Massachusetts Legislators Agree to Fund River Study

Residents of flood-prone neighborhoods along the Mystic River and Alewife Brook may finally find the relief they have been looking for. Massachusetts legislators agreed last week to invest $100,000 in a study that will examine Mystic River's water flow problems.

So long as Governor Deval Patrick approves the proposed spending, the state will have environmental specialists determine whether installing a fourth pump at the mouth of the river would help alleviate flooding farther upstream.

"The problem we are trying to fix is flooding from Winchester to Everett," said Belmont Democratic Rep. William Brownsberger, a longtime member of the Arlington-Belmont-Cambridge Storm Water Flooding Board. He added that legislative support is key in this study because it points to the need for a regional solution to a regional problem.

The Mystic has played a prominent role in New England since colonial times, but its tidal waters, which flow in and out of Boston Harbor, have long been a headache for area residents and officials. For centuries, the river's depth has fluctuated wildly: At low tide, the Mystic could become a mud flat, and at high tide it could be 13 ft deep.

Flooding has been an ongoing, destructive problem in parts of Medford, Belmont, Arlington, Cambridge and Winchester; these communitites have spent years trying to put an end to the unwanted water flow.

A Winchester-commissioned study recently found that adding a fourth pump to the Amelia Earhart Dam built in the 1960s would make a significant difference in the community. The $100,000 in state aid will be used to verify this study's findings and determine the feasibility of adding the fourth pump.

State and local officials along the Mystic say they are eager to review the results. "This is real progress," said Brownsberger. "Finally we are having a regionwide conversation about how to solve this problem."

Source: The Boston Globe