Fifty years since its creation in 1972 as an all-volunteer organization, MyRWA has grown into a dynamic, membership- and grant-funded powerhouse – deeply connected to the 21 communities it serves in the watershed with 1,000 individual and group members, 13 members of the Board, 15 paid staff, thousands of volunteers, and a budget of over $4M – focused on protecting our water, restoring important habitat, building climate resilience, transforming parks and paths, and inspiring youth and community members.
MyRWA’s History by the Decade
1970’s
Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) was incorporated January 19, 1972 by Dr. Peter Braun, Dr. Herbert Meyer and Tufts Department of Chemical Engineering administration, faculty and graduate students as an all volunteer organization, focused on addressing hazardous waste pollution, urban runoff, and protecting the wetlands and waters of the Mystic Lakes and River.
MyRWA galvanized Clean Water Act protections to cleanup Mystic Lakes and River, spearheaded by Dr. Herbert Meyer, including notable efforts to stop ammonia (NH3) pollution from National Polychemical Corp (later Stauffer Chemical) in Wilmington, MA.
MyRWA volunteers launched first annual spring river cleanups, helping community members become invested in protecting local waters and lands.
1980’s
MyRWA founders and expert volunteers and allies researched and identified pollution in the Mystic River and tributaries, and advocated for the cleanup of hazardous waste in the Aberjona River in Woburn that was responsible for a childhood leukemia cluster through the Superfund Program. Watch founder Dr. Braun’s interview about MyRWA’s research on water quality in Woburn.
Began to advocate and partner with communities and state and local agencies for greenways along the river. To date, through MyRWA’s continued focus, there are 16 completed miles with seven more miles of paths in progress to connect the Mystic Watershed to the ocean through MyRWA’s Greenways program.
Organized “bucket brigades” where volunteers manually moved herring in buckets up to the Upper Mystic to spawn. (With persistent advocacy by MyRWA, the fish ladder was finally installed between the lakes in 2012!)
1990’s
Successfully advocated to protect important wetlands and green space from development near where the Alewife MBTA station was being built, and at Great Meadows in Lexington, the headwaters for the Arlington Reservoir, where MyRWA initiated an innovative environmental assessment to protect it from development.
The first annual festival and road race began in 1997 bringing local residents to the banks of the Mystic River to celebrate the migration of the river herring. Now called the Mystic River Herring Run and Paddle, this event brings out hundreds of runners, paddlers, spectators and community partners each May to celebrate the herring migration and Mystic River.
MyRWA’s charter was changed to include local groups as well as individual members to further solidify watershed-wide river protection into the 21st Century.
2000’s
MyRWA’s Baseline Monitoring Program began in July 2000, monitoring trends in water quality at fifteen sites across the watershed with the help of a dedicated corps of volunteers. Utilizing this high-quality information, MyRWA, together with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), started in 2006 to issue a yearly water quality report card for the Mystic River watershed. The Mass Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and US EPA also use this high-quality data to inform regulatory, permit and enforcement action; and municipalities act on it to make local improvements.
Mystic River Watershed Initiative is launched in 2008 as a unique collaborative effort guided by a steering committee composed of 22 organizations including MyRWA, US EPA and other community groups and governmental agencies. Its goal was to address the history of neglect, industrial pollution and abandonment of the water bodies and adjacent lands of the Mystic River Watershed, and create and protect open space and public access to the Mystic River and its tributaries through safe public pathways and access points.
After a 2006 oil spill in the lower Mystic—MyRWA successfully advocated not once—but twice to ensure that some funds were spent locally. Initial advocacy in 2009—ensured that the agreement provided provisions for money to be given locally. Again in 2018—MyRWA and partner GreenRoots successfully fought for the final $1.25M to be spent on restoration in the Mystic where the damages occurred, and submitted plans in 2019 for specific projects in the watershed.
2010’s
MyRWA’s Water Chestnut Removal Program commenced in 2010, removing 220,000 pounds of water chestnuts from the Mystic River in its first year. Since then, MyRWA has brought out 1,000 plus volunteers every year to remove these invasive plants from our water, and has expanded to include the removal of Oriental bittersweet on land.
2012 saw the opening of a fish and eel passage at the Mystic Lakes dam after decades of work and advocacy by MyRWA and partners. This allowed herring to successfully swim from the Lower Mystic to the Upper Mystic Lake for the first time in more than 100 years.
