Note

    11:05PM Apr 9, 2024

    Speakers:

    Gene Benson

    Gwen Speeth

    Kristin Anderson

    Susan Stamps

    Beth Melofchik, Arlington

    Cathy Coniaris

    Lealdon Langley

    Dave Rogers

    John Worden

    Michael Cunningham

    David Stoff

    Michael Rainey

    Macky Buck

    Andy Hrycyna

    Cynthia Hibbard, Green Cambridge

    Sage Carbone, Cambridge City Growers

    Janice Brodman

    Nicole Gustus

    Ann Stewart, Cambridge Activist

    Gary Goldsmith

    Melanie Abrams

    Ann McDonald

    Dr. Jac Goldstein

    Peg McAdams

    Kate Schell

    Anne Thompson

    Patricia Worden

    Keywords:

    cso

    brook

    variance

    cambridge

    somerville

    arlington

    sewage

    dep

    comments

    issue

    years

    provide

    live

    sewer

    mystic river

    speak

    discharges

    water

    commenter

    speakers

    For over 73 people suddenly for

    zoom

    real estate

    folks to new if you're not thinking to comment, please. Tory Is there is there a mute all button somewhere that I'm missing

    there is but I'll take care of it. Okay thank you

    already folks and we'll get started momentarily people.

    Someone is having microphone problems and I will send them the link with the information on how to submit comments.

    I was just doing that myself but you want to do it for me because I was responding to someone else. That Thank you

    excuse me, were you just speaking about be making a public comment. Yes, sir. And the method for that is in the chat. Because I correct the method for that is going to be to place your name in the chat and we will call on you in the order in which you know we get the names and and so we'll call on you and your your your comments will be verbal. And then we also are encouraging people to submit their comments in writing as well.

    And we're going to we're going to walk through some of that

    in the waiting room here for a moment more, and we'll get started

    I'll have a brief statement. Explain the rules of the road. Okay.

    Great. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

    All right, so it's about 10 After I think, Hey, we should try and get started here.

    I'm gonna hit record

    to cloud recording in progress.

    Okay.

    Good evening. My name is Lealdon Langley. I'm the Director of the Division of Watershed Management for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, also known as MassDEP.

    I will act as the hearing officer for this mass DEP proceeding. Masking P has has made Spanish and Portuguese language translations available for tonight's hearing. And you will be able to access those by clicking the interpretation button in the toolbar at the bottom of your screen. Regardless of which language you want to hear the the proceedings and whether it's English, Spanish or Portuguese. You will need to click one of those buttons in order to take care of so please look at the bottom of your screen and click the language of your choice in the interpretation button.

    Please be aware that this public hearing is being recorded.

    Please add your name and affiliation if you need in the chat. feature so we will have a record of attendees. Also if you wish to comment, please indicate that please indicate that when you enter your name in the chat. And please do not however replace your comments on the variances in the chat is the comments placed in the chat will not be included as formal public comments for mass DPS response to comments document.

    I'm going to ask folks to speak slowly and clearly because we are providing real time translation. The translators will need time to hear what has been said and translate them for the folks from the other rooms okay to please in a relaxed a little bit so you don't speak too rapidly. And try to try to remind yourself to speak clearly and slowly enough for the translations to occur.

    To minimize background excuse me noise and interference. We ask attendees to please keep your microphones muted. You may unmute when called upon in the order you are requested to speak so that you may provide your comments. Prior to speaking we ask that you state your name and affiliation if you're speaking on behalf of a group or organization.

    There's public hearing is being held in accordance with applicable procedures pursuant to the Massachusetts surface water quality standards 314 CMR 4.03 parentheses or parentheses C. The purpose of this hearing is to accept comments on maski EPS proposal to adopt variances for CSL discharges to both the ill wife growth and the upper Mystic River and lower Charles River. The CSOs and these water bodies are owned and operated by the Massachusetts Water Resources authority, the City of Cambridge and the City of Somerville is reminder if you're just joining the meeting, you must choose the language as we are providing English and Portuguese translation which you may access at the bottom of your screen through the interpretation tab.

    I will first offer the opportunity for any elected officials federal state and local to provide their comments and then I will call on people to speak in the order that they are listed in the chat.

    Each person will have three minutes to provide their comments, then every person who wishes to provide comments will have an opportunity to do so. I will be keeping time is urging people to complete their comments when they reach the three minute mark. If your comments will exceed three minutes in length, I will ask that you pause your remarks so that other speakers are able to comment and we will provide an opportunity after everyone else has had a chance to comment for you to conclude your remarks. We urge you to also submit written comments by the close of business on April 22 2024, at which time the comment period will close. The STP strongly encourages written comments to be submitted by email to Katherine dot Connie RS co n i A R is at Mass. I'm sorry.

    Oh shoot. Sorry. I started charactering that Connie Aris co n i A r i s@mass.gov

    with the subject line CSO variances, if not possible, please send by mail to mass DEP attention Cathy Coniaris, whenever Cambridge Street Suite 900 Boston, Massachusetts. Oh 2114.

    Well, before it submits the MassDEP comment page, and I'm sure it's in the chat. I'm looking it up right now.

    Dave, can you read it out?

    It's not my email address.

    Yes, email address.

    Mas de EP dot public comment on these things down here nip these p u b LIC COMNENTNP D s@mass.gov. I will write the email address in the chat session. Thank you. All right. Yes, the church has since changed from the icons at the bottom. Sure there is a if you see the icons at the bottom of your screen. There is on my screen it is like the fifth one over from the left side. It's labeled chat and it has like a little comment bubble. I don't have I guess share screen for one icon. And the next one on the right is summary I don't have a chat. You don't have a chat with three dots.

    What were three No.

    Three dots.

    At the bottom where the icons there should be three dots and it says more underneath it.

    You may also it may help to enlarge to full view your screen sometimes some of the icons are hidden.

    Yes, have the more or less there's content show cat videos. Then request permission to record on this computer and request her start cloud recording I'm not interested in any terms. They just want to get into the chat. How do I get into it says chat at the top. Do I take on that? If you have a chat at the top yes yes click on

    OK. Then this is this is where the tone or self is the wants to speak. We have three target in there. Is that correct?

    Yes, yes. If you want to speak please type your name any affiliation with any organization and indicate which you would like to speak please put it below because I and my husband are on the same computer. His name is John. Okay. Could you enter it? Would you mind entering both of your names so we'll know that there's two of you who want to speak from from the same computer ready to answer that right here.

    Right now.

    When we want speak right now

    and it's giving you trouble we can enter your name for you about fishing

    Okay, okay, so then she said Patricia John was my husband is a former moderator is a current Turing machine.

    I better run a good meeting then because he'll know if I don't right.

    Okay, so I just get on to Jason Grinch. He wants to speak is that correct? Yes, please. All right.

    Thank you. Thank you very well.

    Let us know if you if you had a couple okay.

    Okay, I now call this hearing to order at 7:18pm.

    On Tuesday, April 9 2024.

    If this time I offered the opportunity for any elected officials to provide your comments.

    I'm aware that there were some elected officials who were registered and on on the roster. I have a Representative David Rogers of representative Sean Garballey and Michael Cunningham, the ArlingtonTown Counsel. And I also have an aide to Catherine Kelly, who is an HR representative Owens. So I will first call on actually first let me ask Are there any other elected officials who would like to speak if you if there are please unmute your microphone and let us know.

    And I have a couple of kids raised at Lake

    Yes, I do not have yet an interpretation. channel available

    Let me try it. Okay.

    Did you log in with the email? Yes, you did. It's showing you is in my box. It's showing you is not joined.

    Thank you

    work.

    I don't know if I need a password. Let me do this. I will find you and I may be able to just allow you to join that word. Okay.

    Jim Ward and I'm an elected county member of the town of Burlington. Okay.

    Thank you, Mr. 54 years.

    Adelaide airport, why don't we send you the email. Thank you. Efficient. Thank you. Let me let me try this.

    A trade right away. Can you try it again? Yeah, did you but I don't know if this is gonna work this one visual that nothing shows on my on my end. It should show the option for me. And it doesn't.

    Tory Can you what's the best way can you give me the hand here. So just for something email if you're having trouble logging in through that email link. I will I will give you a moment thank you

    Mr. Rogers representative Rogers.

    Yes, yes, I'm here.

    Do this just a moment if you don't mind. We're trying to make sure we've got the interpretation available.

    And I'll be happy to take your comments.

    Sure. That's fine. Thank you. Thank You.

    readmitting. Emily?

    I believe is the Portuguese channel open to you? Yes.

    No, man.

    It's true. Showing her is not joined. Yeah. Are you gonna be logged into a zoo signed in?

    I have when I click on the link that you sent.

    I just I'm in a registration page and makes me register again, which I had before. And so I just did the whole thing again with the same email and it just I ended up here without the interpretation channel unfortunately.

    So Manny, do you have any advice because you have successfully entered the Spanish channel

    Yeah, yes.

    I have asked all the chat for anyone that needs Portuguese to identify themselves they haven't so far

    is the expert I could restart it for interpreter tutori there's an X you know the next that I could just click that bit it may add laid out.

    But it may give her a chance to rejoin them not quite sure how it will function

    to think I tried to I felt just just to see

    all right. Adelaide, try it now.

    It should say in the bottom of my screen, it should give the option for me to join the channel and if nothing like that is coming out. I have the exact same screen that I would have if I was just a participant and not an interpreter.

    Nothing is happening on my own we pray there's an interpreter button when you could.

    Alright, here's the Update button.

    It worked.

    Eradication okay.

    I liked it better when we just shook each other's hands and tried to find a city right easier. All right. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate your patience.

    Representative Rogers. We would be happy to receive your comments.

    Okay, great. Well, first off, I want to thank DEP for holding the hearing. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to make some brief remarks.

    I'm the State Representative for the 24th Middlesex district that includes Arlington, including East Arlington, North Cambridge and Belmont. I live in North Cambridge just a block or two from the Alewife Brook, and I've been working on issues to do with the brook, and the CSOs and contamination and pollution for ever since I was elected.

