During a storm, rain washes over our streets picking up pollutants such as fertilizer and dog poop, and flows through storm drains, untreated, directly into the Alewife Brook—yes, any pet waste and car oil on the streets end up in our waterways! In order to reduce this pollution, the Town of Arlington installed 2 rain gardens and 20 infiltration trenches in East Arlington this spring.
The two rain gardens were installed at the intersection of Milton Street and Herbert Road. With so many paved surfaces in our communities, we are sending nutrients and pollutant-laden stormwater to the river, lakes, and ponds instead of into the ground. The result has been excessive growth of invasive plants, poor fish habitat, and blooms of toxic cyanobacteria that are a threat to public health. These rain gardens are engineered to capture the “first flush,” a high concentration of pollutants moved off of pavement during the beginning of a storm. The remaining stormwater entering our waterways is less contaminated—leading to improved habitat and healthier communities.
The Town also installed a number of infiltration trenches—a simple form of green infrastructure made by digging a trench, filling it with stone, and covering it back up—in the space between the road and sidewalk. After construction, the trenches are invisible. These trenches are highly efficient in filtering out harmful pollutants, and relatively inexpensive to install.
"We were pleased to work with the Town of Arlington on the design and installation of this cost-effective infrastructure for reducing nutrient pollution to the Alewife Brook and Mystic River," says Patrick Herron, Executive Director of the Mystic River Watershed Association. "Our long-term vision is that these trenches can be implemented in the hundreds throughout the Mystic River watershed to make meaningful improvements to water quality and fish habitat."
According to Wayne Chouinard from the Town of Arlington: “We were able to install 2 rain gardens and 20 infiltration trenches in East Arlington this spring, taking great strides towards improving water quality in the Alewife Brook. The trenches were designed to use off-the-shelf products that are simple to build and maintain, allowing us to minimize costs. The lessons learned from this project allowed us to refine the design to provide a scalable and more cost-effective approach to improving water quality.”
This work is part of a long-term commitment to improving the water quality of Alewife Brook and the Mystic River, in partnership with the Mystic River Watershed Association, and with funding from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. See the full report here.
Questions? Contact the Town of Arlington’s Engineering Department by phone at 781-316-3320 or by email at engineering@town.arlington.ma.us.
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About the Mystic River Watershed Association: The Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) works to improve the lives of the more than half-million residents of Mystic River communities through its efforts to protect and restore water quality, natural habitat and open space throughout the 76 square mile watershed. For more information, see MysticRiver.org.
About Stormwater pollution: To learn more about stormwater pollution—including phosphorus—visit MysticRiver/org/pollution. Read more about new efforts to reduce phosphorus pollution here or at MysticRiver.org/News “New Tool for Tackling Harmful Algal Blooms on the Mystic”.
