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Town and Charles River Watershed partners unveil DeFazio parking-lot bioretention plan to cut phosphorus and standing water
Summary
The Select Board heard a presentation on a grant-funded design to add a bioretention basin at the DeFazio parking lot to reduce phosphorus loading to Aldebrook and to address frequent standing water; the design is at roughly 50% engineering and funded by a $125,000 coastal habitat and water-quality grant.
Town staff and partners from the Charles River Watershed Association and Beta Group presented a grant-funded engineering design to install a bioretention area in the DeFazio parking lot intended to reduce phosphorus discharge to Aldebrook and the Charles River and to reduce local ponding that repeatedly fills the lot.
Arina Perrea (Charles River Watershed Association) and engineers from Beta Group described the project origins: it emerged from the Charles River Climate Compact and a regional flood model that prioritized sites across multiple municipalities. The project secured about $125,000 from the Office of Coastal Zone Management and is at about 50% engineering design under the grant.
Engineers outlined the proposed intervention: regrading the southwest corner of the lot, building a planted bioretention cell with two inlet pretreatment structures, granite curbing, a wooden guardrail, an educational sign panel and an emergency overflow that routes larger storm volumes toward nearby woodlands. Plantings described included ornamental grasses, perennial wildflower mixes, witch hazel and red oak to support pollinators and stabilize soils. The design anticipates treating the initial "first-flush" rainfall -- about a half-inch of runoff -- to capture phosphorus and sediment before flows reach Aldebrook.
Presenters and board members emphasized that the project is small in the towns broader stormwater needs but is a grant-funded, visible pilot that can provide an educational example and reduce a portion of the phosphorus load. Town staff said the estimated phosphorus reduction is modest (roughly one to two pounds annually) and the estimated construction cost (discussed during Q&A) was in the low hundreds of thousands; the project team said construction funding will be pursued after the engineering design is complete.
Speakers in this article are cited from the meeting transcript and are listed below.
