EK Khalsa, Carolyn Mieth & Minka vanBeuzekom.On October 7, 2014 the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) was grateful to receive $30,000 from the Oaktree Appellants, a group of local activists. This funding will be used to restore environmental conditions in the Alewife Brook sub-watershed which includes parts of Cambridge, Belmont, Somerville and Arlington, MA.
The history and source of this funding will define the work Mystic River Watershed Association undertakes through this grant. In the early 2000’s the Oaktree Appellant activists objected to a proposed residential development adjacent to the Alewife MBTA station based upon the excessive size of the project, the high levels of traffic it would generate and the lack of sufficient flood storage on site. An appeal to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection approval of the development plan was filed by Oaktree Appellants and subsequently a lawsuit was filed by the developer against these individual litigants. Funding provided to the Mystic River Watershed Association under this grant is derived from the settlement of these suits, totaling $135,000. This funding, under the terms of the settlement, must be used for improvement of the Alewife floodplain. The Mystic River Watershed Association’s expertise and experience in the Alewife area will ensure that is how the funds are deployed.
