Water Quality – Page 2 – Belmont Citizens Forum

Arlington Group Opposes Mugar Site Plans

March/April 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Water Quality Comments Off

Mar 022020

Arlington Group Opposes Mugar Site Plans

By Meg Muckenhoupt The Mugar wetlands are 17.7 acres of open land in East Arlington. Oaktree Development has proposed constructing a 207-unit apartment complex and six duplex townhouses on this site, to be renamed Thorndike Place. The Coalition to Save the Mugar Wetlands opposes building on the site, which is bordered by Route 2, Thorndike Field, and Dorothy, Edith, and Burch Streets. The following interview with Clarissa Rowe, one of the founders of the Coalition to Save the Mugar Wetlands, was edited for length and clarity. Why is the Mugar site important? I think the reason Arlington and Belmont residents [READ MORE]

Arlington Group Opposes Mugar Site Plans

Construction and Housing, Environment, March/April 2020, Newsletter, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Mar 022020

Belmont Timeline

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Historic Preservation, History, January 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Sewers, Traffic, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 062020

Belmont Timeline Featuring events significant to the Belmont’s history and Belmont Citizens Forum issues. 1654 The John Chenery house, 52 Washington Street, is built. The Chenery house is the oldest surviving house in Belmont. 1760 The Thomas Clark House is built on what is now Common Street. “Local tradition maintains that the Clark family witnessed the beginning of America’s War for Independence from the hill behind this house, seeing smoke and hearing the sounds of war breaking out on April 19, 1775.” —Joseph Cornish, BCF Newsletter, January 2011. It was moved in 2012, and finally demolished in 2014. 1805 “Ice [READ MORE]

Letter to the Editor: Clay Pit Pond

Environment, January 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 062020

To the Editor: As a neighbor, fan, and defender of poor Clay Pit Pond, I especially enjoyed the recent article (“Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset,” Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, November/December 2019). I would like to add a few more details on the recent history of the pond. When we moved to Belmont in the fall of 1974 there was a shopping cart in the pond by the inlet and advertisements about the upcoming Kiwanis Fishing Derby. I found the cart and derby in great contrast. Apparently the pond was regularly stocked for the event. No one noticed [READ MORE]

20 Years of Belmont Water Trouble

Environment, January 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 062020

By Sumner Brown Belmont has two types of water trouble. One is flooding during heavy rains. The other trouble comes from leaking sewer pipes. Flooding Today, as I write this, there is no flooding in Belmont. Floods are rare enough that we do not make ourselves perpetually anxious about them, but parts of Belmont are vulnerable. In both Belmont and Arlington, people live in what were swamps, and there seem to be 100-year storms every 10 years. Climate change may have something to do with this. The Belmont Citizens Forum advocates for rain gardens and other measures to slow the [READ MORE]

The BCF’s Origin

January 2020, McLean, Newsletter, Sewers, Traffic, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 062020

By Sue Bass This is the 20th anniversary of the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter; the organization was founded a little over 20 years ago. How did that happen, and why? In 1995, McLean Hospital began exploring publicly how to turn part of its 238-acre campus into cash. Psychiatric drugs had revolutionized mental health care; instead of long walks and fresh country air, medicine could prescribe quicker-acting treatment. McLean no longer needed a bucolic campus, and families relying on health insurance could no longer pay for it. The hospital was $40 million or more in debt. This was not the first [READ MORE]

20 Amazing Years of the Belmont Citizens Forum

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Environment, Historic Preservation, History, January 2020, Newsletter, Sewers, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 062020

20 Amazing Years of the Belmont Citizens Forum

By Jim Graves As a founding board member of the Belmont Citizens Forum (BCF), who has been inactive in recent years, I am honored to share these thoughts on why the BCF has been so valuable and to applaud the individuals and supporters who have sustained the BCF for 20 years. Prior to starting the BCF, the founders worked to first improve, then oppose, and nearly defeat the development and zoning changes proposed for 238 acres of open space owned by Partners Healthcare and its subsidiary, McLean Hospital. Legal challenges by the BCF and supporters slowed implementation, and notably, [READ MORE]

Clay Pit Pond Progresses from Eyesore to Asset

Environment, Historic Preservation, History, Newsletter, November 2019, Open Space, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