    I recently got some money for the Mystic River Watershed to study actions that can be taken to improve water quality, including and also to deal with flooding by studying whether to dredge I have a bill pending in the legislature right now, which would mandate that the CSOs are closed and dealt with by 2035. It was reported out favorably from the Natural Resources Environment and Natural Resources Committee. It's now in the Ways and Means Committee and I plan to keep promoting that bill.

    And I will say generally, ever since I've started working on this issue, what you hear is it's two things. It's difficult, complex, that is the hydrology, the engineering, so it's complex, and it's expensive, and it's a refrain, repeated over and over that it's complex, and it's expensive, which I appreciate, but we can't wait forever to deal with this problem because the discharges into the brook are violate the Clean Water Act. I mean, we're here to talk I know about a variance, which I think was first a form of this variance first. came into being I believe, in 1999, so a quarter century ago, and here we are a quarter century later and we're still having this conversation. So I do appreciate and believe that climate change in the new increasing rainfall related to climate change will now be factored into the modeling. And so that's a good thing.

    But you know, even just this past summer, people with strollers and joggers and people walking were impacted by contaminated water without even knowing it. There is a new law about notification. But it's not always working perfectly. It's an improvement. So I'm really just here to say to DEP as you consider this very this variance that you thoroughly considered what conditions might be best imposed before the variance is issued. Certainly the that climate change is a factor. And

    it's, as I said at the outset of my remarks, this has gone on for a very long time. I'm glad my bill was reported out. This must be dealt with by 2035.

    Because frankly, sometimes when I talked to very well meaning people in Cambridge Somerville the MWRA all you know, good public servants, but what I hear over and over again, is it that refrain of the complexity and the expense and so we need to find a way to solve the problem and thanks for listening to my remarks. And I'll listen with interest to to other remarks here today as well. Thank you.

    Thank you, Mr. Representative.

    At this time I'd like to call on Representative Sean Garballey if he's available.

    If he's not here, I just want to have he's my colleague, we share representation of Arlington. I know Representative Garballey. He has many of the same concerns that I do, but if he's here, I'll let him speak but if he's not it, just want those on the call who maybe live in Arlington that are represented by Representative Garballey and now he's very involved in equally concerned about these issues. Yes, and I was expecting to be here so we will circle back and see if you're able to join us.

    At this time, I'd like to call on Michael Cunningham the Arlington Town Council.

    Pico is to me this the instruction

    No.

    Okay.

    Katherine Holly a representative Ellen's Are you available? Hi. This is Catherine Tulley from Rep Owen's office. He does not have any formal comments but wants to thank you all for hosting this hearing and we are looking forward to hearing the comments. today. Thank you. Thank you very much.

    Mr. Horton indicated interest to speak as a town moderator for the town for Arlington. Thanks. Thank you, sir. John Worden.

    I was Moderator for 19 years. Today.

    My return now and I've been in town meeting member, elected town meeting members since 1970. So I've been involved in environmental issues for a long time. That's longer than anyone else here and that back in the early 70s. I was president of the Arlington Conservation Association, and we pushed environmental issues and conservation at a time when a lot of people couldn't even spell those words.

    That with respect to the CSOs in, in the country, the Alewife book our 10 years ago took the steps necessary complex and expensive though it was to eliminate any CSOs that we were putting into that book, and our neighbors on the other side of the book, who are much wealthier than we are in terms of their financial ability to things have continued, adding to the pollution and the pollution. I might say that in the town of Arlington, there are a lot of residential properties that are very close to the book. Whereas in Cambridge and Somerville, there's very little of any of that because there are wide in the Cambridge side dishes, Alewife Brook Parkway, and green sward between that in the book and in Somerville and those is the stadium is commercial buildings.

    So on again, there's a highway between those buildings and the book. So all the CSOs that Cambridge Somerville are pouring into the brook, causing pollution and health hazards of the town of Arlington, as representative Rogers pointed out, we've been working with tests for 25 years, and now he wants to it now he wants to make appeal, which appeals to legislators say, well, let's clean it up for the next 11 years. And that's totally unacceptable. Let Cambridge let the EPA demand require whatever that cities cities of Cambridge and Somerville do what Arlington did years ago, clean up describe them complex and expensive as it may be, and give everybody a break from the sewage that flowing into the homes of people around and thank you.

    Thank you, Mr. worden.

    Mr. Cunningham, I see that you have joined us I believe that you are the town council for the channel Arlington. We're missing an opportunity for elected and appointed officials to speak and we're offering you that opportunity now if you're available, and we should speak

    thank you for this opportunity.

    I know that this is Michael Cunningham Town Council, the town of Arlington.

    Sorry, I was late to the meeting. However, I just want to say that I support those like Mr. Warden and others you know, typically been working on these issues for a long time. I know that the Select Board has been active and in this various groups in Arlington and I just want to stress that the town supports the efforts of those who've worked very hard to make sure that this is a fair process and that the people of Arlington could gain some relief from this, these issues that are ongoing, but appreciate your time. And I'm going to continue to listen. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham.

    Are there any other elected or appointed officials who would like to make comments at this time?

    Okay, and before we proceed, I'd like to remind folks that the public hearing is being translated in Spanish and Portuguese in separate rooms. So when you provide, excuse me, when you provide your comments, remember that you must select language English, Portuguese, or Spanish. It's available in the tab the toolbar at the bottom of your screen. There's a tab that says interpretations and you can select English, Portuguese or Spanish. So please do that. And remember to speak clearly and slowly to provide time for the translators to translate. And with that, I would like to move to our next commenter to pick Alex can you Okay, David stuff it yourself.

    Yep, I'm I've just unmuted myself. Am I audible? Yes, you are. Yeah, my apologies. I'm just getting over an illness. So my throat is really not where it should be. So if I'm audible, I hope I can be audible through the entire comments here. Well, first of all, I just like to thank the participants who showed up for this. It's an overwhelming expression of support for the Alewife Brook and the Charles River and, you know, for an arcane regulatory process, a lot of people are here, and I'm glad you are. So I'm Dave Stoff. I'm an Arlington resident and tonight I'm speaking as an abutter to the Alewife Brook. My home is right on the Alewife which has six combined sewer outfalls, dumping untreated sewage and industrial waste into the brook. And I'm here to testify in opposition to the proposed variance. I've participated in regulatory actions about the ill wife for over 20 years. And my expectation has always been that DDP would act to protect the health of our community and enforce the Alewife's existing class B water quality standard, rather than waive.

    So the law encourages consideration of site specific conditions and the proximity of untreated sewage discharges to a densely populated and heavily used area here on the Alewife and on the Charles by CAM005 and the evidence that you have a routine contact with these discharges ought to be sufficient for DDP to use its best professional judgment and require discharges to meet a water quality standard that protects safe human contact. And that the department chooses to waive that standard enforces a really cynical belief that they care more about the short term economic benefits to discharges than they do about protecting the health of our community.

    You know, the waters of Massachusetts they're held in trust for the citizens of the Commonwealth, and using them as sewers prioritizes, a short term economic benefit for a few over their value to us all in the future. And I think people who follow us will look very unkindly on these variances. And Okay, so that said, as far as this variance is concerned, it is short on requirements to meet the high interim standard and claims as a goal. And again and again when I read this simple compliance with existing legal requirements is substituted for real progress. You know, as an example, our community has requested real time notification of sewage discharges for over 20 years. And despite evidence of the failure of the existing notification system DEP insists that it's adequate and the variance has no requirement in it to improve on it. Now, how is that progress? You know, another long standing community concern is the unsanitary condition of tannery Brook. Now I'm going to use you know, my, my version of screen share. I don't know how well that's gonna show up. But that's toilet paper in Tannery Brook from a summer this summer. And this image has been frequently reproduced by Save the Alewife Brook.

    Okay.

    So DEP insists that the floatable is control a tannery Brook are adequate, you know, but how is what we saw in that picture and it's actually worse there now adequate you know, it's obvious that some kind of post discharge control like netting or a boon is necessary at that site along with periodic cleanup. Somerville failed to meet court order goals for this outfall. And incredibly, there is not a requirement in the Variance for a mitigation project to improve conditions at Somerville double O one A and how is that progress?

    You know, I recognize that it's a three minute comment and if there's chance at the end of the hearing and I have more detailed comments, but to close you know, for too long neighborhood has been used as cheap hydraulic relief for the MWRA sewer system and the discharges that this variance authorizes are not abstractions to me. And I would hope that you would appreciate that things look very different from from our end of the pipe.

    In for people who are attended attending this meeting, like me, are frustrated with the lack of progress along the Alewife and elsewhere.

    Remember, DEP doesn't have the final say about this. You get the last word here. If you don't like the variance, and I do not, then join people like me and tell your state legislators like state like rep Rogers to support the legislation he was speaking about that requires affordable elimination of untreated sewage discharges in the MWRA district. The waters of Massachusetts belong to us and we get to say how they're used. And if you think it's time to stop using them as sewers, tell the legislature to act and just avoid the cynicism that perhaps you might feel at the end of this process. So thanks for letting me speak. And it's nice to see the face Mr. Langley.

    Thank you for your comment.

    I just face just to remind folks that we're not answering questions tonight or it's not an informational session. So we're happy to receive the comments but we're unable to sort of engage in in conversation to answer and discuss the the issues

    so thank you for that and I am moving on to our next commenter, Michael Rainey.

    Mr. Rainey

    Hello, yes. Can you hear me yes, we can. Okay. My name is Michael Rainey. I live on marathon Street Radio Broadway. Not far from LA freq. there the other day I took a stroll along Airlife Brook from Broadway to Thorndyke Park and it was lovely. The next day there's been a lot of precipitation overnight and I went the same route and there were numerous places that were completely obstructed. Some of which, closer to the park where the brook had completely flooded over the path.

    And and I was faced with a choice at that point whether I could go back the way I came and find a different route or climb up a grassy embankment and climb over a fence to get to the street and or not. And there was a CSM of that day. So you know I didn't want to like wade through the water.

