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Boston Harbor Watersheds Water Quality & Hydrologic Investigations

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Boston Harbor Watersheds Water Quality & Hydrologic Investigations Boston Harbor Watersheds Water Quality & Hydrologic Investigations Fore River Watershed Mystic River Watershed Neponset River Watershed Weir River Watershed Project Number 2002-02/MWI June 30, 2003 Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Resource Protection Boston Harbor Watersheds Water Quality & Hydrologic Investigations Project Number 2002-01/MWI June 30, 2003 Report Prepared by: Ian Cooke, Neponset River Watershed Association Libby Larson, Mystic River Watershed Association Carl Pawlowski, Fore River Watershed Association Wendy Roemer, Neponset River Watershed Association Samantha Woods, Weir River Watershed Association Report Prepared for: Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Resource Protection Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Ellen Roy Herzfelder, Secretary Department of Environmental Protection Robert W. Golledge, Jr., Commissioner Bureau of Resource Protection Cynthia Giles, Assistant Commissioner Division of Municipal Services Steven J. McCurdy, Director Division of Watershed Management Glenn Haas, Director Boston Harbor Watersheds Water Quality & Hydrologic Investigations Project Number 2002-01/MWI July 2001 through June 2003 Report Prepared by: Ian Cooke, Neponset River Watershed Association Libby Larson, Mystic River Watershed Association Carl Pawlowski, Fore River Watershed Association Wendy Roemer, Neponset River Watershed Association Samantha Woods, Weir River Watershed Association Report Prepared for: Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Resource Protection Preface In 2002 the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection sought outside contractors to conduct water quality and hydrologic investigations in the Boston Harbor Watershed, with the goal of restoring designated uses as called for under the Federal Clean Water Act. The project was initiated under, and funded through, the Massachusetts Watershed Initiative using state environmental bond funds. As defined by the state of Massachusetts the Boston Harbor Watershed consists of a number of smaller, hydrologically separate watersheds each of which drains to the Boston Harbor. These include the Mystic River Watershed to the northeast of Boston, the Neponset River Watershed to the Southwest, the Fore River Watershed to the south, the Back River to the southeast, and finally the Weir River Watershed to the extreme southeast. Notably omitted for the state defined Boston Harbor Watershed is the Harbor’s other major tributary, the Charles River. To maximize the benefits derived from limited funds, the Department of Environmental Protection selected a coalition of nonprofit organizations to carry out the project, using a volunteer based water quality monitoring strategy. The coalition included the Neponset, Mystic, Fore and Weir River Watershed Associations, with the Neponset Watershed Association serving as fiscal agent for the project. This collaborative matched the funding available from the Department with volunteer time, in-kind laboratory analysis, other in-kind services and contributions from private donors to substantially expand the scope of what could be accomplished. This report summarizes the results of those investigations, and recommends actions needed to restore natural resources and achieve water quality standards in the study area. Each of the Watersheds included in the study area has its own unique set of water quality challenges and opportunities. Furthermore each watershed had available to it different levels of matching resources. The result was in essence a set of four separate but interrelated water quality monitoring programs tailored specifically to the needs, resources and goals of its own watershed. While watershed impairments and sampling strategies all differed, each monitoring program had one thing in common: a DEP approved QAPP. The QAPP or Quality Assurance Project Plan was prepared by the applicable watershed association and spelled out all the details of how the investigations would be conducted and the measures taken to ensure that the resulting data was reliable for its intended purposes. The four resulting reports are collected here to form this overall water quality assessment and action plan for the Boston Harbor Watersheds. The overall table of contents provides a key to locating the beginning of each watershed’s report in both the hard copy and electronic versions of the report. Each watershed section then includes its own, more detailed table of contents. Overall Table of Contents Watershed Hard Copy PDF Name Tab Number Page Number Fore River Watershed ...........................One .................................................11 Mystic River Watershed .......................Two................................................29 Neponset River Watershed ..................Three...............................................91 Weir River Watershed...........................Four...............................................351 Fore River Watershed Fore River Watershed Table of Contents Background and Program Design............................................................................................... 3 The Fore River Watershed.......................................................................................................... 3 Past Monitoring and Project Goals............................................................................................ 3 Sampling Program Design.......................................................................................................... 4 Sampling Station Descriptions.................................................................................................... 5 Water Quality Criteria................................................................................................................ 8 Discussion and Recommendations............................................................................................... 9 Location No. 31: Phillips Creek at North Street......................................................................... 9 Location No. 45: Tributary at Montcalm Street ......................................................................... 9 Location No. 61: Smelt Brook................................................................................................... 10 Location No. 71: Monatiquot River @ Shaw Street................................................................. 10 Location No. 71A: Storm Drain at Shaw Street Bridge ........................................................... 10 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 12 References.................................................................................................................................... 13 Appendix: Data Tables............................................................................................................... 15 Fore River Watershed, page F1 Fore River Watershed, page F2 Background and Program Design The Fore River Watershed The Fore River Watershed includes some 46.5 square miles draining portions of Quincy, Braintree, and Weymouth. The watershed includes both freshwater tributaries and large estuarine reaches. Critical natural resources within the Fore River Watershed include extensive shellfish beds, anadromous smelt and herring runs, and an active recreational boating community and swimming beaches in the brackish portion of the watershed. Some 150,000 people reside in the watershed, and land use ranges from high density urban to low density suburban. The Fore River Watershed also has a significant stretch of “working waterfront” which includes the former Fore River shipyard, MWRA sludge to fertilizer facility and Sythe energy generating station. Water quality in the Fore River Watershed and its tributaries has historically been severely impacted by bacterial pollution in the freshwater reaches and upper estuary, resulting in nonsupport of primary and secondary contact recreation standards and the closure of productive shellfish beds. The Lower Estuary, dominated by saltwater inflows from the Boston Harbor, has benefited significantly from the Boston Harbor Cleanup Project, and generally supports shell fishing. Many segments of the Fore River are included on the Massachusetts 303(d) list for pathogens and other sources of impairment. Frequent sanitary sewer overflows from the MWRA’s Braintree-Weymouth Interceptor have been one of the primary sources of historic bacterial pollution. Upgrades to the interceptor are underway which should at least minimize and hopefully completely eliminate these egregious discharges. However any number of other sources of bacterial pollution exist within the watershed such as cross-connections, other SSOs, exfiltration and nonpoint sources, such that remediation of the Interceptor, in and of itself, will not be sufficient to restore primary and secondary contact shell fishing uses. Past Monitoring and Project Goals Aside from the data collected in the past by the Fore River Watershed Association, very minimal assessment activities have been conducted on the Fore River by DEP or other government agencies. As a result, the DEP Nonpoint Source Action plan identifies conducting water quality monitoring and assessments as the primary, if not only, action for many segments
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