Magazine Beach

Dear All,

I think we can be proud of our 2013 accomplishments at Magazine Beach, noted below. Look for construction at the Powder Magazine come spring, more cleanups, and a spectacular 2014 Celebration of the park June 14^th! We also hope to update and complete the landscape plan for the western part of the park and to move forward on other park improvements.

Thanks for your part in all of this and happy, happy holidays!

Cathie Zusy, Chair Magazine Beach Committee, Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., a 501c3 tax-exempt, non-profit, cathzusy@gmail.com

2013 Milestones at Magazine Beach

– Senator Anthony Petruccelli and Rep. Jay Livingstone meet with DCR and City officials.

-DCR removes graffiti from the Powder Magazine, removes the broken playground, and prunes trees.

-We organize two community cleanups with partners the Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club and DCR. The CRC hosts six more including Starbucks, Novartis, Vertex, Sanofi, and many other groups!

-We offer three programs:  a history tour, a birdwatching and foraging walk, and a tour of the Cottage Farm Sewer Combined Overflow Facility. See Mary Holbrow’s blog post at http://www.cctvcambridge.org/MagazineBeachWalk.

March

-Our first fundraising house party, hosted by Decia Goodwin and Brian Conway, with marvelous graphics by Brian and a movie about Captain’s Island by Augie Cummings: https://vimeo.com/62881865.

-MIT students do a Magazine Beach makeover, producing an exhibit, strategic plan and Facebook page (with donate button!) for us.

May

-DCR Open House of Powder Magazine.

-Presentation of the Historic Structure Report for Powder Magazine. DCR will post on their site in early 20014.

 June

-Our 2013 Celebration featuring art installations by Artforming and Danielle Saurve, a community performance orchestrated by Nancy Adams, music by Best Ever Chicken, and a publication about Captain’s Island and the Powder Magazine by Nina Cohen and Marilyn Wellons (posted at www.magazinebeach.wordpress.com). See Ron Wyman’s film at http://vimeo.com/69414298.

September

-The City of Cambridge appropriates $100k of Community Preservation Act Funds to help stabilize the 1818 Powder Magazine.

November

-DCR’s Comm. Jack Murray announces that DCR will match City money and the money the CNA raised (just over $11k), too, to stabilize the Powder Magazine and add security lighting (about $300k, total, to do the work).

– Senator Petruccelli and Rep. Livingstone draft legislation to put the Magazine on the DCR’s Historic Curatorship list whereby a business gets a long-term lease to the building in exchange for converting it to its next use. A concession/ meeting space????

-DCR’s Sr. Planner Rick Corsi meets with Cambridge Conservation Commission Jennifer Letourneau to draft a vegetation management plan for the park.

December

-DCR covers roof with rubber membrane, protecting it from the elements until the new slate roof is installed.

Coming Soon!

-DCR publishes the Historic Structure Report for Powder Magazine, and solicits RFP to reroof the Magazine (to specs by Clark & Green).

Thanks to the many talented and passionate volunteers who helped make all of these things happen; to our wonderful colleagues at DCR, the CRC and the RBC; to our committed politicians; and to our funders: the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, Charles River Conservancy, Forest City and Anonymous. Thanks to our efforts, over $300k will be invested in the Powder Magazine in 2014. The Magazine Beach Committee’s operating expenses (to pay for materials for the Celebration and stipends for the writers and filmmaker) have been just over $4k. Now that’s a lot of bang for each buck!

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Many thanks to Morse 2-5 students and teachers and to the Charles River Conservancy for organizing an afternoon of raking leaves and jumping and hiding in them. We had a lot of fun AND gathered over 40 bags of leaves!

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Leaves. They’re the new hair fashion.

DCR Comm. Murray announces matching funds for Powder Magazine

Yesterday morning was the moment we’ve been waiting for–an announcement from DCR that they will stabilize the magazine. This wouldn’t have happened without support from the City of Cambridge, the community and our local and state politicians. Thanks to you all! DCR Commissioner Jack Murray, Ex. Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission Charles Sullivan, and State Rep. Jay Livingstone all gave rousing speeches. Thanks also to Starbucks for the hot chocolate and decaf to help us celebrate and warm us, too. Photographs by Carolyn Shipley.

Comm. Murray gives Cathie Zusy a citation for the Neighborhood Association

The Charles River Conservancy’s Danielle Stehlik and volunteers with our haul.

Many thanks to the 60 volunteers who came out into the cold on Saturday to rake leaves, pick up trash, remove graffiti and plant bulbs. We gathered over 160 bags of leaves, over 3o bags of trash, and many twigs and branches. The place is looking great for our BIG event this coming Thursday at 10am, when DCR will announce their match of City and community funds to stabilize the powder magazine. Volunteers from Sanofi, BU, CRLS, Riverside Boat Club and the neighborhood  made the difference!

Earlier in the week, DCR removed the broken play structure from the park. It looks SO MUCH better now!

The Cottage Farm Combined Sewer Overflow Treatment Plant at Magazine Beach

22 Cambridgeport residents, CWRA and Mystic Watershed staff and MIT students toured the Cottage Farm Facility last Thursday night.

Exploring the underworld at our Magazine Beach.