    And it occurred to me that people with mobility impairments would not be able to make the choice I did which was to go up the hill and climb over the fence. They would have to go all the way back to some point where they could get back out and find a different route to go where they were going.

    So as part of as part of some kind of variance.

    I would like to see the permittees invest in greater access to the path from alternative routes. So that if there is a flood, people could more easily get out and find an alternative route.

    You know to avoid the sewage.

    One of the groups has proposed a light system alerting the public to the presence of a CSO, I would advocate for non light system to include indication whether the paths is obstructed at a point so that they could choose an alternative route before it's too late for them to not have to make a backtrack.

    I didn't I looked through the fact sheets. I didn't have time to read them in depth, but I didn't see anything in there about enforcement actions, what enforcement actions are available who administers them any enforcement actions that have been taken for past violations. of the previous variants. And before a variance was granted, I would really like to have that spelled out who's going to enforce these rules, how are they going to enforce them? And what kinds of penalties are going to be applied to the violators?

    You know, I oppose sewage flows into my neighborhood in general, it's disgusting and it's not helpful. It's bad for the environment. But these are some individual issues besides that that I had thought of. So I thought I would share those I'm done. Thank you.

    Thank you

    in the next commenters Mackay, Buck.

    Okay, Hi, I'm Becky buck. I live in North Cambridge, again, not far from the wife Brooke. Um, I oppose the variance. I'm not going to speak too long, because I feel like everything that I want to say has been said quite articulately by others. I'm very glad that David Rodgers has got this legislation moving about fixing it. Up by 2035. Although I feel like that's a long, far away.

    I sit here wondering if I'm someone who has access to modern sewage treatment and I I'm not 100% sure because I haven't seen maps but it feels like I don't and certainly my neighbors don't. And there's just something wrong about that. Yes. We've.

    Without really meaning chill, we've wandered into a situation where we have really trashed this planet. Now we know better we know what we need to do. To fix it up. We know the stakes of having ecosystems that really work versus ecosystems that don't work and this needs to be fixed. And that's all I have to say.

    Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

    The next commenter is Andy her Saina I'm sorry if I butchered your last name.

    I probably. It's perfect. Thank you. I am Andy Hrycyna, the watershed scientist at the Mystic River Watershed Association resubmission of courses to protect and restore the Mystic River and all its tributaries, including the ill wife broken. Thank you for this additional opportunity to come in. As an organization. We are of two minds here with respect to the variants and specifically with respect to ill wife, which is incidentally, the scene of the largest completely untreated CSO releases on any river stream in Greater Boston.

    On the one hand, we officially support the issuance of the variance because we understand that that's the only practical way forward as the final planning for the long term solution is underway and we appreciate all the expertise and energy and public outreach that MWRA and Cambridge and Somerville are bringing to that complex as others have said process of presenting later this year alternatives for final permanent solutions to the CSO problem, a problem that, by the way, is predicted by the parties themselves to get substantially worse in the face of climate change. So on the one hand, we support the issuance of variance but it's also an admission that water quality objectives are not being met that the promise as others have said that of the Clean Water Act, the promise of the Clean Water Act is not being met. It's an admission that a stream named for migratory fish that, by the way, are making their way back up to the Mystic River in the hundreds of 1000s as we speak for the annual spawning migration. That stream will be allowed to legally continue to accept CSO releases on the scale of 10s of millions of gallons a year. We, of course don't want our support of the variance as a legal mechanism to imply that we do not think that that legal permission should continue indefinitely, and that we believe that CSOs on they always should be eliminated once and for all. We also don't think that as a community of partners, all of us in solving this big public problem that we should take this as permission to do nothing for the next five years. Even as there's other plans that are being made the the other plans will require doubtless massive public investment and political will to execute in the long term. But there are things that we can do this is a kind of narrow point.

    That don't require that huge scale public spending, that the various variants should be incentivizing and demanding as a matter of its conditions on in the meantime, that things that can be nonetheless important for improving conditions I'll just give two examples.

    inflow and infiltration of water into the sanitary sewer system is a well known contributor to overflows in Alewife Brook and the upper mystic. We think the various conditions should require MWRA to analyze CSO events over the past five years and a wife Brooke could identify instances where concurrent access flow from separate sewer lines connecting to Alewife Brook and Alewife per conduit happened and to provide technical assistance and urged communities contributing excess flow to prioritize this I work during those flows. And the second we would like to echo the remarks of others that's imperative to add requirements to enhance notification by installing highly visible maybe electronic signage on that outfalls on the Alewife brook when they are discharging. It's well understood that CSO material as people have said overflows the banks and extreme storms and in dangerous the public health of surrounding neighborhoods including environmental justice neighborhoods. That as Dr. Nathan Sanders has shown a disproportionate exposure to see us Oh releases all around the state. So thank you, and I will stop my comments there. Thanks so much. Thank you at

    the next commenter is Cynthia Hubbard.

    Hebert Sorry.

    Hi, good evening, everyone. My name is Cynthia Hibbard. I am the President and Board Chair for green Cambridge, green Cambridge. Runs environmental programs and reservation including trail maintenance, bank restoration, invasive species removal volunteer cleanup days, and the mayor Summer Youth Program.

    CSO number CAM401A is right next to a small piece of property that's owned by green Cambridge in the north reservation. And it's also immediately adjacent to the MBTA property. We're very concerned that encampments of unhoused people are being flooded during CSO events. There has been an enhanced person who can't live next to the MBTA garage. We think that encampment was empty when it was flooded by the combined sewer overflow last week. However, there are many encampments in the Alewife reservation that were occupied and possibly exposed. We would like to ask the warning system that our partners have proposed include an alert that be provided directly to the Cambridge health department, especially to those people who would be responsible for the health of the unhoused and then have that alert occur with enough time so that the health department could send people to the Wi Fi reservation to move in Catlin's before they're flooded by sewage outflows. Thank you very much.

    The next commenter is sage Carbone.

    Sage carbona You're still with us?

    Yeah, sorry about that. Thank you. Sage carbone, Cambridge resident, co founder of Cambridge City growers. And I think that words do not do justice to the inequities happening in the Alewife Brook overflow space.

    Simply all that someone needs to do is walk there.

    Smell what's going on. Immediately you will know that not only is this unethical a breach of environmental morals, it is there is no reason to continue at the current levels. These need to be reduced.

    Point blank period it is poisoning our neighborhood. Thank you.

    Thank you.

    The next commenter is Janice Broadman.

    Sorry about that.

    So I am speaking for eight neighbors. And so I'd like to make a kind of a process comment and then more substantively about the issue.

    I found out about this meeting today about three hours ago. And I let my neighbors know because we've been discussing this for a while.

    Because most of us have young children or many of us have young children and really couldn't join.

    I'm going to speak for all these eight neighbors.

    So I've lived in Arlington for I mean Arlington and I'm not we don't live near our F block but we use that area. Our kids ride bikes there people will push strollers there etc. And I sorry in Arlington over 30 years and during that time, you know we've seen we keep seeing that this is gonna get cleaned up and and yet it keeps getting postponed and I have new neighbors who have children and are concerned and I've been saying no, don't worry, this is being addressed. We're good. It's you know, two months ago, before I knew there was a variance requested and I think I think that actually if this were more publicized, you'd get an enormous reaction that this is just a sliver of what actually people feel about this issue. So I you know, I want to express our concern about the variance and an objection to the variance and hope that there's a way I mean, I appreciate that. There has been outreach and in an effort to include people but I think there needs to be more of an effort because everyone's busy people have small children were working etc. It's hard for people to realize what's going on. But this is an enormously important issue for many, many people I know in Arlington and probably in our adjoining town. So I just want to offer our objection to the to the variance and hope that this time we'll just address the issue and not postpone addressing it. Thank you.

    Okay, so we have a request in the chat to mention a few speakers coming up. So that they have time to prepare. So the next speaker is Nicole Ghostess. After that is an Stuart after that is Beth mill off chick so Nicole says please provide us your comments.

    Hi, sorry about this.

    I didn't know I would be so soon. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Fantastic. My name is Nicole Gustus, and I live close to the wife Brooke, my partner and I were walking by down by buy ill LifeStation the other day and we saw a swan swimming in the brook, which would have been lovely if it weren't, didn't have just blow it aside about the potential sewage outflow and why it was not safe to even touch the water that was there. Because there could be raw sewage in it. And there's something that really reduces the glamour of a swan. When you're wondering a GIANT TURD is going to pop up next to it and I'm sorry to be crude but that is the reality that we live with.

    The LA River Greenway should be a wonderful resource for everyone. And instead it's a it's an open sewer on any day when there is a substantial amount of rain my inbox is I checked before I got on the call it is full of CSOs who are alert or CSO alerts because I'm signed up to the program.

    Things need to be done. There needs to be consequences if if there is going to be a variance and from what I understand there.

    There's not a lot that can be done to avoid it. There needs to be consequences for the people who, for the organizations who have not yet met the requirements that they are supposed to meet. Otherwise, it's going to keep kicking the can down the road and we're going to have people who are kids now who are going to grow up and still be experiencing the same disgusting things that they are experiencing today. We also need to if this variance happens, it needs to happen along with mitigation strategies that can happen right now in order to decrease the amount of stormwater overflows it's going in.

    I am I am very frustrated.

    It's it is when I go on my daily walks. I basically have to choose where I'm going to go based on whether it has rained because I don't want to slosh through the sewer. And I'd like it to stop and I don't want to know that five years from now we're going to have just another variance and just another variance anything that happens needs to happen. Any business that happens needs to happen with a plan with timelines and due dates and actual understanding that at the end of the five years this is going to be resolved.

    Thank you I yield my time. To the next person. Okay, so the next three speakers are an Stuart bass Smolov check in very good Have you please mute.

    Mike.

    Thank you.

    The next three speakers are and Stuart Ethnologue check and Gary Goldsmith. And please provide your comments.

