Ethanol Transport Community Forum 9/13

Sponsored by the Chelsea Collaborative

You are invited to an important community forum where we will discuss and inform residents of Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, Revere and other affected communities about an egregious proposal to bring 280+ million gallons of high flammable ethanol through our community by rail.   

The meeting will map out steps to stop the ethanol trains. It will take place on September 13, 2012 at 6pm at the Williams Community School, 180 Walnut Street Chelsea (please enter on the Arlington St. side).

 As you may remember, Global Oil located in Revere, MA, proposes to bring freight trains carrying ethanol to its facility along the Chelsea River.  Ethanol is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid that burns at extremely high temperatures.  Global is proposing to bring 187,200,000 - 280,800,000 gallons of ethanol through the communities of Fitchburg, Leominster, Ayer, Littleton, Acton, Concord, Lincoln, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Boston and Chelsea to their final destination in Revere.                         

A 2011 study commissioned by the state Department of Environmental Protection found ethanol is now the largest volume of hazardous material being transported by rail.   

 Alcohol-resistant foam is necessary to extinguish ethanol fires along with specially trained fire-fighters. 

 Just a few weeks ago, the public witnessed the derailment of a commuter rail train in Belmont, MA; and an accident where a car was crushed by a train in Medford, MA.  An accident involving these proposed ethanol trains could decimate entire neighborhoods throughout the Commonwealth.

We need your help to stop the "bomb trains!"

Join us on September 13th at 6pm
Williams Community School
180 Walnut Street, Chelsea MA 02150

Meet Me At the Mystic Draws Paddlers, Artists, Musicians, Families to the Banks of the Mystic

Photo by David Mussina.

On a sunny and gusty day, over 30 paddlers took to the Mystic Lakes along with bicyclists, walkers and others to enjoy art and live music. The day celebrated all the Mystic has to offer as part of this 40th Anniversary event, and brought together approximately 150 people. MyRWA would like to thank everyone who joined in the festivities and especially the volunteers who planned the event, Charles River Canoe and Kayak, Dunkin Donuts, Whole Foods of Medford, the Medford Boat Club and all of the wonderful artists and musicians!

Musicians:

• Ceol Maidin ag an Abhainn

• The Pennies

• Leftist Marching Band

• Katya Popova

• Miller’s English

• Ryan Stapler, Lowbred Watts

• Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure

• Society Brass Band

• Dan Blakeslee

• Chris Nauman

• Anthony Leva

Dancers:

• Red Herring Morris Dancers

En Plein Air Artists: Marilyn Davidson,

Cambia Davis, Jenn DesAutels, Peg Kane,

Massoudeh Edmond, Tina Riedel, Karen Wibhey.

Call for Volunteers to Paint A Mural at the Mystic Lakes Dam, Medford

Help paint a mural!

The mural will be on the parking lot, located in a no-parking area near the Medford Boat Club. Volunteers should wear old clothes, and bring along knee pads if you have them as well as a bottle of water.

Painting Date: Sunday: October 14th, 9 am to 6 pm

Rain Date: Sunday: October 21st, 9 am to 6 pm  

Artist seeking two or three assistants to copy a mural design onto the site at the Mystic Lakes Dam in Medford. Assistants need to be able to draw well and have the ability to scale a design up by hand. This is an opportunity for artists to learn about the process of transferring a design for a large scale image, and to learn about the craft of mural making with an experienced muralist.

We will work a full day on Saturday, October 13th.

Community painting day will be on Sunday, October 14th.

RSVP to Beth@MysticRiver.org and include any art experience you may have.

Calling All Artists for Meet Me at the Mystic, 9/8!

Beginners or professionals, join artists on the banks of the Mystic River to draw, paint, sketch en plein air with a core group of accomplished artists as part of the Meet Me at the Mystic event.  Bring your own easel and materials.   Appropriate for children - simply bring a sketch pad and chair or blanket along with markers, pencils or crayons.  Whether your art involves nature, light, trees, people, water, come find inspiration with a morning en plein air!  

