Reports: Executive Director’s Reports

November 20, 2008

  1. City-State Groundwater Working Group - The group will meet again in January.
  2. MTA - The MTA hopes to make the repairs to the pipe near Clarendon St in December.
  3. MBTA - We met with the MBTA and their consultant at Cazenove Street last week. The recharge well was putting approximately 7.5 gallons per minute into the ground. Unfortunately, that water was being rapidly withdrawn and levels were at a low point. The withdrawal may be related to underpinning work underway at a location nearby. This project is to be completed in December, and we will continue to have data loggers in the wells on Cazenove Street that we will monitor closely to see if the levels increase. I appreciate the cooperation of the T in trying to inderstand the problem.
  4. BWSC - BWSC has found two leaks near where the liner installed last year in the West Side Interceptor under Beacon Street meets some cross connections. These could be the cause of recent low water readings in the area of Dartmouth and Beacon Streets. BWSC will shortly be contracting for a diver to make these repairs as well as to inspect and repair a possible leak in a sewer under Commercial Street that could be causing the low water levels near Richmond Street and Atlantic Avenue.
  5. GCOD - Compliance with GCOD continues to be excellent. I recently met with a professor at Tufts about a potential research project to determine how much effect the systems installed so far have had on groundwater levels. We have received a proposal for conducting the project.
  6. Website - Traffic has dropped slightly this month. We will soon be making some improvements to the website that should make it a little cleaner and easier to navigate. One anticipated new feature will be a list of most recent additions, allowing visitors to rapidly find anything new on the site.
  7. Meetings - I met with a resident at Trinity Place to discuss ways in which that condominium building can help raise area groundwater levels.
  8. Comment Letters - I filed a comment letter on the Maverick Street Apartments project in East Boston. It is, as always, posted on our website.