    I live in Cambridge and I can walk to the afterlife TV station. One of the issues that disturbs me a lot is the Commonwealth has several hands in operation here on the one hand, pushing hard for affordable housing to be built all around the two stations.

    On the other hand, we have a CSO issue here. We also have CSL outflows in the Charles River.

    I don't know what my DPW it Cambridge has in terms of clout to say to the Commonwealth to the DDP to dcr.

    We have a state budget. That's a real concern now, are we actually going to move forward with this? What are you going to contribute to helping Cambridge and Somerville so that our lieutenant doesn't turn around and sue Sue? Us?

    So I also suggest that of the our ADA participants, so this call, what you can do is whenever it rains, now we're going to have a heavy rainstorm. Don't use appliances that use water. Thank you

    Okay, the next three speakers are best left check. Gary Goldsmith and Sylvia Dominguez. We have a total of nine speakers lined up, if you may provide your comments.

    Thank you, Jack. I'm a town meeting member in Arlington, and I oppose this variance. I understand from Mr. Warden that Arlington closed their CSOs decades ago, and I don't understand what's preventing Cambridge and Somerville from doing the same except that Mr. Lang Lee's office and then wo ra are not forcing them to I

    don't understand how for decades, in Arlington residential neighborhood is used as an open sewer for the convenience of wealthier neighboring towns cities, Somerville and Cambridge. This is unacceptable. When Will Mr. Lang Lee's office prioritize public health? Arlington Public Health When will that be prioritized? This is ridiculous. It's 2024. And we have untreated human waste in a water body that's getting into neighborhoods, people's yards, people's basements. I mean, seriously. Now, in terms of on site, real time warning light notification system. How quickly can you get that up? We need green infrastructure to capture stormwater and reduce the CSO discharges. When will Somerville and Cambridge provide plans to show how they will be diverting the increased stormwater we can expand from climate change expect from climate change when will we see those plans? Again, Arlington residential neighborhood is an open sewer of convenience for two wealthier neighboring towns.

    Somerville, as I understand from previous comments, is not meeting court ordered goals they have failed to meet them whose posts and forcing that anywhere and people are suggesting, oh, well, we could have the variance. If you have conditions. Well, the current conditions aren't being met. Why would we want to allow a variance? I say no. To the variance, solve this appalling, unacceptable violation of the public trust for decades because you people have done too little or nothing.

    And this violation of public health is hazard. We're talking about hazardous waste in our water body in our neighborhoods, poisoning wildlife, potentially poisoning our neighbors fix it. Now. It's already too late. Fix it. I will also submit written comments, but I think the

    you violate violate expectations of Civility by the continuation of this apparent unacceptable public health hazard that you impose on the community of Arlington and I sank in Stewart for the idea I think yes, Arlington should sue Cambridge and Somerville, this is absolutely unacceptable. Thank you very much.

    The next three commenters are Gary Goldsmith, Sylvia Dominguez and EPA. Rxi Gary Goldsmith, you may please provide your comments. Yes, thank you very much for holding this hearing.

    And I appreciate many of the comments that have been made. I won't repeat any of those. My speak as an Arlington resident for almost 40 years and a town meeting member in precinct 11.

    I also speak as a physician now retired, who's basically appalled that at least until 2024, it's been considered acceptable to dispose of our sewage into a pet a waterway and an adjacent neighborhood. That's, that violates

    both logic and and health regulations.

    It's a major public health hazard. I would mention also that it's the problem is not just with hail wife Brooke, because they always broke empties into the Mystic River. The Mystic River is an important recreation area for many towns, all the way down to the harbor. I've been a member of the Mystic River Watershed Association for many years and I'm well aware of this. I have taken canoe rides down the river and you can tell where the where the sewage overflows are coming in. By the smell I also speak as a citizen and disheartened that state and local governments have allowed this issue to persist for all of this time.

    I know that there are many citizens of Cambridge and Somerville, who were concerned but I feel as though the governments of those towns have been incredibly inconsiderate and truly bad neighbors in their behavior.

    not dealing with this in a reasonable and appropriate fashion. It's just not acceptable. I remember the MWR a project back in the late 70s I believe it was, which provided water and sewer functioning for the entire region. That was a $9 billion project, if I remember correctly. I suspect this should be less than that. But that project came in on time and on budget. I believe Paul Levy was the director of that. And finally I speak as a taxpayer because it's clear to me that at some point some people are going to be come ill and injured by by this behavior and we'll be suing the DEP and the towns of Cambridge and Somerville, the conservation law foundation they get involved and bring action to require this being addressed. Finally, I understand that this is a complex, difficult and expensive issue is not simply a matter of putting a plug on something and then everything gets better.

    This will require a significant engineering and construction in order to address this and I do appreciate representative Rogers bill, although I didn't notice that the date in that is 2035, which I believe is 11 years from now. It would be nice to know that that's when things are going to be resolved rather than when they're going to be addressed. I have three questions. One is Am I correct that a variance basically retains the status quo for the next five years or until another variance is requested?

    Question two is what is being done in the meantime, in terms of remediation or mitigation or planning. I did look up the public notice for this meeting and there is a it says back sheets will be available and gives an address I went to that address and did not find any information there. So I think it would be important to inform the public about what is being done to have a consolidated site where people can find out both what's happening now and what's going to happen in the future. So until I find that information and know more about this, I would oppose the variance. Not because not necessarily out of practicality, but some because I don't I haven't heard that the time that you requested will be used profitably, to address the problem and try to resolve it.

    That's all I have to say. Thank you very much. Once again, have a good evening.

    Thank you good college. Touring performing we proceed with the next commenter, would you My understanding is the fact sheets are posted. Would you be able to locate that link and put it in the chat please? Yes, we'll do. Thanks so much.

    Okay, so we have some additional names on the comment or list we have 10 additional commenters queued up. The next three are Silvia Dominguez eppo Rxi and Kristin Anderson. Soviet you may prevent provide your comments. Hi. Okay, my name is Silvia Dominguez. And I live here in East Darlington.

    It dawns on me that I use that I mean I go through this every single day when I go to a wife. And I've seen so many people walk through this water, not knowing that this is sewer water, with children, with carriages with everything. And this happens so often. It's just really horrible. You know, I feel like I'm living in a developing country every time this happens. This doesn't even happen in developing countries because they don't want to make their people sick.

    They at least they try not to make their people sick. This is so you know, it makes absolutely no sense to me that we have to be concerned about water in down the street from where we live, and just waiting for the day that it overflows and it gets to those adherens you know, adjacent streets. This is it. It's so disgusting to know that there's an open sewer down the street from where I live and we all have this concern and everybody that walks down to L wife sees it. They all see it because there's there's it's it's we work by the by our wife by the book, so I mean this is really it's just so it's so bad for the neighborhood is so bad for it just ruins Such a beautiful green area. it just ruins it It ruins it And and not only that we have to stay away from it because it's so potentially toxic and problematic, and the seas, producing for.

    But anyways, I'm really very much in opposition to any continuous variance. I think it's really necessary that they take responsibility for this and deal with it and get rid of it so that we can start living as if we have any kind of right to a clean environment and not an open sewer. I would appreciate that. Thank you. Bye bye. Okay, the next.

    The next three commenters are about Rick see Kristin Anderson and Patricia Warden EPA, you may provide your comments. Hi, my name is EPA Trixie I live in nearby in North Cambridge. I'm a member of the study group as well but I'm speaking in a personal capacity. I use the our preservation office every day. It's a wonderful nature reserve. It's a great path that runs through a convenient location. I'm often taking my dog to Thorndyke because I live over on the Cambridge side. It's a fun way to get there and get some exposure to nature. And I've often seen the issues that many other people describe people pushing strollers through contaminated water when it's flooded. I know to kind of avoid that area but I see a lot of people that don't and walk their dogs through there and the dogs drink the water. I've literally watched it happen.

    So first, I think there's a great need for awareness. So I'm very supportive of conditions like an onsite warning system. But I think be wary that like as people know, this issue exists, like you're gonna see a lot more opposition and a lot more frustration that there's not longer term planning happening because I think this is not just a big cost. This is also a huge opportunity. If you just look a little further north along the little river. You can see engineered wetlands and other green infrastructure solutions that have been tried to tackle this exact problem. And I just don't understand why we are not doing more to build out green infrastructure along the way, both for the enjoyment of people in nature, but also to treat the CSO outfalls and to put more pressure on getting the problem solved in a longer term capacity. So I oppose the variance. I support developing a longer term solution I support the work of rec Rogers to eventually close the CSOs and I support the conditions that it will save the white Brook have been advocating for better on site notification, taking action in the near term on tannery Brook better long term planning and doing some independent financial analysis of what some of these alternatives look like. I think there's a real pressing need to address some of these issues and I encourage the mass DEP to not continue to rely on variances to kick that can down the road.

    Thank you, Carrie before you go on I there's a participant who has their hand up felony Abrams, and I'm saying you have your hand raised. If you are interested in commenting, could you please put your name in the chat?

    Thank you. Okay, I'm sorry and did you have something else that needs to be addressed urgently? Just my comment, I hadn't realized the procedure. Apologies. No worries, we will get to you. Okay.

    Thank you Kathy. If the next three commenters are Kristin Anderson, Patricia Warden, Ellen, mass mas Kristin, you can please provide your comments.

    Thank you.

    And thanks to the good folks at the Department of Environmental Protection for holding this hearing and thank you to everyone who is here tonight, especially Dave Rogers, Sean Gartley and Diane Mahan as well as Arlington's town council. So my name is Kristin Anderson and I'm a founding member of safe LF Brook.

    Perhaps more importantly, I'm a former a butter of the brook. I had a sewage flood water in my home more than once while I was living there. That flood water came in through the back door and stayed in my house for days until the floodwaters receded. My neighbors and I had no idea how polluted the water floodwater from the ill wife was it did not occur to us until after the flooding was gone. That it was the sewage that was making us sick with flu like digestive problems, headaches, fatigue, stomach pain, bloody diarrhea.