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]

Belmont’s Underground Pollution Problem

Environment, Newsletter, November 2019, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Nov 042019

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]

Letter to the Editor, July-Aug 2019

Environment, July-Aug 2019, Water Quality Comments Off

Jul 152019

More on disposing in the kitchen sink As a resident of Newton for 20-plus years and an activist in Waltham as well (Waltham Land Trust), I salute Belmont on your newsletter. It stands out, in my experience, as the best suburban NGO volunteer-run information medium. I’ve used its articles in my teaching at Brandeis. So, bravo and well done. I have a question for Mary Bradley, the compost fanatic (I am one, too, and refer to the May/June 2019 article, “Composting in Belmont: Breaking it Down,” typical of BCF articles in its detail and usefulness), and it’s this: has she [READ MORE]

May/June 2019 Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter & PDF

BCF Events, Construction and Housing, Environment, Lone Tree Hill, May/June 2019, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, Recycling, Traffic, Volunteer, Water Quality Comments Off

May 062019

View or download the May/June 2019 issue as a color PDF here, or read single articles below. Articles in this issue: New Plans for McLean Land Density is key issue as town considers proposals for two McLean campus parcels By Sue Bass Twenty years ago, Belmont voted to allow development on McLean Hospital land on Belmont Hill. Now McLean is coming back to the town with new proposals for two parcels of land that are still undeveloped. Read more. Composting in Belmont: Breaking it Down By Mary Bradley Composting is no longer just a backyard hobby for the ardent gardener. [READ MORE]

Painstaking Progress on Belmont’s Multi-Decade Environmental Emergency

Environment, May/June 2019, Newsletter, Open Space, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

May 062019

Painstaking Progress on Belmont’s Multi-Decade Environmental Emergency

By Anne-Marie Lambert Belmont is working under a federal consent order to reduce the pollution it sends into Boston Harbor from leaks and connections of underground sewer pipes into the storm drain system. Cleanup According to the town’s January 30 Compliance Report to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Belmont redirected an additional 126 gallons per day (GPD) of sewage from our brooks and ponds to the Deer Island treatment plant in Boston Harbor. Sources included leaking sewer service laterals and sewer segments on Brettwood Road and Pierce Road (84 GPD) and three leaking sewer service laterals along Hoitt Road [READ MORE]

Belmont Roots, May/June 2019

Environment, May/June 2019, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, Recycling, Volunteer, Water Quality Comments Off

May 062019

Environmental News, Notes, and Events By Meg Muckenhoupt Well, it’s spring, sort of. The average last frost date in Belmont is somewhere between May 1 and May 11, depending on which website you believe—the Old Farmer’s Almanac? Plantmaps.com? But my grandmother in Newton never planted her tomatoes before Memorial Day. Warmth-loving plants such as tomatoes and peppers are sensitive to soil temperature as well as air temperature. They can suffer “transplant shock” and become stunted and grim if roots are a bit too chilled. Seeds are more secure in their identity, and will simply sit and shiver in the soil [READ MORE]

Selectman Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Air Quality, Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Construction and Housing, Environment, Historic Preservation, March/April 2019, Newsletter, Open Space, Solar Power, Stormwater, Town Committee Meetings, Traffic, Water Quality Comments Off

Mar 052019

Selectman Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Belmont Annual Town Election to be Held Tuesday, April 2 Compiled by Mary Bradley Each year the Belmont Citizens Forum asks candidates for selectman about issues the town will likely face in the next three years. Below are candidates Jessie Bennett, Roy Epstein, and Timothy Flood’s unedited replies to our questions about traffic, the environment, development, and other topics. Each candidate was limited to 800 words total. 1. In response to McLean’s proposal to rezone parts of its former campus for housing, school, and R&D use, what would you recommend? Bennett: McLean’s proposed zoning changes do not meet [READ MORE]

How Laterals Get Lined

Construction and Housing, Environment, Jan/Feb 2019, Newsletter, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 142019

