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Massachusetts water resources body punts on permanently dumping sewage into Charles River

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Massachusetts water resources body punts on permanently dumping sewage into Charles River


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The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority may have been caught loving that dirty water a little too much, as its board has halted a proposal that clean water advocates fear would dump sewage into the Charles River forever.

The MWRA Board of Directors has tabled its upcoming vote, scheduled for Wednesday, on whether to reclassify the Charles as a water body that allows for maximum sewage overflows.

This comes after the Charles River Watershed Association and other clean-water advocates slammed the MWRA for considering the option to address a decades-old problem of combined sewer overflows, or CSOs.

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These systems collect stormwater and household and industrial waste in the same pipes, destined for treatment plants. But it allows rain to overwhelm the system and dump sewage contamination out through overflows. The CRWA says CSOs have proven to be a “key source of pathogen and bacteria contamination.”

“The public has responded loud and clear. No amount of sewage is acceptable to be dumped in our beloved Charles River,” CRWA Executive Director Emily Norton said in a statement. “We are glad to hear that MWRA is finally listening to public input and postponing a decision on this terrible proposal.”

MWRA spokesperson Sean Navin said that officials need to address questions and comments before the plan is reconsidered at a future meeting.

The MWRA says it has invested more than $900 million to eliminate 90% of CSOs in its service area over the past few decades.

The problem remains, though, with outfalls located in the lower Charles River and in the Alewife Brook/Upper Mystic River Basin. Advocates argue that climate change is exacerbating the issue, as CSOs struggle to handle excess polluted water from heavy rainstorms.

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“This is the generational decision that we need to make,” MWRA executive director Frederick A. Laskey said at last month’s meeting. “But we do have to move forward with a responsible plan that we can defend, and that’s continuously, at the end of the day, financial stability.”

The Charles River Watershed Association has long been pressuring the MWRA to stop polluting the Charles with sewage. Most recently, in April, the organization launched a campaign in which nearly 800 people have signed petitions or sent emails to the MWRA, urging the association to “cut the crap.”

The CRWA also says the proposal is “at odds” with how the Healey administration’s so-called “biodiversity plan” has a goal of “dramatically” reducing water pollution.

“Significantly reduce or eliminate combined-sewer overflows (CSOs),” the plan states, “sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), stormwater runoff, and septic pollution through sewer separation, treatment plant upgrades, sewer expansion, aquatic habitat buffers, and green infrastructure to protect biodiversity, shellfish beds, and public health. Increase investment and technical assistance for curbing stormwater pollution to ensure waters are swimmable and fishable.”

2025 MediaNews Group, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Snow? Again? Boston area could see up to an inch. – The Boston Globe

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Snow? Again? Boston area could see up to an inch. – The Boston Globe


A potent frontal system will deliver rain and snow across New England Sunday evening and last through at least Monday morning. With a warm front moving east from the system, Boston will stick to rain through Sunday night, while widespread accumulating snow is expected across Northern New England, prompting winter weather alerts for that region. Folks up north will be forced to break out the shovels and snowblowers for hopefully one last time.

Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories have been issued for portions of Northern New England through early Monday.Boston Globe

But by the time we start heading out the door on Monday, the rain-snow line will have sunk farther south and bring some snowfall into most of Massachusetts, including Greater Boston, along the Mass Pike, and west through the Berkshires. The South Shore and coast should stick to a light wintry mix or rain.

All in all, it looks like Boston could pick up about an inch of snow, mainly during the predawn hours of Monday. If Boston ends up with an inch, it would be the latest date in the season since 2007. Folks across northern Worcester and Berkshire counties may see 1 or 2 inches, while the jackpot totals for this storm are held to extreme Northern New England. Roads will be wet early Monday, so take it slow during the morning commute.

Snow totals across New England through Monday morning. Boston may see a coating to an inch. Roads will be wet, so take it slow during the morning commute. Boston Globe
The rain-snow line will sink south to the Mass Pike early Monday morning.Boston Globe
Sunday will see a system bring snow north and rain south, with lingering snow showers on Monday morning.Boston Globe

Monday afternoon: Blustery, scattered snow showers

Scattered snow showers will linger over most of New England on Monday after the bulk of the precipitation moves offshore by late morning, keeping the day pretty unsettled under mostly cloudy skies.

