The Assabet and Concord Rivers - Clean Water Action
Transcript of The Assabet and Concord Rivers - Clean Water Action
The Assabet and Concord Rivers Replumbing our Watershed
Alison Field-Juma, Executive Director
Organization for the Assabet RiverMarch 13, 2010
Massachusetts Executive Office of
Environmental Affairs
Sudbury, Assabet
and Concord
Watershed
Note: These rivers
are the drinking
water supply of
Billerica
Source: Concord Public Works, 2008
2 flood control
6 old mill dams
1 breached
4 Treatment
Plants
9 Dams
Westborough (+ Shrewsbury)
Marlborough (+ Northborough)
Hudson
Maynard
Ben Smith Dam Impoundment, Stow
WR Grace Super Fund Site, Acton
Source: EPA
Marlborough Westerly WWTP under construction
Clean Water Act
National
Pollutant
Discharge
Elimination
System
Assabet Wastewater Treatment
1970s—primary treatment
1980s—secondary treatment
1990s—tertiary treatment with phosphorus removal
2000s—tertiary treatment with ground discharge
2010s—tertiary with advanced phosphorus removal
Testing phosphorus-
removal technologies,
Hudson, 2006
Source: MAPC
(41,000 acres and
growing…)
Danforth Brook, Hudson, in May
Same location in August
Current vs. Future Non-storm Streamflows in September
Assabet Tributaries% Decrease in
StreamflowMunicipalities
Fort Meadow Brook 98% Hudson, Marlborough
Cold Harbor & Howard
Brooks 49% Northborough, , Boylston
Hop Brook 23% Northborough, , Westborough
Stirrup Brook 10% Westborough, Marlborough
Source: Based on data from USGS, Simulation of Ground-Water Flow and Evaluation of
Water-Management Alternatives in the Assabet River Basin, Eastern Massachusetts. Scientific
Investigations Report 2004-5114. Future flows based on currently permitted water withdrawals
and wastewater discharges, with extension of Northborough sewer system to all developed
areas.
Predicted impact of water withdrawals, sewering
and wastewater discharge on streamflow
Source: Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast, Union of
Concerned Scientists
New England 61%
Mid-Atlantic 42%
East South Central 28%
Mountain 25%
West Central 24%
East North Central 22%
Pacific 18%
South Atlantic 15%
Source: Environment America
Research & Policy Center, 2007
We
are
here!
Change in Extreme Precipitation Frequency, 1948–2006
Where does sludge go?
It contains nutrients and energy…but we use energy to get rid of it.
Upper Blackstone Incinerator
Assabet River
Infiltration chambers
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough
Solar Aquatics in Weston
since 1997
7,000 gpd wastewater
treated with zero discharge
• Produces 50% less sludge
• Uses much less energy
• Uses no chemicals
• Can locate in densely settled areas
• Learning tool for students and community
Anaerobic digesters at the Lübeck Waste
Treatment Facility, Germany
People!
Us!
The Phosphorus Cycle
“Quite simply, without phosphorus, we cannot produce food.”
Stuart White, University of Technology, Sydney
NoMix Toilets
Think Different