The Mystic River Watershed Initiative Steering Committee Mission and Priorities

Mission Statement & 2022/2024 Joint Priorities

The Mystic River Watershed Initiative is a stakeholder-driven, collaborative effort with a mission to restore water quality and environmental conditions in general in the Mystic River watershed, and to create and maintain open space and public access through safe public pathways and access points. The Initiative is guided by a steering committee composed of many local organizations including not-for-profit community groups, municipalities, and state and federal agencies.

The Mystic River Watershed Initiative's Steering Committee ("Steering Committee") achieves its mission by: setting goals for restoring and maintaining water quality and public access; identifying priorities for strategic direction and specific projects to help meet those goals; sharing data and other information to inform federal, state, and local environmental management decision-making; and coordinating water quality management efforts by governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Steering committee members work collaboratively to improve watershed conditions in the context of a variety of socio-economic conditions and climate change. These efforts contribute to the protection, development, and use of water resources in a sustainable manner, while prioritizing equity and justice. The committee is focused on the restoration and protection of water quality, and fish and wildlife habitat, while striving to engage disadvantaged and underserved communities in a meaningful way. The steering committee also promotes the creation and protection of open spaces and safe public access to the Mystic River and its tributaries for sustainable recreational activities and cultural and spiritual practices. Embedded in these goals is a recognition of the need to address environmental justice concerns and to propose solutions and projects that will be resilient in the face of changing environmental conditions as a result of climate change and other stressors (e.g., new development).

The steering committee supports the efforts of federal, state, and local partners for all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income to protect them from environmental and health hazards.

Through its work, the steering committee will collaborate with its membership to implement an interdisciplinary approach that educates the general public on environmental risks as well as increases participation and engagement of community members to meet its goals of mitigating the impacts of climate change and making the Mystic River watershed clean and accessible to all.

2022-2024 Joint Priorities

The following is a list of priority actions that support the goals of restoring and protecting water quality as well as identifying opportunities to create and maintain open space and public access. Members of the steering committee will work together to implement these actions and to increase public awareness, participation, understanding, and access to information about the Mystic River watershed.

CLEAN WATER

Make the waters of the Mystic River watershed accessible to all communities for beneficial uses including cultural and spiritual practices and enjoyment for recreational purposes such as fishing, boating, and swimming. These actions are to be accomplished through activities that decrease phosphorus loading; reduce or eliminate wastewater contamination of water bodies; assist municipalities to address stormwater pollution and meet permit requirements; remediate legacy pollution; remove trash; and increase public awareness of health risks about recreational use of water bodies, including fish consumption health advisories.

Priority #1: Support water quality monitoring and research and share data and other information with environmental decision-makers, stakeholders, and the public.

1. Support data collection activities to monitor ongoing pollutant inputs, as well as the impact of best management practices, including the application of advanced and innovative measurement and modeling opportunities when available.
2. Increase public awareness of and access to information regarding water quality, pollutant sources, and remedial measures, including the development of new notification resources for non-native English speakers as well as disadvantaged and/or underserved watershed residents.
3. Support collaborative community outreach and education programs and approaches.
4. Provide opportunities to share the latest scientific information on the watershed with government agencies, stakeholders, and the public (e.g., through science forums or other presentations).

Priority #2: Engage stakeholders and the public in "hands-on" opportunities to restore and protect water quality; ensure that opportunities for education and engagement activities include environmental justice communities.

1. Promote school and other organizational programs and projects to get residents on the river to learn about this important community resource.
2. Support volunteer water quality and fish migration monitoring.
3. Support volunteer trash cleanups.
4. Support the tracking and removal of aquatic invasive species such as various milfoil species, and water chestnut.
5. Provide webinars, short presentations, and round table opportunities on new initiatives such as adopt-a-storm drain and trash booms open to the public across the watershed, especially to underserved, disadvantaged communities.

