of 2025. More details about the planning process for CSOs can be found here, and you can sign up to receive email updates here. It will be important to have many residents attend the public planning meeting in the Fall. The date has not been announced yet. Once it is, ASG will post the information in our newsletter.
Green Cambridge is working on creating a broader set of community goals for the station redevelopment that include reducing CSOs with green and grey infrastructure, and better transportation connections and green corridors around the station. By forming a strong and aligned coalition, our community can make our collective voice heard in these important planning processes.
ASG will continue to update the community about opportunities for participation and input in this process, and share materials as they become available. The issue of CSOs in the area has been recently covered in the press by Cambridge Day and CommonWealth Beacon.