    We're here this evening to comment on the LF Brooks water quality standard variance. My understanding of the variance is that it allows for sewage pollution discharges as long as projects are being planned and undertaken to improve water quality. But we have been promised for decades now that we would see improvements. decades old court mandated level of CSO control for the ill wife is less than 8 million gallons annually, yet we had 51 million gallons of sewage pollution dumped into the brook in 2021 in nearly 28 million gallons in 2023. This is untreated sewage pollution in a brook that floods regularly in a heavily habitated floodplain.

    Sorry. In the last 12 months the brook has overflowed its banks six times sending untreated sewage pollution into the park and into the ill wife greenwave app. This is a transportation corridor that links Boston Ave Broadway and Mass Ave to the ill wife t it is supposed to be a safe alternative to driving a car on route 16.

    And yet, we are watching children riding bikes through untreated sewage floodwater parents pushing baby strollers through untreated sewage floodwater they have no idea what is in that water.

    I have a number of things that I would like to ask DEP DEP to do which I believe is within their control to do as part of this variance.

    One thing that I think really should be considered is that Somerville is tannery Brook CSO This is the CSO that discharges untreated sewage pollution from Davis square. It is not in compliance. It's not in compliance with it snipped his permit as David stuff had mentioned earlier there is toilet paper that can be seen.

    hanging from the trees in front of the CSO, after CSO discharges but it's also not in compliance with the Boston Harbor cleanup court case.

    It and honestly Somerville has really not done very much.

    To control. CSO discharges at tannery Brook they've done great work elsewhere in the city, but nothing at tannery Brook. And so I asked DPW to consider doing everything within their power to regulate the CSO.

    A supplemental environmental project now of green stormwater infrastructure to reduce CSOs and flooding, somewhere in Somerville would be great.

    A requirement to bring Somerville as Terry Brooks CSO in compliance with the last long term control plan would be amazing.

    Anything, anything, but just watching that CSO get worse, if, if Somerville doesn't have to be in compliance with the last long term control plan. Why do they have to be in compliance with the next one?

    I guess that is my thinking there.

    If if the new long term control plan which is a couple of years now, in the works of planning and will be completed, the plan to make the plan will be completed by the end of 2027.

    If if that long term control plan is the centerpiece of this water quality standard variance then

    the next stage of the new longterm control plan is going to be looking at financial analysis affordability.

    And so I feel very strongly that DEP needs to require independent financial analysis of the cost of ill wife Brooke sewage pollution control.

    Please require independent financial analysis of the cost of ill wife, Brooke CSO control to include separate findings for each of the CSO permittees MWR H Cambridge and Somerville and that financial analysis should be limited to CSO control in the L wife Brooke sub watershed. It certainly should not cover the entirety of the Massachusetts Water Resources authority system and additionally, it should be based on current data, not 20 year old inflated cost estimates. Lastly, that independent cost analysis should include a CSO treatment facility, CSO detention tanks, and green stormwater infrastructure for the ill wife. Save the Life Group will provide more in depth comments by writing in writing by April 22. I apologize. I've been sick, and I didn't mean to sort of fall apart. Thank you.

    Thank you, Kristen. Okay, so the next three speakers are Patricia Warden, Ellen masse. And peg macadam, Patricia, you may provide your comments. Yes. Thank you very much for taking these comments. I would like to say that I simply omit all the comments that had been made and thanked Mr. Starr are definitely direction.

    I am a former school committee chair, former Human Rights Commission member and former Housing Authority chair at incarnation. I couldn't believe that we are still church, children and faculty and students to these hazards I make a claim that neighborhood they

    idea of allowing this to continue through the laser is totally unacceptable.

    This is unquestionably an environmental justice issue.

    It as a as a medical scientist and public health person, I find the situation totally disgusting and disgraceful and I sent representatives to her to Gabi and rotation partner for their interest in this issue, but they are not to know our turn officials. They they need to move a lot faster. And where is our Senator? Senator Cindy Friedman. I mean he she is the co chair of the Senate Health Committee. This is a huge public health hazard. It should not be allowed to continue and I I really feel that Cambridge, a former resident of Cambridge, put our use in order to for over 50 years. And Cambridge is a very wealthy community. It should be no question that this should be forced to come up with the money whatever it is to ameliorate this situation and should not be given the opportunity to postpone the issue as infinitum. By granting this waiver. Again, I would actually say environmental officials for listening to these comments and their hope they take them very much to heart. Thank you.

    Thank you.

    Just a moment. Just one quick announcement for folks. So we're seeing a few comments in placed in the chat. Please be reminded that will we not we will not be responding to comments from the chair or they will not actually be pulled into the official record for a response to comments document that we will prepare. So if you do wish those comments to be addressed then please submit them in writing through the mechanism that we've mentioned and that will be shown in the conclusion of the hearing again. Thank you, Kathy. Okay, we have eight more speakers. The next three are Ellen Masse peg macadam and Kate shell Ellen, you may provide your comments. Well, it is wonderful to be on this. We won't. It's a public hearing. It's not a in depth era hearing but it's wonderful to be here just so I can see all the people that have been on this issue for all these. I would say about 2000 recognize people and it's so good to know that they're here and continuing on with a struggle.

    I ran an environmental organization that is now evolved into bring Cambridge the friends of our wife reservation. And we brought out hundreds and hundreds of people over 20 years to do just the things that some of you are speaking about whether they were educational tours whether they were clean ups and even some of the school classes that would come out regularly would even test the waters. And I would say we made consistent calls, whether it was a one of the new developments.

    stockpiling sands are various soil materials on their property that would feed into the new stormwater wetland saying all these kind of stewardship type of things and management we did as a grass roots, wrote for Arlington Belmont in Cambridge, and how dear the the area was to us and we did all this with our wife Brooke in Little River, which nobody mentioned that they didn't mention it then either was it's a mistaken understanding of how even how the river works from Belmont from the Belmont Hills down to LF brook in the Mystic River, but we do know it is the upper basin. But this variance issue was was there I think 13 years ago, the city I'm sorry to laugh It's not a funny matter. But 13 years ago, I stood up with my IRA, the Mystic River watershed and EPA and many others saying the same exact things 13 years ago so I'm hearing exactly what was done even closer to 2000 when my little nonprofit group started, but what we did see was as the developers developed Cambridge park drive a lot of what was happening was a response to that development. And we always thought of course, they needed to do keep giving variances at that time when we test about it was I think a five you know, it was five time variance. It must be nine now. I mean, this must be a nice variance is our previous speaker mentioned postpone?

    Postpone the cleanup it has to go on. And I would say one area that was left out is the is the pathogens they come from the COVID and I remember seeing during the COVID period how high the pathogens were in our LF Brook and little river but they both together. We can't deal with Al because a lot of the outfalls are in Little River in Cambridge so they're together and always sit in Arlington. Some of them in Cambridge have to work much closer together to get this done. And I'm so glad to hear from representative Rogers that he's going to do something about it. And I don't think we ever had this level of of support that I see tonight. So I'm grateful to be here and very sad and unpack hearing the same thing. I thought for sure it would be remedied or ameliorated at least. And I say that it's it's it's not ameliorated. So thanks for listening to my presentation and we we love the place and we still do and it's still a floodplain and it's still going to have that that sewage and but by the way, the floodplain has greatly expanded out there, which means the water flow from the river is going to expand. We see it as we in our little garden where we see the expansion at least the groundwater is much higher. So that's just a layman's presentation. I'm not speaking officially and I'm glad to hear Cynthia Hibbert talk about the kind of work they're doing as as friends of our wife reservation, that's one of their groups. Now so there are people out there and then of course the people who are most impressive and his safety LF Brooke and I'm so glad to hear from Kristin Anderson and what they're doing to bring everybody together and try to solve this problem. Thank you.

    Thank you.

    The next three speakers are peg Magana. Kate shell, and Thompson peg, you may provide your comments. Hi, everybody.

    I am a neighbor to the brook. I moved here in 2017 and shortly thereafter went to a conference over at Tufts. Regarding the L wife watershed and was adatok were one of the people who did the original designs and did the studies.

    One of the comments that stands out for me, he said, I feel sorry for the people that live on Sunnyside Ave. I live on Sunnyside Ave. That was kind of a shock after I had just moved here.

    That being said, I do what I can to help the book. It's not something that is just about us. You know, it's a living, it should be breathing. But the oxygen I have always so that nothing really exists in there. I do see the swans and I feel bad for them. It almost makes me cry every time I see.

    You know it's a living organism that's been abused. Like we've abused many things.

    It saddens me to know and to hear the 10th you know the 2035 is the goal.

    It's like 120 years ago, they noted the problem and in the book, you know, and people have said kicking the can down the road while we're pissing in the book, literally pissing in the book. So I'm opposed to the variance. I would you know, if I had any power do what I could to sue the hell out of Somerville, Cambridge, Belmont, whoever keeps adding you know, raw sewage to the book. I mean, geographically Sunnyside Ave and the boardwalk the Greenway. is the lowest point along the book. It floods regularly and there's there's not much you can do. I mean, the I feel bad for Sunnyside Ave is because not only is the where the lowest point, but there's gas a gas pipeline that is six feet down. That is four feet. It's a main it's not just a pipeline. It's the gas main. So in terms of, you know, fixing the brook, what do they do with the gas pipeline? You know the condos next door have built up their land, four feet high. Till boy across the way is built up five feet above the brook higher than it was it there's no place for the water to go. Except for Sunnyside Ave. You know and around the tea station. So I understand the complexity of the issue. And it's it's a huge and engineering issue. But morally, emotionally.

    You know, it shouldn't be living that you know, it's an animal life book. There are no fish in there.

    I don't even think that bugs severely live in there anymore. That's how bad it is. So it's upsetting to keep coming to these meetings and hearing Let's kick the can. Let's add another variance. You know, let's keep pissing in the book shedding in the book. I mean, it's just like, so sad. You know?

    The book could be a great neighbor.