MWRA Executive Director Fred Laskey and Director of Wastewater Operations and Maintenance Stephen Cullen led us to the underworld of Magazine Beach last night with a tour of the Cottage Farm Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Treatment Plant. Who would have known that we had modern Roman catacombs/cisterns (only with a wastewater focus) just down that street? In what appears to be a compact brick building, lies room after room of engines, pumps, screening mechanisms, and stormwater holding areas, all designed to prevent a mixture of sewage and stormwater from flowing into the Charles.

In much of Boston, Cambridge,  there is just one sewer pipe running down each street that is used for both the sanitary sewage from our houses and storm water from the street drains.  This is a combined sewer/storm water system.  Other towns have two sewer pipes on each street, one for sewage, the other for storm water.   Storm water flows can increase dramatically during a heavy rainstorm.  That happened in Cambridgeport in June of 2011 when 3 inches of rain fell in about 15 minutes, sending diluted sewage into a number of basements in the neighborhood.  In a two pipe system, the same thing could happen with the stormwater pipe, but the backup in our basements would be sewage free.

Built in the late 1960’s and brought on line in 1971, Cottage Farm is a Combined Sewer Overflow Treatment facility. It is designed to manage both sanitary waste (poop, etc.) and surface run-off from storms that arrives at the facility in two pipes—one from the North and another from the West.  Normally it then funnels under the Charles River to the Ward Street Headworks (near the MFA and Wentworth Institute) and then is pumped to Deer Island to be processed and released in the ocean—nine miles out.

During storms the flow can exceed the capacity of the very large pipes.  In the old days the excess flow was diverted into the Charles.  Now, up to 1.3 million gallons can be stored in the detention tanks in the Cottage Farm CSO facility.  It is pumped back into the pipes and on to Deer Island once the flows have gotten back to more normal levels.  Discharges to the Charles River occur only if the capacity of the detention tanks is exceeded.

Screening mechanisms remove debris big and small–boards, tires, and leaves–from the wastewater.

Diesel-powdered engines power the pumps, whether there is electricity or not.

As the sewage comes into the plant it goes through a series of screens.  The first screen catches the big stuff–would you believe tires and 2×4’s?  Leaves are a big problem for a few weeks in October.  The smallest screen before water ends up in the Charles is a half of an inch.  The waste is chlorinated like a swimming pool to kill pathogens, and de-chlorinated to protect the aquatic life in the river before overflowing into the Charles.

The wet well can hold about 100,000 gallons of water, awaiting chlorinating treatment.

In case of a storm surge, 6 detention basins can hold up to 1.3 million gallons of wastewater.

After screening, chlorinating and de-chlorinating, some treated wastewater is discharged to the Charles River. Note the “man catcher” screen.

Preparing for climate change is a priority for the MWRA. The systems at Deer Island—the 2^nd largest sewage treatment plant in the USA—were built elevated, in case the ocean rose. We were assured that Cottage Farm will operate whether or not there is flooding and electric power. They have emergency generators there and can run it remotely from Chelsea or a backup facility in Marlborough. Laskey proudly noted that the MWRA has one of the best water storage systems in the country. It is considered a model. I certainly felt reassured knowing that Laskey and Cullen were in charge—both are knowledgeable, passionate and committed to preserving our water quality.

The MWRA is responsible for providing clean water for over 61 communities in the greater Boston area.

Our next visit: Deer Isle Wastewater Treatment Plant–where our sewage goes!

Note: The MWRA  was established by an act of the Legislature in 1984 to provide wholesale water and sewer services to 2.5 million people and more than 5,500 large industrial users in 61 metropolitan Boston communities and to comply with the Clean Water Act. The agency has cleaned up the Boston Harbor and modernized the region’s water systems.

For further info, see: http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/index.html

For a short history of our sewage system, see: http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/03sewer/html/sewhist.htm

For an illustration of a CSO, see: http://www.cityofbremerton.com/content/cso_csos.html

Many thanks to Stephen Cullen, Sarah Satterthwaite and Royce Buehler for their contributions to this post!

From Amanda Milad of Riverside Boat Club:

Riverside has 44 entries this weekend–ranging from single sculls to eights. Cambridgeport is an integral part of the regatta. The race starts at the BU boathouse and Magazine Beach serves as the launch site for the singles and doubles. Everyone is excited for a great weekend of racing!

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Update:

Building of mystery. Much of it is underground. Come explore it with us Oct. 17.

Ever wonder what happens to the water that runs into our sewers during heavy rains, or about where our sewage goes? Or did you ever wonder what goes on in the big brick building at Magazine Beach Park, just to the west of the BU Bridge?

Stephen Cullen, the Director of Wastewater Operations & Maintenance at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) will lead a tour of the Cottage Farm Combined Sewer Overflow Treatment Facility at Magazine Beach on Thursday, Oct. 17^th at 7 pm.  Not only will he tell you about the Cottage Farm facility, but also he’ll share an overview of recent water and sewer system-wide improvements and plans going forward.

To sign up for the tour, contact Cathie Zusy at cathzusy@gmail.com. Please wear comfortable, closed toe shoes.

Also, save the date: Saturday, November 9 (9-12 noon) for our next Magazine Beach Cleanup.