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Residents and environmental groups press lawmakers for timeline to end combined sewer overflows
Summary
Watershed groups, residents and municipal advocates urged the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources to advance bills that set timelines and targets to reduce combined sewer overflows, citing large annual discharges, health risks and environmental‑justice impacts.
Advocates, municipal representatives and watershed groups urged the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources to report favorably on several bills that would require planning and timelines to cut or eliminate combined sewer overflows (CSOs) that send untreated or minimally treated sewage into rivers and streams during storms.
"These discharges are not just an environmental nuisance. They are a public health crisis," Patrick Herron, executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association, told the committee, describing research linking CSO events to gastrointestinal illness and noting disproportionate impacts in environmental justice communities. Herron and other witnesses asked the committee to consider bills including House Bill 10 31 and House Bill 10 46 and Senate Bill 608, which would set multi‑decadal targets and require reporting and planning to control overflows.
Several witnesses described local impacts: members of Save the Alewife Brook said the small stream had 29,000,000 gallons of untreated sewage discharged in 2023 and 51,000,000 gallons in 2021, and reported repeated flooding of park land, trails and private homes. "Whenever they dump, it's more than 1,000,000 gallons a day of untreated sewage," said Eugene Benson of Save the Alewife Brook, reading the group's recent sampling and event totals.
The Charles River Watershed Association called for renewed emphasis and funding, saying cleanup work has been successful but "the job is not done" and that more predictable commitments would help finish the work. Emily Norton, executive director of the Charles River Watershed Association, told the committee that many residents are surprised raw sewage still enters urban rivers after storms.
Representatives of municipal and industry groups cautioned about cost and timing. Phil Guerin, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Water Resources Stewardship, urged caution: eliminating CSOs would be a multibillion‑dollar undertaking and the costs fall to sewer ratepayers. He also noted competing capital needs for stormwater permits and wastewater upgrades. The National Waste & Recycling Association similarly warned against locally variable rules that could create permitting uncertainty for waste infrastructure.
Witnesses urged a mix of approaches — deep storage tunnels, green stormwater infrastructure, sewer separation and distributed controls — noting engineering choices and costs vary by location. Proponents said the bills set targets and timelines (some versions call for 25‑year storm control within 10 years in MWRA service areas) to spur planning and funding decisions.
No committee votes were taken at the hearing. Witnesses from watersheds, grassroots groups, business and municipal coalitions said they will continue to submit technical cost estimates and engineering plans to the committee.