    And I do what I can to help what I can with native plants and, you know, encouraging people to learn about the issue, but it's just really incredibly frustrating. Thank you for the meeting. And thank you for the people that have been working on this for literally 50 years.

    And like I said it was noted 125 years ago. So please, let's just put an end. You know, the variance says, you know, temporary variance, can we put some timeline on it, at least at the very least put some time on it, that by x date. Something is going to bed the plan is going to be here that a firm is going to be built a just a berm to keep that you know wider in the brook might be helpful to protect people on the path. You know, I'm sure that would take you know, a huge study and whatnot. You know, part of me says let's just hire some trucks and dump some some, you know, soil along to Brock the, the water from coming up onto the path. You know, it's like, guerrilla environmental protection. You know, let's change the name here. It's not you know, what, what's being protected. It hasn't been protected forever. So, I don't know. I'm just really incredibly frustrated. I think I'm glad that the meeting is here. I don't know that it means much.

    My cynical view in very short time. I appreciate the people that still you know after 50 years are still plugging away. Thank you for all your work and thank you for the clients.

    Thank you Okay, so I jumped a little bit out of order. So the next speakers are windspeed, Kate shell and Anne Thompson, Glenn who may provide your comments. Thanks.

    Thanks to dp for having us meeting my name. Is Brian speeds I work with Xavier will probe but I'm speaking personally as a North Cambridge neighbor of the Elway's book. I discovered the book when I was working from home staring at a computer all day during the pandemic and I needed somewhere to walk the drought of 2020 caused expose the salmon and sewer pipe gases to stink then in 2021 52 million gallons of sewage contaminated water were dumped into the brook. Walking along the ground. I didn't know anything about CSOs. I just noticed there were a lot fewer birds, and I wondered what the horrible stench was, and I couldn't believe it. When I heard that despite me and my neighbors in this largely environmental justice community depending on this lovely urban oasis. As for our emotional and physical well being. My city was dumping 10s of millions of gallons of raw sewage here.

    When I talk with people I meet now walking along the brook, they ask But doesn't the Clean Water Act mean they can't do that? And I have to try to explain that the variance means that it doesn't. And then they say well, at least it's treated right. And I have to say no, not one of the six outfalls crammed into the one mile stretch of our tiny, narrow concrete line. Brooke has any treatment at all, except a sort of sieve that's supposed to keep unsightly floater balls like toilet paper and tampons out of our sight. And even that minimal measure is not working for Somerville is tannery group CSO SLM oh one eight, but I thought Cambridge dealt with that problem. years ago. They say, I thought they separated all the sewers and I have to tell them no, Cambridge has only separated 55% of our sewers. And the separated pipes in north and west Cambridge come back together just in time to dump combined CSO sewage into the rock. We talk about the fact that Cambridge Somerville and WRI have made changes that have helped clean up the Boston Harbor and the beaches in Boston. And we're really grateful that the Charles and the mystic have made wonderful progress since the 90s. With the unwavering advocacy of their waters, watershed associations, but now the polluting permittees claim they've pretty much done everything that makes sense and they want to walk away and leave the lie behind. They say they need the brook as hydraulic relief for their overtaxed sewer and stormwater systems and that they've done everything that's affordable to reduce CSOs. Can we afford to allow ongoing sewage contaminated flooding in our state park? Can we afford to endanger residents by not having a unified onsite warning light system that tells anyone near the brook when contact with the water is hazardous for their health? The answer is no. I have told members of DDP before that I actually met somebody walking along the park drinking the water from the brook but a human just a dog walking along the path that's flooded say do with work and Mystic River Watershed Association, one state funding to study flood mitigation and the benefits of dredging the ill wife, those are ongoing. If a group of volunteers can get money to improve the fly the least the people the organization's the municipality saving millions of dollars. By treating the brook as a relief sewer can do the least they can do is provide the brook with the same level of routine maintenance and care that they provide for their actual sewer.

    Department of Environmental Protection, please protect us. I trust that you and DEP of the creativity to define and enforce compliance meaningful for the three remaining years of the old CSL controlled and planning into the new one by looking at real meter discharge data. Typical year modeling in a climate emergency when no year is typical for weather is obviously failing for the white Brook. When Canberra didn't MWR A can be considered in compliance, and in 2021, there CSOs discharged the same volume of sewage into the ill wife Brooke as was discharged in 1992.

    I did not ask for the job of spending my days and nights working to keep sewage out of the oil white broke and I would love to have that work. Over to you at DPW.

    The task of making our park and our waterways safe for humans and the other animals living there. Thank you for your time.

    Beautiful speech.

    The next three speakers are Kate and Kate shell and Thompson and Dr. Jack Goldstein. Kate you may provide your comments. Thank you.

    My name is Kate shell. I'm a resident of East Arlington. My husband and I used to take our daily walks along the LF Greenway, we've stopped. I do not support the lengthy timeframe for variances because I don't perceive adequate urgency in the planning, funding and effectuation of remedies. Raw sewage in public spaces is something you read about in literature from previous centuries. As in before the 19th century. My husband and I don't take our walks any longer because it's not safe. I'm really concerned that a family member whose home is on sunny side out, be welcoming an infant next month into an unsafe home.

    I would invite the residents of the city management of Cambridge and Somerville and the MWR staff to imagine the following scenario.

    A septic system pumping firm discharges a tanker full of raw sewage into your favorite local park, or the playground your children use or your backyard. Of course they do it because responsible disposal is too expensive.

    You would be outraged. And you would be right. I support the proposals from say the wife Brooke and I'm really looking forward to some solutions that are both timely and effective. Thank you.

    Thank you, Kate. We have seven more speakers. The next three are Anne Thompson, Dr. Jack Goldstein and Leah Broder. And you may provide your comments. Hi, yes, I'm Anne Thompson on you startling to resident our house is probably within 40 feet availe wife Brooke, and we've lived here since 1997. Um, I've been tracking this for many, many decades now. The variances that the City of Cambridge has gotten as a 12 has grown. And the fact that I think the first one that I remember, they quoted it being too expensive because it was going to cost $100 million.

    I would imagine that's closer to a billion at least by now.

    But putting things off even further, once again, is only going to cause more problems. I don't think there is another variant should be allowed. As most people have already said they're just keep kicking the can down the road. I remember when I worked with Ellen masse and we were on the big development on cambridgeside Drive there during the Silver Maple forest. All that development being allowed in a floodway which runs into the ill wife Brooke certainly gave the city a lot of money there. And in any case that Cambridge has a lot of wealth Cambridge has a triple A rated on breeding Summerville. Similarly, their coffers have grown incredibly more so than any other in the state. So we're looking at a little bit of different economic conditions between then and now. Another you know, it's not just the raw sewage is toxic sediments from WR Grace when asbestos and other chemicals were dumped into fly Brook, you're not just getting the toxic the raw sewage, you're getting malt, multiple other very, very toxic components. I think it was about 20 years ago now that I had to file a Freedom of Information Act request to get details on just what's in that book. And it's very, very dangerous. They should not be given another variance because you know, like I said, I've been here since 1997. All I do see more, I smell it more I see more high water. I see the the path having been improved, you know, to make it friendly for people, but people don't know anything about what is actually in those overflows and primarily, I think very few people have any knowledge that this these dumps these these CSOs are being dumped in there. And it should be something that should be widely publicized, that every resident in Cambridge should realize what the City of Cambridge is doing is saying with Somerville, actually everybody in the state because most people I've talked to have absolutely no idea that that is continuing in one of the wealthiest cities in the state of Massachusetts. And one of the most, you know academically advanced areas in the country.

    Thank you.

    Thank you, ma'am. The next three speakers are Dr. Yes. I'm sorry. Let me pause for one second. Linda was to raise his hand is ready to just want to see if there's something needed urgently or if it's just testing issues and q4

    for commenting

    that you are muted if you're fine. I would like to speak a minute. Okay.

    Would I am a resident of North Cambridge, and I feel that this issue is going to affect us too because I live close to the lie broke. And a couple of things strike me about what you all are talking about, which sounds pretty awful, and pretty long lasting. One thing that strikes me is they are selling condos and homes in Cambridge.

    Somerville in Arlington for unbelievable crisis.

    The housing market has gone nuts. The other thing that strikes me is Harvard University now has an endowment of over $50 billion.

    Finally, I believe the three richest people in this country now have as much wealth as the bottom 40% are infrastructure in all kinds of ways is inadequate. This is such an example. All of us citizens are talking to each other about this situation, which needs to be brought to the attention of

    entities that can really do something about it and put real resources into it. For one thing, Harvard is sitting right right here.

    And it has a lot of resources, both intellectual engineering and financial.

    Why isn't this issue, an issue that is being brought to the attention of the entire metropolitan area?

    That's what I have to say.

    Thank you, Linda.

    The next three speakers are Dr. Jack Goldstein. Leah Broder. And mill Melanie Abrams.

    Dr. Goldstein, thank you, thank you for holding this hearing. Thank you to our representatives. Also, thank you to Kristin Anderson for your organizing. So I want to voice opposition to this variance extension. I currently live in Arlington, actually previously lived in Somerville, right bento boy, and actually moved there because of the book. And I would walk and bike to La tea on the L life path. And then I started to notice that it would smell so disgusting. It would be to be gag and make my head hurt and actually stopped walking and biking to the to start driving to avoid that. There have been times when I would walk my dog by the brook and you know she would roll around and then I would come home and realize that she was covered in liquefied feces.

    So actually moved to Arlington to get away from the sewage. I now walk and bike along the Minuteman with families that I can't imagine doing that along the brook because of how disgusting it is. And I actually now tell visitors who are going to come visit me to avoid the brook area. Don't go to the restaurants there. Don't stay in the hotels there.

    And when I tell them why they can't they can't believe that.

    So, you know, I understand that the solution is complex and expensive. So I'm a computational astrophysicist. I understand the complexity of engineering modeling. And I also understand the ability to overcome complexity when there is a deadline, which this variation alleviates. And we've already heard of many proposed solutions by people who have done their research.

