Reports: Executive Director’s Reports

May 28, 2009

  1. City-State Groundwater Working Group - The Group will meet again in July.
  2. MBTA - The MBTA continues design work on the long term solution for the area of the South End near Back Bay Station. Transfer of the allocated state funds from construction to creation of a maintenance fund for the installation, agreed to in concept by both the City and the BGwT, will require a legislative correction. The T should soon be installing a replacement well for the one that was destroyed during work on Boylston Street across from Copley Square.
  3. DCR - The connection between the Storrow Drive West Pumping Station and the recharge galleys under Back Street should be completed imminently. There will be a ceremony when the flow is formally turned on.
  4. BWSC - BWSC expects to repair the leak at Beacon and Dartmouth Streets shortly. The sewer lining project in the South End, Back Bay, and Beacon Hill is under way.
  5. MTA - The repairs to the MTA drain line near Clarendon Street should be completed this week.
  6. MWRA - Construction has begun on their project to replace their sewer system in East Boston. As part of this work, they will deactivate and fill the sewer along Porter Street that is in the area of consistently very low readings; the pipe should be filled before the end of 2009.
  7. GCOD - Compliance with GCOD remains excellent. Although the recession has slowed the number of applications, there still are very few Board of Appeals sessions without at least one GCOD case.
  8. Legislation - There have been two bills filed with the Legislature that address aspects of the groundwater issue. A hearing on the City’s bill to offer tax credits for some groundwater related work was held yesterday. We do not yet know the schedule for a hearing on Rep. Walz’s bill to address multiple aspects of governance and other issues related to groundwater.
  9. Website - Traffic on the website dropped back somewhat in May. We are working on an update to the Wells section, as suggested by Tim Mitchell, that will highlight the need to know piling cutoff elevation as well as groundwater level to really understand the vulnerability of a property. In addition, Christian is gradually going through the building jackets of all properties in the areas of concern to gather data on cutoff elevations and identify buildings in the area that are not on wood pilings; we will post the data on the website.
  10. Research Projects - Christian and I met this week with Professor Rich Vogel of Tufts, who advised the undergraduates who worked on the statistical study reported last month that showed a relationship between GCOD related recharge and increases in groundwater levels. Prof. Vogel introduced us to Brian Thomas, a Ph.D. student who could work on a more in depth study that could confirm the undergraduates’ findings and show how they apply across a broader set of wells. The study would require funding from BGwT; I expect a formal proposal in a few weeks.
  11. New Wells - We will shortly receiving access to wells installed by Berklee College near Massachusetts Avenue. In addition, the project planned for 93 Massachusetts Avenue should soon be installing an observation well near the Eliot Hotel. Installation of these wells was required by the BRA and transfer is required under the City’s PIC policy that gives the BGwT the option of taking over any groundwater observation well installed on property over which the Public Improvement Commission has control.
  12. Comment Letters - I attended a scoping session for a building addition at Children’s Hospital and filed comments on the project. The comments are, as always, posted on our website.
  13. Accounting - I have received the paperwork and will once again be engaging Raphael & Raphael LLP to provide a review of our accounts and prepare an annual report and our tax return. The fee is unchanged from last year.