Meeting time and location:
Saturday, September 8th 10-12
The field on the banks of the Mystic River
Mystic Valley Parkway, Medford
(North of High Street, near the intersection of Kilgore Ave & the Parkway)
On street parking available.

Bike Tour As Part of Meet Me at the Mystic, 9/8

Meet Me at the Mystic - A Special 40th Anniversary Celebration!

Saturday, September 8th, 9AM - Noon

Paddling, art, music - and now a bicycle tour as well!

Join the fun of this movable festival along the Mystic River. Cyclists will meet near the canoe launch at the Mystic Lakes Dam, Medford at 9:00 am.  We will wave the paddlers off at 9:30 as they voyage across the lake. Cyclists will then follow the course of the river at a leisurely pace stopping to listen to the musicians along the way and sharing camaraderie with the paddlers in the river. The cyclists will then proceed further along the river exploring the new Alewife Brook Bike Trail to the Alewife T station and farther, time permitting. Cyclists will them loop back along the same route and rejoin the paddlers on the river as they return up stream to the Mystic Lakes Dam, for refreshments and more music at noon.  This is a fun, leisure paced ride for the whole family. Art bikes, fun bikes and fat tired cruisers recommended.

Suffolk Downs to Address Wastewater and Stormwater Discharges

On Aug. 22, the US EPA and US Dept. of Justice announced that Sterling Suffolk Racecourse LLC will pay a civil penalty of $1.25 million to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act at its Suffolk Downs racetrack facility in Revere and East Boston.  The consent decree alleges that Suffolk allowed polluted wastewater, including horse manure, urine and bedding material, to discharge into Sales Creek, a tributary of Belle Isle Inlet and Boston Harbor. The company is also spending more than $3 million to prevent polluted water from entering nearby waterways and will perform three environmental projects worth approximately $742,000 that will provide water quality monitoring and protection efforts for more than 123 square miles of watershed. The Mystic River Watershed Association has been selected to manage a monthly water quality monitoring program intended to support environmental protection and restoration as part of these supplemental environmental projects.

Malden River Festival Announced for 9/22

This information is courtesy of Tri-City Community Action Program, Inc.

Join Your Friends and Neighbors at the Third Annual Malden River Festival at the Park at River’s Edge, Saturday, September 22, 2012

 Tri-City Community Action Program, Inc., invites you, your family, neighbors and friends to join us in the 3rd Annual Malden River Festival, at the Park at River’s Edge, on Saturday, September 22, 2012, 11A-3P. (The rain date is the following day – Sunday, September 23, 2012.) Tufts University and Preotle, Lane & Associates (developer of River’s Edge) continue to help Tri-CAP sponsor this new annual community event. A number of other organizations throughout the Tri-Cities and surrounding communities are partnering with Tri-CAP to make this a community event that you don’t want to miss. Admission is free and will feature live entertainment, food, demonstration tables, and more family-fun activities. By popular demand, there will again be art exhibits by local residents from Malden, Medford, Everett, and the surrounding communities—including the winners of the Mystic Valley Elder Services’ annual Senior Art Show.  The art exhibits will be from 11:00 A – 3:00 P, with entertainment between 12:00 noon – 3:00P.  Free parking is available in the River’s Edge parking lot. So, bring the family and enjoy! 

Mark your calendars now. Come join us for a day of fun, food, and celebration of a local natural resource—the Malden River!

For more information, you can contact: Loretta Kemp at Tri-City Community Action Program, Inc. (Tri-CAP), at lkemp@tri-cap.org.

