Showing posts with label river. Show all posts
Showing posts with label river. Show all posts

Friday, April 8, 2022

"Massachusetts residents should not settle for less than healthy rivers and harbors"

"The cleanup of Boston Harbor is incomplete

Largely unknown to the public, raw sewage is still dumped into the Mystic and Charles rivers, which empty directly into the harbor."

"The cleanup of Boston Harbor is considered one of the great environmental success stories of our time — and deservedly so. It has helped transform the quality of life in the metro Boston area as residents and businesses live, work, and play near the newly cleaned up harbor and the rivers that feed into it.

But sadly, and largely unknown to the public, raw sewage is still dumped into the Mystic and Charles rivers that empty right into the harbor. Depending on the volume of rainfall and snowmelt, up to 500 million gallons of sewage mixed with storm water are discharged into the harbor via the two rivers every year.

These discharges flow from old underground pipe networks known as combined sewer systems, engineering relics that were designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe leading to a treatment plant. But during periods of heavy rainfall or snowmelt, the wastewater volume can exceed the pipe’s capacity, causing a combined sewer overflow, or CSO, that dumps the polluted contents directly into the rivers."

Continue reading the article (subscription may be required)
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04/02/opinion/cleanup-boston-harbor-is-incomplete/ 

For more about the CRWA -> https://www.crwa.org/

  • The Town of Franklin (ToF) is also involved and recently passed the storm water utility fee (starting in Jan 2023) to help fund that effort and relieve pressure from the operating budget. For more about storm water visit the ToF page ->  https://www.franklinma.gov/stormwater-division

Scientist Scott Smith and actor Mark Ruffalo work in the Charles River in 2014. The actor, in town to film the movie "Spotlight," helped with water testing near an outfall pipe into the river. SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF
Scientist Scott Smith and actor Mark Ruffalo work in the Charles River in 2014. The actor, in town to film the movie "Spotlight," helped with water testing near an outfall pipe into the river.SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Charles River Watershed Association: "Let the Rivers Run Free" (video)

#ICYMI Watch the full recording from Thursday (02/24/22) night's webinar "Let the Rivers Run Free" about dam removal & recreation featuring Cameron Salvatore of the #CharlesRiverNavigationProject and Climate Resilience Specialist @RobertKearns!

https://t.co/PcVTDKKvLs  or https://youtu.be/pcqWOZtgaHQ
Visit the Storymap  "A River Interrupted" here -> 

Thursday, March 4, 2021

New York Times: "a poster child for the idea of climatic 'tipping points'”

"In the Atlantic Ocean, Subtle Shifts Hint at Dramatic Dangers
The warming atmosphere is causing an arm of the powerful Gulf Stream to weaken, some scientists fear."

Follow the link to review this article online at the New York Times. This is one article that is much better viewed with the visuals they use due to the interactive nature of their presentation.

"IT’S ONE OF THE MIGHTIEST RIVERS you will never see, carrying some 30 times more water than all the world’s freshwater rivers combined. In the North Atlantic, one arm of the Gulf Stream breaks toward Iceland, transporting vast amounts of warmth far northward, by one estimate supplying Scandinavia with heat equivalent to 78,000 times its current energy use. Without this current — a heat pump on a planetary scale — scientists believe that great swathes of the world might look quite different."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

We don’t like to waste things. Our forefathers understood this was common sense.”

Franklin is not like a lot of New England communities where the rivers running through the city/town have been dammed and once upon a time used to generate electrical power. 

"As the turbid currents of the Hoosic River tumble over his backyard dam, a century-old barrier of concrete and limestone, Ken Egnaczak sees a cascade of lost opportunity. 
Day after day, the water flows by without generating even a spark. 
“It’s such a waste,” he said. 
As the state seeks new sources of clean energy to replace power lost from the closures of nuclear and oil-fired plants, the retired mechanical engineer sees promise in the unharnessed power on his property, and at the nearly 3,000 other unused dams across the state."

Ken Egnaczak sat on a wall by the small backyard dam that he is trying to get approval to repower.
Ken Egnaczak sat on a wall by the small backyard dam that he is trying to get approval to repower.
(photo credit - MATTHEW CAVANAUGH FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/14/state-and-towns-looking-tapping-into-hydropower/DzhV2W1YHJwHX38GrEJueI/story.html


I ride along the Blackstone River Bikeway several times a year and there are many dams along the Blackstone River that could generate electrical power.

comparison of water flow at the Pratt Dam along the Blackstone River
comparison of water flow at the Pratt Dam along the Blackstone River
Additional photos of the Blackstone River Bikeway can be found here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_sherlock/albums/72157622053236460/with/4485646180/

Thursday, October 10, 2013

In the News: workforce training grants, river cleanup volunteers needed


Workforce training grants to create jobs in Franklin, Ashland, Southborough

As part of state-wide workforce grants, about $400,000 will be spent at companies in Ashland, Franklin and Southborough to train more than 600 employees and create 50 new jobs in the MetroWest and Milford region.

Volunteers needed for Blackstone Valley Riverways cleanup

The Blackstone River Watershed Association (BRWA) is sponsoring a river cleanup on Sunday, Oct.20, from 1 to  This event will be held rain or shine.



Thursday, April 1, 2010

In the News - flooding

As water poured over a closed Populatic Street yesterday, Eknaian and her husband, Jack, were forced to row to their Populatic Street cottage - which had about 5 feet of water in the yard.
"We always have problems when it rains two or three days steady - all year round," Eknaian said.

Flooding not as bad as expected



Franklin, MA

Thursday, April 23, 2009

10th Annual Charles River Earth Day Clean Up

The 10th Annual Charles River Earth Day Clean Up will be held this Saturday (4/25/09) from 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon all along the Charles River and its tributaries.

David Dobrzynski is the site supervisor for the Bellingham/Franklin/Medway/Millis/Norfolk portion of the Charles River Watershed for this event and would be happy to sign up anyone who would like to pitch in with this effort.

David will be manning the volunteer sign in site at the Whole Foods Market in Bellingham, MA beginning at 9:00 AM. People interested in volunteering can drop by and get an assignment for a specific area that needs to be cleaned up.

Full details about this event can be found at: http://www.crwa.org/cleanup.html