Reports: Executive Director’s Reports

July 30, 2009

  1. City-State Groundwater Working Group - The Group met on July 23. Participation remains excellent. Details from participants are listed below.
  2. MBTA - I attended a stakeholders meeting with the T general manager to update the short and long range plans for raising groundwater levels in the South End near Back Bay Station. Because groundwater levels on Cazenove Street have stayed consistently below El 5 despite the current recharge well there, the T will work with BWSC to increase the flow and, if necessary, add a second recharge well. The T will be assigning engineering of the long term solution to a general engineering firm with which they have an existing contract. This will be for the system to capture and reuse the water pumped at Follen Street. We will have a further update in about six weeks. The MBTA has resumed work along Dartmouth St north of Boylston at Copley Station. They have pledged to resume reporting groundwater levels at the wells near the site. They will be replacing the observation well that was destroyed during construction of the emergency exit in front of CVS.
  3. DCR - The connection between the Storrow Drive West Pumping Station and the recharge galleys under Back Street was completed on July 9. DCR is studying the operation and its impact to make sure that it is operating properly.
  4. BWSC - BWSC has completed most of the sewer relining work in the South End, along with some in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill. The relining project should be complete this summer. They have done repairs at sewer crossover points at Dartmouth/Beacon and Fairfield/Beacon Streets. They expect to complete sewer repairs in several Back Bay alleys this year. Repair of a leaking sewer under Blagdon Street is scheduled for October. Repairs of sewers under Lime and River Streets are scheduled for next spring.
  5. MTA - The MTA will be conducting a dry weather inspection of the North End repairs in August to assure that they have solved the leak. The repair at Columbus Ave and Clrendon St was only partially successful; MTA and their contractor are working on a further solution. MTA will be setting up an advisory committee on groundwater implications of their planned Central Artery drainage changes in September.
  6. MWRA - MWRA construction work on replacing their sewer system in East Boston continues. They will be doing some open cut work near the intersection of Breman and Porter Streets that will allow further inspection and possible repair to any leaking infrastructure near that very low groundwater area. The old sewer along Porter Street will be discontinued next spring. They will be inspecting connections along the Boston Marginal Conduit in Back Bay to check for possible leaks.
  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 - I met with Reps. Walz, Rushing, and Michlewitz to discuss pending groundwater legislation. They expect a hearing to be held in the fall, but timing is uncertain.
  9. Website - We have upgraded the information on the website to include more details about puling cutoff elevations and their implications. We have posted maps and spreadsheets with cutoff elevation information that Christian has been able to gather from ISD files for Back Bay and Beacon Hill. He will be going through the building jackets for the other neighborhoods where groundwater and wood pilings is an issue, and they will be posted as they are completed. The next to be done is the Fenway. Because of a server problem, we have been unable to get data on website usage since June. Our provider is working on a solution.
  10. Research Projects - I received a proposal from Professor Rich Vogel at Tufts for a statistical study to determine the impact of recharge systems installed under the GCOD. The trustees will evaluate the proposal at the July meeting.
  11. Budget - The City Council approved the budget in June including the appropriation for operating funds, level funded from FY09 as proposed by the Mayor, for the Trust.