Herring Monitoring Program launched in 2012 with 80 volunteers annually monitoring the herring run at the Mystic Lakes to document the river herring population and track the impact that the fish ladders at the Lakes and in Winchester (opened in 2017) have in expanding the fish’s habitat. In just ten years, the program’s grown to include more than 5,000 citizen scientists who count herring using the underwater fishcam at Mystic Lakes Dam, and 80 more volunteers counting in person at Horn Pond.
In 2015 a new grading system was developed by MyRWA and EPA for the yearly EPA-issued Mystic River Water Quality Report Card. The new grading system provided more nuanced water quality information based on specific water body. By 2016 both Mystic River and Mystic Lakes received “A” grades, and have continued to receive “A” grades thanks to the stewardship of staff, volunteers and partners dedicated to maintaining a healthy, clean waterway.
MyRWA hired its first Watershed Educator in 2016 to bring place-based science to local students. Now more than 1,000 students and their teachers annually participate in high-quality environmental education relating to stormwater pollution, climate resilience, water quality, biodiversity, and the intersection of human activity and ecology.
MyRWA led a collaborative visioning process in 2017 to imagine a seamless community-led waterfront park system along both sides of the Malden River, connecting neighborhoods in Medford, Malden and Everett to this important resource. This led to the Malden River Vision of 3 miles of contiguous paths. See the Malden River Works Concept Design Report here and learn more about our Greenways progress.
Mystic Daily Boating Advisory Program took off in 2017, using data collected by MyRWA water-quality volunteers and staff to create a model that can predict when bacteria levels will be at safe levels to support recreation on the water. The information is continually updated and available to all on our website and twitter @safemystic.
MyRWA launched Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) in 2018 to catalyze climate resiliency planning on a watershed scale – initially bringing together 10 municipalities and quickly growing to 20 municipalities, facilitated by MyRWA and Consensus Building Institute. To date RMC has brought in more than $10 million in funding for shared watershed projects, created a regional flood map, and identified hundreds of potential sites for green infrastructure. MyRWA also hired our first-ever Climate Resiliency Manager in 2019 to ensure our regional climate work is equitable and inclusive.
Work began in 2011 to identify opportunities in the region to place “green” stormwater structures, in the communities of Woburn, Burlington, Reading and Winchester with funding from the Massachusetts DEP. Then in 2019, MyRWA created a Stormwater Education Collaborative with 13 area municipalities to help cities and towns educate their community about pollution and how to prevent it, and implementing improvements such as two bioswales built in Arlington, which are filtering rain instead of allowing it to flow directly into our storm drains and then untreated into the Mystic.
2020’s
Even in the face of COVID-19, MyRWA did some of the most exciting and impactful work in the history of the organization, including leveraging $ 3/4 million from three state grants to implement small, cost-effective green infrastructure improvements. Now this small pilot project is being taken to-scale. Communities from Everett all the way to Winchester will implement trenches that will collectively have a big impact on phosphorus pollution and on future municipal practices.
Completed an environmental assessment on Belle Isle Marsh in 2020—in partnership with DCR, Friends of Belle Isle, and The Nature Conservancy. This is the first step in creating a long term restoration and management plan. MyRWA teamed up with the Woods Hole Group, who successfully deployed seven tide gauges in November and completed a topographic survey to collect critical data.
MyRWA members and our policy committee helped make sure the sewage notification bill, or CSO bill was passed into law in 2021. This is a huge win for the Mystic and for public health.
Wicked Hot Mystic data published—showing where in our watershed residents are most negatively impacted by heat. The Wicked Hot Mystic research, collected by volunteers living in the watershed, will be a powerful tool for cities and towns throughout the Watershed to address the harmful effects of extreme heat and improve the vitality of all neighborhoods.
New seawall path opened–connecting Draw 7 Park in Somerville with Charlestown. This improvement is part of the robust Mystic Greenways Initiative was formalized in 2016 by MyRWA to improve riverside parks and connect paths along the Mystic and Malden Rivers. Currently dozens of projects are underway—including a new park along the Malden River, underpasses and even a proposed pedestrian bridge across the Mystic.
$3.9 million in Industri-Plex superfund settlement money is coming to the Mystic to mitigate damage from toxic chemicals released indirectly into the Aberjona River in during the late 19th-mid 20th centuries. The funding from a 2013 settlement will support projects working to offset these damages in downstream tributaries and habitat harmed by the contamination including: the construction of the new Scalley Dam fish bypass into Horn Pond, wetlands restoration near Shaker Glen Conservation area, and riverside habitat restoration at Davidson Park in Winchester.
The Future of MyRWA
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