    You know, the one that comes to mind when I hear about how difficult and complex this was, is like 150 years ago, the entire city of Chicago was lifted up out of its own feces, like this stopping CSOs into the book is not an intractable problem that requires a five years extension and it's a value problem.

    As an individual, one thing I haven't heard yet is that expense is not limited to this narrow definition of dollars spent on solutions. It also includes the cost of healthcare, the devaluing of health, which includes the physical, mental and emotional health of people and animal residents, the cost of legislation, possible lawsuits, the devaluing of real estate, and the devaluing of the quality of life for us all. It is so heart wrenching ly costly to know and to or not know, but to have to tell our children that you can't touch the water that's supposed to sustain us that if you defecate it in the Go played in your bathtub, that's what we're essentially allowing to happen on a large scale. And, you know, one thing that really brings me optimism is that there is a natural resiliency to the book that will contribute to its own healing. If only we prioritized the value of not allowing this variance to continue and focusing on proximate and timely solutions prevent CSOs from desecrated Yeah.

    So yeah, thank you for accepting that comment.

    Thank you, Joe. Joke.

    The next three speakers are Leah Broder, Melanie Abrams and Susan stamps. Leah may provide your comments.

    We have Broder you may provide your comments. I think that was Leah talking at Jack Goldstein's zoom address. Oh, okay. Thank you.

    The next speaker is Melanie Abrams.

    Hello my name is Melanie Abrams, and I'm here with opposition to the variants like so many people.

    I'm also a scientist and understand like we just heard the how difficult it is to be told to have a technical solution immediately. Like if you're like especially if I'm a biologist people say we want a microbe at the center that you can't necessarily make science happen. However, this is an engineering solution to a problem that we've known about for decades. And I was really honestly filled with despair when I attended the long term planning meeting and saw that the plan was to in 2035 have a new long term plan because we don't have that amount of time to preserve the little health remaining in the ill wife Brooke and it's having really immediate and large effects on public health. There was the metaphor of the septic tank that was used shortly but I was I was just thinking of like if my toilet broke, even like if I didn't have a working toilet in my bathroom, it would be totally unacceptable for me to just take the sewage from it and dump it out the window and I told people it was too expensive to get a plumber. Even if I didn't have a lot of money. No one would find it acceptable for me to dump sewage out my window onto the sidewalk. And so I don't really see why. For decades, this is an acceptable solution. In one of the only public spaces that we have. That's a real nature area that you can walk to and impacting people who even aren't making the choice to access this nature area and I'm here by chance with a friend who had her entire basement flooded with sewage water this summer and you know, they kept food there. They kept their objects they had a car ruined by it. And it's just it's incredibly dangerous like there's the externalities that are not being accounted for here in terms of the impact on people's health on people's property on people sick and the and the and the wild spaces that we have.

    And just it's just super dangerous. I don't it feels I feel disheartened by the fact that probably. I'm guessing that the variance is going to be granted despite me people coming out and against it right now because people are gonna say, well, we need to, we don't have a solution but we do have solutions. The solutions is putting the money we need to put into urgently treating this as a public health hazard.

    And doing everything on that list of long term planning in the short term, to not grant the variance and to treat it as a violation of the Clean Water Act and, and of other public self public health and safety regulations. When there is this ongoing waste in the flooding and yeah, I don't really know what to say beyond that. But I do want to get my friend here. I'm going to talk about this. She wants to that the sewage in the basement because this is just a crazy problem to be having here. Hi, everyone. I'm Amelia. I live in Somerville and yeah, this summer just had three feet of sewage water in my basement and my roommates and I had to you know, interact with all of our objects that were robotic or covered entails and clean everything that we wanted to try to salvage and it was was horrendous. But something I want to go through again and we're fine with change. Flooding is only going to get worse and having sewage in that flooding is just awful.

    And also worth noting that renter's insurance doesn't cover acts of God. And you know, if the city can do something to prevent those acts of God, it will be great. Yeah. And I've heard people talk about notifications like it's good to know what's happening. It's important to know what's happening but like, knowing that there will be sewage in your basement and sewage in your only green spaces in your public space doesn't necessarily fix the problem because you can't usually just like up and going you have to deal with the objects that are covered with it. So really, we need an urgent solution. And all of the engineering solutions proposed in addition to every other one that we've looked at for treating this like an emergency. Thank you.

    Thank you, Melanie and Amelia. Amelia, if you could please put your last name in the chat was for the record. Or of course Okay, the next speakers are Susan stamps.

    And McDonald Eugene Benson Belen, I'm sorry, Susan, you may provide your comments. I thanks a lot.

    Can you hear me okay? Yes. So my name is Susan stamps. I live in East Arlington in about a 15 minute walk from the airway Greenway. I am an elected town meeting member.

    And I'm on the town's tree committee and the town's gas leaks Task Force and what strikes me about the conversation tonight is all of these passionate people are trying to make a difference. And in Arlington, we're trying to make a difference. And we're making a huge difference in our community. We're planting trees to clean the air and sequester carbon and make our streets lovely.

    We have a really, we have an adopted tree program. We are working with the national grid to reduce gas leaks. We have a robust Diversity Equity and Inclusion program in town and it's an extremely active community in terms of doing all kinds of things to improve our community and to make people's lives better.

    I feel like we're doing a good job as a community. We were one of the first communities to pass the MBTA communities, housing, zoning, multifamily housing zoning.

    We're doing what we're supposed to do. I don't think the state is doing what it's supposed to do. I don't think the DEP is doing what it's supposed to do. It seems to me that your job we don't have the power to regulate the the CSOs obviously. Would you guys are the ones that have the the power to do that.

    And I agree with the others on the call that. Well, yeah, it's really expensive, but that's not an acceptable answer.

    If we couldn't come up with the money to fund our schools, it was sorry people we just don't have enough money. That's not an acceptable answer, because that's part of our job. Is to do a good job of educating our children. Well, it's D EPS job to do a good job of taking care of our environment. We can't do it. We're counting on you. And that's why I enjoy pretty much everyone else on this call and saying do not renew that variance. There's absolutely no reason for going on as taking the Caddo said for decades and decades and decades. Enough is enough.

    I will just add a personal note that I also often exercise using the the great boardwalk along the outward Greenway. And there's a Swan who was there last summer, who was sitting on a on a nest for weeks and weeks. And everyone would stop in the Greenway and look at that Swan and just be so taken with the beauty of the Swan and though the loveliness of the scene, and yet the sadness that that's one was sitting in the middle of a sewer.

    And so I hope that you hope that you take these comments seriously, and they do develop deny the variance and work with Harvard or wherever you need to work with to get this job. Thank you.

    Thank you.

    The next three speakers are Anne McDonald, Eugene Benson.

    And one more person here. Let's see Susan McIntyre.

    And you may speak Hi, I'm Emma McDonald. I am a resident of North Cambridge and according to my female a 2.0 insurance increases every year I am in a better day away from the highways in between me and a pile and I'm apologizing as a Cambridge resident to what Arlington is going through with not even having a voice on the body between MW era Cambridge and Somerville, but I just wanted to share no I did go when I supported David Rogers bill but I at that moment I just put in the chat the photo that's on the Save the NY Facebook groups website that I took and it's not you know, we can look at this photo and it's you know, it's we've all heard about children and strollers in the slaughter but it was really compelling in that I felt so helpless and that I was up unlawful. Yeah, because a nice other Walker had told me it was flooded don't go that way. But this girl with her father back aways with his her brother, her baby brother on the bat, didn't get that message and just got stuck there and she was just screaming. Just be like, Yeah, we would like light. So I'm worried Ben, they're going to just close the Greenway altogether and which would be tragic, because it really does help so many people with their mental health and connection to nature and their commutes to the LI substation, but I feel like it's the boxes. We're putting each other in that are concerning to me. So I love that. Um, you know, we have people here who worked for years across this whole region as a waterway and as the Great Swamp that it is still and are really advocating for making sure that we're bringing climate change to bear because this was not a big flood event. This was September 9, right after September 19. And it was just not that big of an event. This floods all the time. And I think most of us who live here and walk here every day know, if we go out the day after a rain, it's going to be swampy over there and those of you who are having your backyard I wish it wasn't there. But I felt really in a box that I couldn't help her because I was up on the road and I would have had to go on through all the water and her dad was coming anyway, but I just feel like I felt that way in a number of these meetings. I go to one of these ones where Somerville almost was laughing saying we're just we don't have any money. We're lucky to even have someone in this environmental position now. And then the other meeting more recently where they were kind of using traffic and construction in addition to money to say if we did this, we didn't bring those plans. But if we did this, you'd see construction all up and through Somerville for years and I feel like that the threat of not thinking big enough. We really need the help of mass DEP to help us think holistically and to amazing public servants who are in these organizations, but I think they're boxed in in their thinking because of things they're worrying about. I don't know I'm not an expert in any of these ways, but there's not much vision other than I don't think we can do anything. So I do not support them getting this whole region getting a variance for another, you know, another five years because this girl she was maybe eight she's gonna be 20 you know by the time you know that 11 years that isn't even David Rogers well meaning Bill happen. So I think we do need action on all different levels of immediate green infrastructure as well as longer term measures. So please help us be the glue that that brings us together instead of pitting us against each other. Because, you know, there's contrasts of wealth and climate justice communities in all of our areas all along the way, whether it's Cambridge Somerville or Arlington Thank you Thank you. We have three more people that have requested to comment Eugene Benson, Susan McIntyre, and Tory Antonio. Eugene Ubay. Provide your comments.

    Yes, thank you to DPW for holding this hearing. Thank you for everyone. Who came out tonight to talk about their connection to the book, and how important the book is.

