The Assabet and Concord Rivers Replumbing our Watershed

Alison Field-Juma, Executive Director

Organization for the Assabet RiverMarch 13, 2010

Massachusetts Executive Office of

Environmental Affairs

Sudbury, Assabet

and Concord

Watershed

Note: These rivers

are the drinking

water supply of

Billerica

Source: Concord Public Works, 2008

2 flood control

6 old mill dams

1 breached

4 Treatment

Plants

9 Dams

Westborough (+ Shrewsbury)

Marlborough (+ Northborough)

Hudson

Maynard

Ben Smith Dam Impoundment, Stow

WR Grace Super Fund Site, Acton

Source: EPA

Marlborough Westerly WWTP under construction

Clean Water Act

National

Pollutant

Discharge

Elimination

System

Assabet Wastewater Treatment

1970s—primary treatment

1980s—secondary treatment

1990s—tertiary treatment with phosphorus removal

2000s—tertiary treatment with ground discharge

2010s—tertiary with advanced phosphorus removal

Testing phosphorus-

removal technologies,

Hudson, 2006

Source: MAPC

(41,000 acres and

growing…)

Danforth Brook, Hudson, in May

Same location in August

Current vs. Future Non-storm Streamflows in September

Assabet Tributaries% Decrease in

StreamflowMunicipalities

Fort Meadow Brook 98% Hudson, Marlborough

Cold Harbor & Howard

Brooks 49% Northborough, , Boylston

Hop Brook 23% Northborough, , Westborough

Stirrup Brook 10% Westborough, Marlborough

Source: Based on data from USGS, Simulation of Ground-Water Flow and Evaluation of

Water-Management Alternatives in the Assabet River Basin, Eastern Massachusetts. Scientific

Investigations Report 2004-5114. Future flows based on currently permitted water withdrawals

and wastewater discharges, with extension of Northborough sewer system to all developed

areas.

Predicted impact of water withdrawals, sewering

and wastewater discharge on streamflow

Source: Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast, Union of

Concerned Scientists

New England 61%

Mid-Atlantic 42%

East South Central 28%

Mountain 25%

West Central 24%

East North Central 22%

Pacific 18%

South Atlantic 15%

Source: Environment America

Research & Policy Center, 2007

We

are

here!

Change in Extreme Precipitation Frequency, 1948–2006

Where does sludge go?

It contains nutrients and energy…but we use energy to get rid of it.

Upper Blackstone Incinerator

Assabet River

Infiltration chambers

Gillette Stadium, Foxborough

Solar Aquatics in Weston

since 1997

7,000 gpd wastewater

treated with zero discharge

• Produces 50% less sludge

• Uses much less energy

• Uses no chemicals

• Can locate in densely settled areas

• Learning tool for students and community

Anaerobic digesters at the Lübeck Waste

Treatment Facility, Germany

People!

Us!

The Phosphorus Cycle

“Quite simply, without phosphorus, we cannot produce food.”

Stuart White, University of Technology, Sydney

NoMix Toilets

Think Different