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Monday afternoon should see scattered light snow showers across New England.Boston Globe

Monday will remain blustery with the storm strengthening as it pulls away from New England. Wind gusts will hover around 20 mph throughout most of the day, not enough for power outage concerns, but enough to feel the wind push through your jacket.

Wind gusts will hover around 20 mph throughout Monday morning.Boston Globe

With cold air settling in behind the passing system, Monday’s highs will be held to the 30s across most of New England. But when you pair the breeze with the cold air, most of the day will feel subfreezing, with wind chills in the 20s from sunrise to sunset.

Wind chills will remain in the mid- to upper 20s all day Monday.Boston Globe
Highs on Monday will hardly reach the mid-30s across Greater Boston.Boston Globe

The sun sets at 7 p.m., Monday as our days get longer.

Greater Boston: Rain Sunday evening. Wintry mix and snow showers in the morning. Lingering flurry possible during the day—highs to the low and mid-30s. Breezy.

Central/Western Mass.: Rain Sunday evening. Snow showers in the morning. A coating to an inch is possible. Isolated snow totals to 2 inches in northern Berkshire County. Highs to the mid and upper 30s region-wide. Flurry chance lingers.

Southeastern Mass.: Light rain Sunday evening. Scattered showers on Monday morning. Highs reach the mid to upper 30s. Breezy.

Cape and Islands: Light steady rain Sunday evening. Scattered showers on Monday morning. Highs to the upper 30s with a breeze.

The forecast across Boston for the next seven days.Boston Globe

Rhode Island: Rain showers on Sunday night. Scattered showers on Monday morning. Mostly cloudy with a breeze as highs reach the mid-30s.

New Hampshire: Snow Sunday night. Scattered snow showers throughout Monday. Highs to the mid and upper 30s.

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Vermont/Maine: Snow on Sunday, scattered snow showers throughout Monday. Highs to the mid and upper 30s.

Connecticut: Steady rain Sunday night, sticking to rain showers Monday morning. Highs to the upper 30s and low 40s.

Sign up here for our daily Globe Weather Forecast that will arrive straight into your inbox bright and early each weekday morning.


Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.





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Opinion: Our state of hypocrisy over transparency

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Opinion: Our state of hypocrisy over transparency


Keeping open records in the dark is costing taxpayers in Massachusetts

As Sunshine Week comes to a close this week, government officials across the country will once again talk about transparency and accountability. In Massachusetts, however, a series of recent transparency failures shows just how far we have to go here in the Bay State.

For years, watchdog groups, journalists, and ordinary citizens have warned that Massachusetts has one of the weakest public records systems in the country. Deadlines are ignored. Fees are inflated. Enforcement is weak. And when state or local officials would rather keep information hidden, the burden too often falls on private citizens to drag those records into the light.

This is hardly a partisan critique.

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On this point, even groups that rarely agree politically can see the same problem. Journalists have been forced to sue for access. Citizens have waited months or years for information that should have been produced promptly. Transparency should not be a left or right wing issue, it should be the bare minimum in a functioning democracy.

The recent examples are hard to ignore. One police department demanded $1.8 million for license-plate-reader records before that fee was later reduced. In Lexington, a school employee was caught discussing whether production costs could be inflated in hopes that a requester would give up. In Somerville, public officials spent years fighting over parking-permit data.

And then there is the state’s climate litigation against Exxon Mobil.

Massachusetts sued Exxon for allegedly misleading the public about climate change. Whatever one thinks of that lawsuit, the state put honesty, disclosure, and accountability at the center of its case. Yet when Exxon sought records related to Massachusetts’ own climate regulations and enforcement, officials resisted disclosure and triggered a separate legal battle over access to those documents.

What surfaced from that fight was incredibly troubling.

