Reports: Executive Director’s Reports

April 23, 2007

  1. City-State Groundwater Working Group - The Working Group will be meeting again on Thursday. The Technical Advisory Committee of the Working Group has been meeting to advise on the St. Charles Street and Storrow Drive projects.
  2. City Council - The City Council will hold an oversight hearing on groundwater on May 8 at 3:00. I have been invited to testify.
  3. Zoning - The petition for extension of the GCOD was heard by the Zoning Commission on March 28. They are scheduled to vote on adoption at their business meeting tomorrow.
  4. BWSC - The work on Back Street is proceeding on schedule. Unfortunately, two of our wells were damaged and will have to be replaced. Work should be complete by August except for final paving in the fall. BWSC continues with its video survey of their system.
  5. DCR - DCR met with the Technical Advisory Committee of the Working Group yesterday to discuss the recharge system for Storrow Drive. It looks like it will not be practical to use Charles River water to supplement that drained from the system. They are now studying a different plan that might allow interim recharge before the new road is installed.
  6. MBTA - The Technical Advisory of the Working Group met with the MBTA, their consultants, and Jim Lambrechts to discuss the potential solutions to the low groundwater levels in the St. Charles/Cazenove/Chandler Street area. Concepts are being refined and repriced. We hope to reconvene soon to see what they have developed.
  7. MTA - The MTA hopes to inspect its drains in the area of Exeter Street and Huntington Avenue this week. There has been a drop in levels at that corner in recent months.
  8. Budget Request - The Mayor has included funding for the Trust at last year’s level plus an allowance for inflation in his budget request, as promised.
  9. East Boston - There will be a meeting in May to discuss potential actions that could be taken to address low groundwater levels in the Paris Flats area of East Boston.
  10. Columbus Center - The Columbus Center project continues to be held up by financing issues. It is unclear when it will proceed.
  11. The Clarendon - The promised report on groundwater levels in the area and why they are low has been completed by Haley & Aldrich and is in review by the Beal Companies. I expect to receive it shortly.
  12. Website - Traffic on the website continues to increase. We regularly get compliments on the quality of the information and presentation. We will be working on developing information on the installation of drywells to add to the site.
  13. Research Projects - The testbed for our project on remote sensing of piling cutoff locations has been prepared and the start of test work is imminent. This will be followed by field tests on both radar and acoustic technologies. I have received the proposal from Jim Lambrechts for the project on developing a lower cost method of foundation repairs. He and Christian are working toward the selection of a coop student who will both read wells and work on the project. Work will take place during the summer and fall semesters. We will fund Jim’s work through a grant for sponsored research that he will get me the paperwork for.
  14. Press - There is a new article from the Boston Globe posted to the site and several from the Boston Courant to be added.
  15. Comment Letters - I filed comment letters on projects at Waterside Place, 120 Kingston Street, 311 Summer Street, and Wheelock College, all of which are posted on the website.