Blue Hills Reservoir update

We were court in Dedham last month for a hearing on our claim that the Wetlands Act variance awarded to MWRA for the Blue Hills Covered Storage project fails to protect wetlands because it allows MWRA to fill over half the Blue Hills Reservoir on Chickatawbut Road with dirt and concrete in order to construct water tanks and does not require replacement of any of the 8.7 acres of clean open water that will be lost.

Judge Brady asked several questions and said he was likely to issue a decision this month.  Here's how the GLOBE reported the hearing.

The MWRA tank project is the largest construction proposed inside the historic Blue Hills Reservation in fifty years and will produce the largest net loss of wetlands approved anywhere in the commonwealth since the no-net-loss policy was introduced by Gov. Weld in 1980.

At an MWRA board of directors meeting last year the longest-serving member, John Carroll, "suggested the Board give considerable thought to abandoning the Blue Hills Covered Storage Project, as Quincy benefits the most but has not indicated whether they want the project." MWRA Executive Director Fred Laskey "confirmed that 92% of the project benefits Quincy."

As a matter of fact, Quincy does not support the project: Mayor Phelan, the Conservation Commission, and two members of the legislative delegation, Representatives Ayers and Mariano, are all on record stating that the wetlands should be replaced.

The truth is that this massive $38 million project is being foisted on an unwilling public by an agency that does not consider itself responsible to those who pay its bills. Nothing required MWRA to site the tanks in one of the most scenic portions of the Blue Hills Reservation, and no law obliged it to become the first public agency in a generation to fill wetlands wholesale without replacing them.  Here we see how a government created to serve the public interest redefines that interest to suit itself, then expects us to pay up.

It's happening in plain sight. Recent photos here. 
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