Joint effort to plug up water woes

For years, communities within the Mystic River Watershed have looked for ways to solve water quality, flooding, and other problems in the area.

Now for the first time a new plan outlines a blueprint for the entire region to collaborate on those efforts.

The Mystic River Watershed Assessment and Action plan was prepared by the Mystic River Watershed Association in collaboration with Tufts University professors and others. It draws on work previously undertaken through a now discontinued state watershed initiative that was aimed at helping restore and protect the state's water resources.

The Mystic River plan was unveiled Dec. 9 at the Everett Armory. Organizers said their intent is to seek community feedback on the plan and regional efforts to implement it. The watershed encompasses all or parts of 21 communities, including Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Melrose, Revere, and Winthrop.

The plan covers a wide range of issues, including wildlife habitat, land use, open space, water-based recreation, and environmental justice, in addition to flooding and water quality.

The Mystic River Watershed is defined in the report as a ''collection of rivers, streams, lakes and ponds that drain an area of approximately 76 square miles north of Boston."

To address water quality issues, for example, it calls for programs to identify and control pollutants impairing each water body; to increase water quality monitoring; and to identify hazardous waste sites with the potential of contaminating water bodies.

To address flooding, the plan calls for gathering more reliable data on flooding events; rehabilitating dams; and assessing the potential for increased open space and low-impact development practices to ease the problem. It also calls for looking at how efforts to prevent flooding in one area can have effects -- positive and negative -- on another.

Patrick Johnston, a patrol officer assigned to the Everett Police Department's marine division and the city's conservation agent, provided input for the plan. Noting that the watershed's issues transcend local boundaries, he said, ''This action plan is a regional approach to those local environmental problems and follows the model espoused today of regionalization."

He said the findings of the report -- including that the watershed is prone to flooding and that the content in every one of its basins violates water quality standards -- do not come as a surprise to those who have been working on those issues. What is new, he said, is the willingness to embrace a common plan to fix them.

''We are all agreeing that this is the future we want to see and we are all going to work together throughout the watershed to address these issues," Johnston said.

A subwatershed of Boston Harbor, the Mystic River Watershed encompasses nine distinct subwatersheds. Those include the Malden River subbasin, which originates in Melrose and flows through Malden, Everett, and Medford; and the Chelsea Creek subbasin, which includes Chelsea and Mill creeks, and drains parts of Everett, Revere, Chelsea, and East Boston.

Chelsea City Councilor Roseann Bongiovanni, who is director of the Chelsea Greenspace and Recreation Committee, welcomed the new plan. The committee works to promote the cleanup of Chelsea Creek.

''It presents us with a regional tool we could use so we are not talking about different aspects of the watershed, but we are talking about the watershed as a whole," she said. Bongiovanni said one practical benefit of the plan would be helping the region secure grants and technical assistance from federal and state agencies.

The Mystic River Watershed is considered one of the most densely populated and urbanized watersheds in Massachusetts, according to its association, a 33-year-old nonprofit that works to protect and restore the watershed's natural resources. More than a half million people, or about 8 percent of the state's population, live within the watershed, which represents less than 1 percent of the state's land mass, according to the watershed association.

The report notes that ''human activities along the banks of the Mystic and its tributaries have had profound impacts on the watershed's hydrology and water quality for many years." During the 1800s, for instance, ''factories replaced many farms and the region attracted many new residents. By 1865, over-fishing and pollution had all but eliminated commercial fishing."

But while ''many of the historical changes in the watershed have had adverse impacts on its natural resources," the report said ''there are now opportunities to reverse some of this damage."

The reduction in pollution forced by federal and state regulations is helping. So is the decline in industry in some parts of the watershed, which presents opportunities for reclaiming some land to maintain as open space for the public along waterfronts, and for redeveloping sites using environmentally sensitive practices, the report said.

''People have lost contact with the rivers and lakes in much of the Mystic River Watershed and have had very low expectations for its future," said Nancy Hammett, executive director of the association. ''We are at a turning point and many positive things are now happening that can make these water points and their banks valuable assets to our urban neighborhoods. Our hope is that this plan will galvanize interest and resources to make that vision a reality."