Mystic River Herring Run Estimated at 198,932

For the first time since the Civil War, river herring (both Alewife and Blueback herring) made their way to the Upper Mystic Lake on their own. Using the newly renovated Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Mystic Lakes Dam, which now includes a fish ladder, these fish traveled from the Atlantic Ocean to some of the most desirable spawning habitat in the Mystic River Watershed – the Upper Mystic Lake in Medford, Arlington and Winchester. And their epic journey did not go unnoticed. For twelve weeks volunteers with the Mystic River Watershed Association’s newly established Herring Monitoring Program counted herring at the fish ladder twelve times every day. All told, 21,052 herring were counted passing through the fish ladder thanks to the steadfast efforts of over 85 volunteer fish monitors, logging 685 total observations. 

Using Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries software, Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) staff scientists estimate that 198,932 +/- 18,062 herring migrated to the Upper Mystic Lake this spring. This data represents an important baseline determining critical herring trends in the Mystic River Watershed and allows us to learn more about herring habitat conditions.  In addition to the Herring Monitoring Program, the Mystic River Watershed Association also performs herring habitat assessments of Mystic River, Alewife Brook, Little River and Little Pond.

Katrina Sukola, Watershed Scientist at Mystic River Watershed Association, said of the run, "the Herring Monitoring Program has been one of the most successful volunteer programs MyRWA has had.  The construction of the new fish ladder has allowed this interesting opportunity for volunteers to view and monitor herring, and allowed herring passage to the Upper Mystic Lake to spawn easily for the first time. It's an exciting new program, and we are happy with the first year's results."

The Herring Monitoring Program would not be possible without permission from and collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and generous financial support from Federal Realty Investment Trust. This Program allowed local residents, including children of all ages, to be witness to this ancient and inspiring migration. The Mystic River Watershed Association will continue the Herring Monitoring Program next year, and new volunteers are encouraged to sign-up as fish counters. Learn more about the Herring Monitoring Program at www.mysticriver.org/herring-monitoring/.

Why Monitor River Herring?

Monitoring river herring is especially important in light of the species’ recent population decline.  Over the last decade, coastal landings of both river herring species averaged a little more than one million pounds—indicating a decline of more than 98 percent when compared to averages from 1950 to 1970.  Between 2000 and 2010 Alewife counts in Massachusetts’ Monument and Mattapoisett Rivers—two of the state’s most significant herring runs—plummeted almost 85 and 95 percent respectively.  River herring population decline is associated with many factors including pollution, by-catch (unintentionally caught fish), lack of spawning habitat, habitat degradation, and dams.

With regard to by-catch there is some very good news for river herring. Steps taken in June 2012 by the New England Fishery Management Council to regulate the industrial Atlantic herring fishing fleet will help protect this small forage fish. By requiring new permit conditions for large scale mid-water trawlers, the Council will help commercial fisherman strike a better balance between the target fish and those species that are simply caught up in their nets. New permit conditions include independent observers on board, a limit to dumping, a river herring catch cap and a more accurate weighing of fish caught by these massive operations. These actions taken by the New England and other east coast Fishery Councils will go a long way to help restore river herring populations. 

806 Baskets of Water Chestnuts Removed!

Thanks to the over 70 volunteers who helped remove invasive water chestnuts from the Mystic River in Somerville on Aug. 4th. We removed 806 baskets of water chestnuts thanks to support from the MA Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, City of Somerville, Environmental Resources Management, Boston Volunteers, Harvard Environmental Extension Club, Friends of the Mystic River, Groundwork Somerville, Gentle Giant Rowing Club and Flatbread Pizza.

Special Event: Meet Me At the Mystic!

Join your friends and neighbors in an early morning cheer to the river and watershed – a resource that has brought so much enjoyment to our community.  Meet us at 9:00AM on Saturday, September 8 at the parking lot beside the new dam between the Upper and Lower Mystic Lakes. Reserve your boat here. Come by bike, boat, on foot or drive.  We have a full family-friendly schedule that will stretch from the dam to Alewife Brook as we plan to have artists and music along the banks for your morning enjoyment.