    I'm an Arlington resident among the steering committee of Save the LI broke. I'm also an elected town meeting member in Arlington and a member of The Arlington redevelopment board with this poster, the planning board and the redevelopment agency for the town of Arlington. The comments I'm about to give are my own but they're informed by all of those places in which I've participated. And I'm going to make technical regulatory comments because I think a lot of other people have spoken passionately inappropriately about what the means and the problems with the brach number one is that this brook flows by environmental justice neighborhoods, both as determined by the state of Massachusetts. And also if you look at the EPA, EJ screen, they'll be environmental justice neighborhoods too. And yet the tentative variance decision does not even mention environmental justice and all or take environmental justice into account in determining whether to issue a variance conditions if you do issue the variance and the length of the variance. Now, many of the EJ communities near the brook, the only Parkland they really have is the DCR parkland, that is people have talked about getting flooded with sewage contaminated waters, when the CSOs go off. We also know I researched that Dr. Nathan Sanders at MIT has done throughout the state. There's a disparate impact on low income communities and communities of color with CSOs that is CSOs are much more likely to be in low income. communities and communities of color in Massachusetts and other communities. We also know due to recent research that's been done by researchers at the BU School of Public Health looking at the CSOs on the Merrimack River, that people who live near CSOs, even if they don't drink the water, have higher incidences of gastro intentional intestinal diseases. So something needs to be done.

    DEP needs to recognize that there's environmental justice factor here. I think it's required to do so by the state's environmental justice policy.

    And it would say either, not issuing the variance and putting the three so community CSL communities into non compliance with the Clean Water Act, which is a find alternative to issuing the variance. Or if you're determined to issue the variance. I think you're obligated to come up with various additional conditions and mitigation measures for the environmental justice entities.

    That's one reason why I think you're not ready to issue this variance. The second reason I think you're not ready to issue the variance is the financial information about that you're relying upon to send as widespread there wouldn't be widespread social and economic impact by not issuing the variance is inappropriate to use. What you've used is a letter from MW re, from August 2023 That basically says how much it will cost to separate sewers around the entire area. But that really has nothing to do with what it would take in the LF watershed to reduce or eliminate the CSOs. In addition, M Governor A is on the hook for each one CSO, Cambridge for aid CSOs And Somerville is for its CSO in to the L wife Brooke. And each one of them should be required to do a separate financial analysis. Now we know that Cambridge hasn't even reached its proposition two and a half limit and has never done a two and a half override and certainly has significant resources that it could put to this.

    Secondly, Somerville is much more well off than it even was a decade ago, with its additional growth especially in East Somerville and can afford this and NWA only has one CSO that it should be able to do without widespread social and economic impact. And it's basically inappropriate to make a decision based on the NWA submittal of August 8 2023. You know, when when people were was speaking, it occurred to me that there was more widespread social and economic impact by continuing to allow these CSOs to exist. And if Somerville Cambridge, and an array were required to end the CSOs and if this variance did not allow those to continue.

    Couple of things that I'd suggest DEP can do and should do, as was said before, Somerville, the tannery broke CSOs 001. A has not even complied with the Boston court order for CSOs, which takes into account a typical year and not real rainfall in addition, it has not had adequate flow foldables control, so you have toilet paper and other things coming out of the CSOs. One thing that I think DEP must do in this is require Summerville to meet the current standard, and to install new, usable, foldables control that actually makes a difference. The second thing I think DEP should do and this is based on the state aka protocols, is take enforcement action against some revealed for what it's not done up to this point, and require mitigation from Summerville for those violations. Now, it seems to me the easiest mitigation that DEP can do is not allow any new sewer hookups anywhere in the tannery books. That were shed.

    That would at least mean that there would be no more or no additional flows than there are now and I would suggest MDP should also prohibit news, sewer hookups. In the camp 401 A sewer shed. And I say that because as one of the other people mentioned, there's the same amount of CSO discharge now, as there was in 1991. There is going to be climate change, it's going to be worse. If if they're allowed to keep on opening more things up to the sewer, then we're just going to get more CSL. Now there is a precedent for prohibiting more hookups to the sewer, and it's actually in the Boston Harbor. Case law in about 1990.

    The legislature didn't want to pass a bill that was part of the Boston Harbor sewer case, and the judge basically prohibited new sewer hookups anywhere in that very system. And a few months later the legislature changed his mind and passed the legislation. So there is some precedents for prohibiting new sewer hookups. And I would suggest that's the appropriate and next thing to do. So just in conclusion, I will just point out, as somebody else said earlier, was one of the first communities that passed the MBTA Communities Act to increase areas where there can be multifamily housing and addition that has incorporation of Arlington which is a nonprofit affordable housing developer is in the process of building a very nice for large, affordable housing building. That's right next almost to the Greenway. It's not in the flood zone, but people from that building when it's filled. will be using the greenways with a green space, and they won't be able to do that very well. If there's going to be so much flooding on the green space. So I think DEP doesn't have to issue the variance is not ready to issue the variance for the reasons I meant. What if it does issue the various there are many conditions that other people have spoken about. There's ones that we've talked about in previous meetings, and ones that I've mentioned now. So thank you very much for the opportunity to comment. Nice. Thank you Eugene. We have three more commenters Susan McIntyre, Tori Antonio, and Marina Popova. Suzanne you may provide your comments. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Susan McIntyre. I'm a resident in Belmont and a new to this this area. Previously, I lived in Watertown. So this issue is new to me. I really just found out about it over the weekend and a family member forwarded me an email and I was surprised. I was surprised to hear about it to be honest, because I don't think there's a lot of public knowledge about it. You know, you see the signs in the park and the reservation that said, you know, the water is contaminated. And the other day I saw swollen and then I saw the side and I thought, well, how is this? How is the water contaminated? Why is it contaminated? And then I received the email to attend this meeting. So I want to say I'm opposed to variants because I don't think a solution. I think it's a stop. To be honest, it's been going on for too long. We deserve much better, Massachusetts, and in this area. We have We live in an area that's funded with resources and it's it's just so surprising, and it's awful that we can't find a solution to this. So I oppose the variance. And I'm concerned I'm concerned for public health and concern for the environment. And I'm concerned with the wildlife as someone who walks their dog in this area every day. I love being in nature. I love seeing all of that being around other people in nature and I'm just I'm sad. I'm sad this is happening. So thank you.

    Thank you.

    Tori Antonio, you may provide your comments.

    Torian Tony Stark sorry about that took a moment. Hi, my name is Torie antamina. I'm Somerville resident.

    And I just want to commend all the amazing people who have spoken against this variance and and I hope you guys are taking detailed notes because they're really great. Just as coming out of this. This hearing.

    I support I do not support the variance. I think 150 years ago, maybe we didn't or 120 years ago, we might not have known any better but 50 years ago we definitely knew better 30 years ago We absolutely did. And even 13 years ago, that's when this should have ended.

    I do think that there does need to be a real a real deep thing. About how we do this and getting finances from Cambridge, Cambridge, from Harvard from Somerville from developers who are continuing to hook up new new sewage lines and I think the last one the last commenters who spoke about well, putting a putting a stop on New sewage hookups would quickly get the attention of the city and and force a solution and there has to be a solution where smart people we have great resources as other callers have mentioned in our academic settings, and we have people power and Somerville in particular where we're getting more money we always we have not always been a flush city but more we are getting more, more more revenue and and we are we are not in compliance.

    And frankly, I would welcome another lawsuit from Arlington, if that gets people's attention.

    And I think some of the City of Somerville needs to really do a hard thing. About about doing intense green infrastructure. We really focused on these stormwater tanks that cost millions and millions of dollars. I don't know how effective they're being. But if we included intense green infrastructure like Philadelphia would did, I think we could have a real effect and and even doing simple things like people who want to D pave their driveways, giving them some sort of tax credit to do it poking getting people to not have their downspouts going to go into the streets. We can do simple things and and we need to contribute the big bucks and and thinking collaboratively at at how to fix this and to fix it now. To not to not to not delay. Thank you so much.

    Thank you Tori. Our last commenter is Marina Popova. You may provide your comments.

    Hi, everyone.

    Can you hear me? Yes.

    Yes, thank you for waiting to speak. So I have kind of two things that I wanted to mention. So the first one is, I hear a lot of those excuses that we do not have money. To fix this problem any sooner than 510 15 years. So, to those excuses, I would like to ask a question. So what is more expensive a house of people? Are you like people, residents of Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville. All the money that we're not willing to spend to fix the problem. So that's the point number one. So the second point is that if we really physically cannot fix this problem this way right now by you know, basically providing a much better, larger and you know, modernized sewage treatment facilities, then there is another way that we keep forgetting about But thankfully, many previous commenters already actually mentioned that. You can actually stop aging more sewage into those same old same lines. And since that seems to be the only real practical immediate solution to emergency which is an immediate emergency right now. I think that that should be considered very, very seriously. I mean, just to give you an analogy, you don't invite 25 more people into your house for dinner. If you only have food for two people, right? You would first make sure that you buy enough provisions that you prepare enough food for 25 guests and then you invite them. It's the same with the sewage, right? I mean, those are resources. If you cannot feed in additional 1000 gallons of raw sewage, you just do not add those additional 1002 new housing units, you know, with people with additional search. I mean, it's not rocket science. It's pretty simple kinds of, you know, physical laws, right. So and I would like that to be taken seriously and be considered and be a law enforced or you know, that, you know, before you try to add any additional volume of the sewer, you have to prove that that additional sewage can be safely accommodated, treated and processed, right. I mean, that's kind of a common sense solution, right. And that actually can be done right. Now. So that's all my comments. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

    Well done.

    Okay.

    At this time, I'd like to ask if there are any other people present tonight who wish to speak

    anyone else who would like to provide comments?

    Asking one last time if there's anyone else who would like to provide comment.

    Hearing nine, if I can thank you all for your participation.

    And I hereby declare this hearing complete at 9:29pm.

    On Tuesday, April 9 2024. Mass DEP anticipates issuance of a decision on this matter by August 29 2024.

    Thank you all for coming and thank you for your patience and for taking the time to participate.

    Thank you

    Thanks so much for holding the hearing. We really appreciate it. You're welcome. Nice to see you again.

    Thank you for listening to everyone's comments. Appreciate the