Priority #3: Improve stormwater management to reduce pollutant loading and mitigate flooding

1. Continue to provide technical assistance to municipalities to support compliance with the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit.
2. Provide training on compliance and development of "measurable goals" to satisfy the new MS4 permit and Minimum Control Measures.
3. Promote or identify funding for the development, expansion and increased pilot/demonstration projects to illustrate Best Management Practices relative to infiltration, onsite retention, and cost-effectiveness, as well as the reduction of directly-connected impervious surfaces.
4. Engage municipal leaders on how municipal master plans impact stormwater management.
5. Provide opportunities (webinars, forums, etc.) to explore sharing of best practices, resources, contracts, etc.
6. Target interventions in underserved, disadvantaged communities including addressing inland flooding near and around brownfield sites.
7. Develop structural, non-structural, and public engagement initiatives to reduce trash entering the Mystic River and its tributaries.

Priority #4: Reduce or eliminate discharges of sanitary sewage to surface waters in the watershed.

1. Aggressively identify and remove sources of sanitary sewage coming from direct or indirect illicit discharges.
2. Support watershed communities in their efforts to identify, provide notification of, and eliminate Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) in compliance with federal and state regulations.
3. Work with and encourage municipalities and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) to reduce or eliminate Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) discharges to the Mystic River, Alewife Brook, and Chelsea Creek.
4. Educate communities and the public about the effects of climate change on the volume and frequency of SSOs and CSOs and the resulting impacts on water quality.
5. Use data from baseline monitoring and stormwater outfall testing to develop communications tools for stakeholders and the general public —including the annual Mystic River Watershed report card. Support efforts to translate communications into relevant languages and streamline posting of information on community websites.
6. Protect public health by increasing public messaging and awareness during CSO and SSO discharges.

Priority #5: Increase knowledge of legacy sediment contamination, identify impacts on designated uses, educate the public, and identify priorities and opportunities for restoration, particularly in environmental justice communities.

1. Compile information on sediment contamination and identify data gaps.
2. Educate the public on environmental conditions and what activities (fishing, swimming, and boating) are supported and not supported in each water body.

Priority #6: Serve as a clearinghouse of information on how climate change may impact water quality and environmental justice populations in the watershed. Work with municipal and state partners to identify funding opportunities and address issues such as:

1. Engaging regional conversation on the capacity of Amelia Earhart Dam to protect inland areas from storm surge and sea-level rise.
2. Planning for increased frequency and extent of flooding events from extreme precipitation.
3. Limiting erosion caused by increased extreme precipitation events to limit nutrient inputs.
4. Educating citizens on how temperature increases can lead to increased frequency and intensity of cyanobacteria blooms.
5. Explore the impacts of climate change impacts on groundwater flows and levels on the proper functioning of stormwater systems, including impacts on non-sewer waste management systems (e.g., cesspools, septic tanks, etc.), combined sewer systems, wells, buried infrastructure, surface infrastructure, and potential releases from active and remediated brownfield sites.
6. Identify and assess the disproportionate impacts of heatwaves, chronic flooding, and/or storms due to exposure sensitivity and ability to recover.

OPEN SPACE

Increase the establishment of safe open space and public access to the river and its tributaries (for example, the redevelopment and remediation of brownfields, development of walkways, bikeways, and trails) by supporting the development and/or improvement of open space and access at targeted sites in the watershed already identified; and continuing to investigate and search for possible open space and access targets in other parts of the watershed.

Priority #1: Increase public awareness and focus on selected sites in the lower watershed where there's potential to enhance or increase open space.

1. Increase public awareness of and access to information on open space, and health, especially to the environmental justice population in the lower mystic.
2. Work with elected municipal officials (legislature, mayors, and city council) to establish collaborative efforts for open space planning and funding where possible.
3. Develop and/or improve public open space with a focus on the estuarine Mystic River, access at Draw 7 Park in Somerville, and at least one selected site in the Chelsea Creek sub-watershed.

• Each targeted site will be different and will require different actions by the Steering Committee.

Priority #2: Continue a systemic investigation of the river system to identify properties or projects that may provide for the development of public Open Space and Access.

1. Identify open space solutions and locations that would assist in addressing sea-level rise, coastal storm surge mitigation measures through field investigation and a review of all available open space studies and inventories for that area.
2. Evaluate prospects for open space where the committee determines there is appropriate potential by a review of the physical, financial, and regulatory conditions that surround the selected property. Prospects should also be considered based on factors including proximity to environmental justice communities, communities with lower access to green space, and/or communities with minority/low-income residents.
3. Develop support for open space development at selected sites through a public process that engages members of the local community (across all backgrounds and multiple languages).