Fixing Water Pollution at the Sewer Source By Sumner Brown Sewer leaks get fixed only by physical work on sewer pipes by people with tools. For years Belmont has been lining leaking sewer pipes in the streets, to keep sewage out of our streams. The down-and-dirty of sewer work has been described in this newsletter (“How do Sewers Get Relined?”, BCF Newsletter July/August 2007), a counterpart to former BCF director Anne-Marie Lambert’s articles on the top-down issues of environmental motivation, legal pressure, schedules, progress, and costs. Many of the leaks in streets have been repaired, according to Glenn Clancy, director [READ MORE]

Where Your Drinking Water Comes From

Environment, Nov-Dec 2018, Water Quality Comments Off

Nov 052018

By Ria Convery All photos, maps, and illustrations courtesy of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority unless otherwise noted. Have you ever wondered where your water comes from? Well, it’s kind of a long story. The short answer is that Belmont, like most of eastern and central Massachusetts, gets its water from two reservoirs of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA): the Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown and the Wachusett Reservoir in Clinton. General Plan of the MWRA Water System Our region’s water system is one of the oldest in the country. Its long history started with local wells in the 1700s, [READ MORE]

Sewer Repairs In Progress to Clean Up Wellington Brook and Winn’s Brook

Construction and Housing, Environment, Newsletter, Sept-Oct 2018, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Sep 122018

Sewer Repairs In Progress to Clean Up Wellington Brook and Winn’s Brook

By Anne-Marie Lambert All images and graphics courtesy of the Town of Belmont, prepared for the town by Stantec Consulting Services Inc. A home in Belmont with four occupants sends about 210 gallons a day of wastewater into the town sewer system.1 When an underground sanitary sewer pipe collapses in a neighborhood where the storm drain is located below the sewer in the same underground trench, the sewage leaks into the storm drain and then into our rivers and ponds. This happened on Homer Road, a small street off Hastings Road. The sewer pipe and storm drain serve three homes [READ MORE]

Environmental Events: September–October 2018

Environment, Newsletter, Sept-Oct 2018, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Sep 122018

Mystic River Watershed Association Tuesday, September 11, 8–9 PM Mass Rivers Alliance Policy Director Gabby Queenan will present ways to engage in effective advocacy for the Mystic River. mysticriver.org. 20 Academy Street, Arlington. CoastSweep Cleanup Friday, September 21, 9 AM–12 PM Join Charles River Conservancy for their annual CoastSweep Cleanup. CoastSweep is a statewide event to raise awareness and clean waterfronts. With CRC you will remove litter and debris from the parklands and collect data on the specific types of debris found. Volunteers can work in two locations in Cambridge and Watertown. mass.gov/coastsweep. To volunteer, RSVP via email to [READ MORE]

Great Blue Heron Chicks a Welcome Addition to Alewife Reservation

Environment, July-Aug 2018, Newsletter, Open Space, Water Quality Comments Off

Jul 172018

Great Blue Heron Chicks a Welcome Addition to Alewife Reservation

By Sara McCabe Birders and conservationists have been overjoyed by the discovery this spring of a great blue heron rookery in the Alewife Brook Reservation. Many believe this to be the only great blue heron roost for at least 20 miles. The herons’ selection of Jerry’s Pond in North Cambridge as the site for their two nests is especial cause for excitement. This artificial pond was created in 1870 from an old clay pit, used as a public swimming hole from 1913 to 1961, then closed for suspected contamination. It has been fenced off for nearly 60 years despite its [READ MORE]

BCF Director Anne-Marie Lambert Celebrated as a Massachusetts “Unsung Heroine”

July-Aug 2018, Staycation, Stormwater, Volunteer, Water Quality Comments Off

Jul 172018

BCF Director Anne-Marie Lambert Celebrated as a Massachusetts “Unsung Heroine”

Congratulations to Belmont Citizens Forum board member Anne-Marie Lambert, who was chosen by state Representative Dave Rogers as the 2018 “Unsung Heroine” for his district and received the award in the Great Hall of Flags at the Massachusetts State House on June 20. Each year the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women partners with state legislators to identify one woman from each of their constituencies who “doesn’t always make the news, but truly makes the difference.” “Anne-Marie Lambert is an environmentalist with deep knowledge of the land and water of Belmont,” Rogers wrote in the biographical sketch he submitted. [READ MORE]

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