Water Pollution
Smart, Clean, Green: Innovative Water Systems Forum
The forum, hosted by Senator Eldridge and co-sponsored by the Organization for the Assabet River (OAR), Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund on Saturday, March 13 attracted 75 participants from Westborough to Concord eager to learn about innovations in water management.
“Our cities and towns are facing a water and wastewater crisis created by antiquated infrastructure and a failure to properly invest in maintaining existing infrastructure," said State Senator Jamie Eldridge. "It's an urgent problem that demands our attention, because the integrity of our water infrastructure system has a large impact on our public safety and our public health."
The program, title slide of presentations, and press release are below. Please contact OAR if you would like us to email you a particular presentation or give a condensed presentation of this material to your group or club.
Program and Bios
Primer on Decentralized Wastewater Systems, Jim Kreissl, Wastewater consultant, Retired EPA
The Assabet Watershed Context, Alison Field-Juma, Executive Director, OAR
Integrated Resource Management, Patrick Lucey, President, Aqua-Tex Scientific Consulting, Victoria BC
Water Reuse Scenarios for Massachusetts, Brent Reagor, Public Health Director, Concord
New Directions in Stormwater Management, Bob Zimmerman, Executive Director, Charles River Watershed Association
Press Release
Opinion by Senator Jamie Eldridge, Telegram and Gazette, April 1, 2010
Water Pollution
The most immediate (but not the only) water quality problem facing the Assabet River is nutrient pollution. In the summer, parts of the Assabet River are as green as a well-watered lawn. The green is a blanket of floating duckweed and algae, and, beneath that, hides a forest of aquatic plants rooted in the shallow sediments. This excess of plants, termed "eutrophication," is caused by an over-abundance of nutrients (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) in the river acting as fertilizer for the aquatic plants. During the growing season the over-growth of plants creates problems for fish and other aquatic creatures by affecting dissolved oxygen concentrations and pH in the water column. After the growing season, the plants and algae decay, lowering dissolved oxygen levels and producing that distinctive bad odor you probably associate with late summer along the Assabet if you've walked by the Powdermill dam on Rte 62 in Acton or along Track Road by the river in Maynard.
The excess of nutrients and the effects of eutrophication have impaired the river to the point that it does not meet the state's water quality standards for a "fishable and swimmable" river. The bulk of the nutrient loading to the river comes from the four major wastewater treatment plants that line its banks. Storm water runoff and the recycling of nutrients trapped in river sediments also contribute to the river's excess of nutrients. Dams all along the river create large, slow moving sections (impoundments) where nutrient-rich sediments have accumulated over many years. Before the river can meet "fishable and swimmable" standards, nutrient loads from the wastewater treatment plants and nonpoint sources will need to be dramatically reduced.
Much of the study of the Assabet's eutrophication problems has concentrated on phosphorus because phosphorus is usually the "limiting nutrient" in freshwater systems. That is, it is the critical nutrient that will get used up first and limit the amount that plants can grow.
Read about the sources of nutrients and other water quality problems: wastewater, dams and sediment, and stormwater. Or jump right to the technical details of the TMDL study of the river's nutrient problems.
