Water main break bad for Charles River (5/4/2010)

Most residents in the area are well aware of the interruption to the drinking water supply due to a major break in a 10′ pipe feeding Boston and surrounding towns.  While one might think 8 million gallons of drinking water an hour flowing into the Charles would be a good thing it is actually detrimental to the river’s ecosystem.  The CRWA sent out a nice write-up on the consequences of the break.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s (MWRA) water connector pipe that began leaking Saturday morning (and then broke completely) resulted in over 8 million gallons an hour of water pouring into the Charles River.  For a time, the flow of the river at the Waltham gage, downstream of the break, doubled from approximately 350 cubic feet per second (cfs) to approximately 700 cfs.  The pipe connection broke 20 feet below ground near Recreation Road, and the gushing water carried an estimated 400 cubic yards of soil and sediment directly into the river.  The pipe was repaired Sunday morning, and a boil water order was just lifted today for the 2 million people served by the MWRA.

CRWA staff and volunteers have been monitoring the river, tracking the plume of fine sediment that is moving down the river.  We are especially worried about river herring, which have begun their annual migration up into the Charles earlier than usual and have already been spotted entering the river to spawn. The river ecosystem has been extremely stressed during the past month, first by March’s huge floods, then by the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s rapid drawdown of the river to allow repairs to the Moody Street dam, and now by the flood of drinking water and sediments from this water pipe break. CRWA staff are doing our best to monitor the river, and will be working with government agencies and other organizations to undertake any necessary measures to protect the Charles.