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A regulation adopted under Massachusetts climate law requires state agencies with large vehicle fleets to track emissions and submit annual compliance reports. Those reports were supposed to begin in 2019. But according to sworn testimony from state environmental officials, not a single agency has submitted them. None. Regulators also acknowledged they had not conducted inspections or taken enforcement actions to verify compliance.

So, while Massachusetts was accusing Exxon of climate deception, the state was also fighting a records request that exposed its own failure to comply with one of its own climate rules.

That hypocrisy should concern everyone.

These reporting requirements exist to measure whether the state is actually doing what it says it is doing. If agencies are not filing required reports, and regulators are not enforcing the rule, then the public has every right to ask whether Massachusetts is serious about the climate commitments it promotes so aggressively.

Taxpayers also have every right to ask how much public money is being spent to keep that failure hidden.

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That was the focus of Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance’s recent letter to Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper. According to state spending records, since last April, EEA paid a Boston law firm over $534,000, which includes $417,620 from “Climate Adaptation and Preparedness” funds and over $117,000 from funds labeled as “Environmental Affairs Administration.” When underlying payment records were requested, both DEP and the Comptroller reportedly said they had no responsive records.

Ironically, the money spent defending the state’s failure to comply with open records laws could have gone toward actual climate compliance or easing the burden on ratepayers and taxpayers. Instead, it appears to have been simply wasted on lawyers to allegedly cover up the state’s non-compliance on its own climate mandates.

That concern is even more urgent because the Healey administration recently estimated that their climate agenda could cost an eye-popping $130 billion by 2050, while an independent study by the Fiscal Alliance Foundation estimated the cost to be over $400B for the state. While Massachusetts clearly cannot afford more burdensome regulations that will drive businesses out of the state, if taxpayers are being asked to shoulder massive new climate costs the public should at least be able to trust that the laws already on the books are being followed.

Massachusetts officials are often quick to demand transparency from corporations and the Trump administration. But transparency cannot be a one-way demand.

Our elected leaders at Beacon Hill must hold themselves to the same standard they impose on the public. It is the foundation of public trust and a problem that Massachusetts has ignored for far too long.

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Paul Diego Craney is the Executive Director of Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance

 



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Gas prices in Massachusetts surge 12 cents since Monday, drivers look for ways to save

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Gas prices in Massachusetts surge 12 cents since Monday, drivers look for ways to save


Gas prices continue to rise in Massachusetts and commuters are working out ways to cut back on spending. 

AAA said that the average price of gasoline in the U.S. is nearing $4 a gallon, up $1.30 since the war in Iran began. The average price in Massachusetts sits at $3.67, up 12 cents from Monday.

“It’s been climbing pretty steadily day after day,” AAA spokesperson Mark Schieldrop said. 

Leslie Welch from Framingham said she tries to find a shorter route to work every day to save money.

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“Of course, I am worried about them going up; in fact, I am thinking of getting a different vehicle,” Welch said. “It impacts it quite a bit. Trying to think of being able to work from home for a couple of days.” 

But some drivers said there is no way for them to cut down on gas.

“Costing more to make deliveries, and I am not making more, so hopefully it will start going down soon,” courier Eric Howland said.   

“Yes, I’ve been concerned, it already changes how I spend. I’d say I fill up once every other week,” said John Curtis, who uses diesel fuel. Curtis has been trying to drive even less to save at the pump. 

AAA said that commuters should shop around for the lowest price at gas stations and make an effort to head to the lowest in their area.

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“The service stations are also feeling the pinch a little bit. They get a lot of heat for raising those prices, but the cost of fuel that they are buying from their suppliers has skyrocketed as well,” Schieldrop said.

Should the gas tax be suspended?

WBZ-TV’s Jon Keller spoke with Governor Maura Healey on Friday and asked whether or not the gas tax should be suspended amid the ongoing spike in price.

The governor said, “I just don’t think it’s going to get us very far right now in the overall picture.” 

The gas tax in Massachusetts is 24 cents for every gallon. The federal tax is 18 cents per gallon. 

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