Mystic Watershed Collaborative
Steering Committee Meeting
April 25, 2002 9:30 ­ 11:00 am

Attending: Heidi Bours, Lisa Brukilacchio, Dale Bryan, Paul Kirshen, Janet Kovner, Susan Loucks, Ellen Mays, Molly Mead, Grace Perez, Bruce Speight, Lisa Waters, Kevin Welsh

Next Meeting: Wednesday, May 29th at 9:30am ­ 11am (TIE Office)

Announcements & Updates:

• Press Conference on April 27th at the Super Cleanup at 10:00. Heidi would like to have Tufts faculty representation at the event.
• Herring Run ­ May 11th from 10 ­1pm. Register at active.com, and encourage others to sign up individually or as part of a team.
• Berger Website Demonstration­ May 1st 4:00pm at the Tisch Library Amphitheatre (Room 304). Demonstration will be followed by an opportunity to explore the website clearinghouse.
• Visioning and Measuring for Health in Somerville ­ May 14th, 5:00 pm ­ 8:30 pm at the East Somerville Community School. Please RSVP by Friday, May 3rd to Abigail at agoodenough@challiance.org or call 617-591-6926

Mystic River Water Levels Decrease: The Somerville Yacht Club decided to repair the MDC public boat ramps on the Mystic at Wellington, at its own expense. To make this process easier, the club requested that the water level be lowered. MyRWA tried to prevent this from happening, but the levels were lowered on April 15th. By April 17th, large numbers of herring were discovered in the Lower Mystic River; and the fluctuation in water levels was clearly noticeable in Lower Mystic Lake and Alewife Brook, as well as the river itself. Water levels did not return to their original state for a full week. The Somerville Journal (http://www.townonline.com/metro/somerville/news/36069221.htm) and the Medford Transcript will be composing articles with further information.

Spy Pond: Over 600 fish of the same species recently were found dead in the pond. Officials claim that this is a natural occurrence, not linked to the lower water levels in the Mystic. Chelsea Creek Vision: The Chelsea Creek Visioning process began with a successful meeting. They had a large number of attendees who presented good ideas.

The Engineering Center for Educational Outreach: Lisa B. attended the Tufts Center for Children Conference and met Erik Rushton from the Engineering Center for Educational Outreach, which teaches children in grades K-12. He is interested in coordinating and implementing an educational project on the Mystic River.

Green Streets, Green Cities: This program is attempting to find summer funding for an intern. The intern's duties would be to implement projects across the watershed. The program would like to explore the possibilities of using Tufts as a model for projects including water management and plant selection.

Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (CIS): Jonathan Kenny will be taking over the role of Chair of CIS. He is very involved with citizenship and community participation activities, and participates actively in the WaterSHED Center. He wants to determine how CIS can establish better connections with the research centers and science departments that perform interdisciplinary work. Dale feels that he is a good connection for our work.

River Institute: The River Institute has offered eight students internships already and is waiting to receive acceptances. This year the River Institute received 12 applications to fill 13 internship opportunities. Next year, outreach and publicity definitely need to be improved to increase the amount of applications received. The decrease in applications may also be due to the decrease in stipend this year. The Koffman Foundation turned down a proposal to provide stipends of $2500 per student, but they would entertain another proposal. The River Institute will resubmit their application after May 1st. The River Institute projects start May 22nd with the arrival of the students. After introductions and meetings, there will be a boat trip on the Mystic River for up to 45 people. Twenty to thirty of these people will be from the River Institute, with other slots reserved for the Mystic Watershed Collaborative Steering Committee members.

EMPACT: Tufts, MyRWA, and the City of Somerville are partners on this two-year project. The first real-time water quality gauging station was installed at Amelia Earhart Dam. The data will be broadcast to Miller Hall and then displayed on the web. Parameters that will be displayed include dissolved oxygen, temperature, turbidity, pH, and conductivity. Daily bacteria samples also will be taken at each site. Website viewers will be able to see maps and a summary screen telling them if particular sites on the river are safe for recreational use on any day. The detail screen will provide information on each of the parameters and historical trends for that site. The project needs people who can sample during storm events, possibly a group of Water Watch students. The other four sites should be completely installed within two weeks. The EMPACT project has many additional opportunities for student projects and faculty participation, which could be integrated into class work. We should be talking with individual faculty members including Jonathan Kenny about possible opportunities for the fall semester, and arranging a group session later in the summer.