August 9 the Cheesecake Brook in Albemarle flooded again, sweeping a car into the brook where it destroyed a bridge.
In Fall 2020 there was a public meeting on proposals by the Charles River Watershed Association on ways to reducing flooding in Cheesecake Brook, which seem both lovely and green. Why, with the predicted future flooding in the area and the planned work at Gath pool and Horace Mann school, is the CRWA proposal not being discussed again?
Here’s the CRWA proposal
Here the CRWA modelling tool that shows estimated likely flooding in a 24 hour storm event in coming years
Looks like the housing proposal in west Newton will be impacted by flooding of cheesecake brook ( near dunstan street )
I know the Charles River watershed assoc proposed a project to naturalize the brook to reduce pollution in the the Charles (see below). But nothing to ease the flooding
There is a section of Albemarle road which is closed off to cars. Anything can be done there?
The water is from storm drains and surface.. what practically can be done to avoid flooding? For sure all new developments will likely make it worse.. but what can be done to reduce it?
https://www.crwa.org/uploads/1/2/6/7/126781580/cheesecake_brook_public_meeting_presentation.pdf
I believe the stimulus funds can be used for water projects. I hope ppl are lobbying to use the $ to reduce flooding here
Thank god the driver was able to crawl out the sunroof..
Actually Bugek if you look at slides 12, 16, 17, flood mitigation *is* a co-benefit of this project.
And thank you Lucia for posting the slides. The recording of the meeting is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyyKBXTBZVQ
Emily,
As more hard surfaces are added to Newton (developments) in the future, its not clear the changes proposed can keep up with the future increases of water.
Any other possible changes which could make dramatic difference and keep up with future increases?
The brook was the highest I’ve seen and its not clear if caused by trio, austin st, new condo complex on california street
Bugek – all new development has to have a water management plan to contain all runoff on the property. We are in the process of building an accessory apt and the City was very strict about it.
Lucia – that’s not exactly true, in fact for some of the larger storms (which is what we are seeing with climate change) it would be very hard to keep all the stormwater on site. For water quality reasons we make projects keep the first inch or so of stormwater on site, because that is where most of the pollution is, but that doesn’t solve the flooding issue.
Bugek – the solutions are not simple. Impervious surfaces such as roads, sidewalks, parking lots, buildings, pools, tennis courts… anything that prevents rainwater from soaking into the ground and instead sends it into the street and then the storm drain, is going to lead to more flooding as we have a greater volume of rainwater coming down in shorter periods of time. “Green stormwater infrastructure” or “nature based solutions” are a tried and true, and relatively cost effective solution. More details from US EPA here:
https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/manage-flood-risk
In fact the most famous nature based solution that no one has ever heard of is the Charles River Natural Valley Storage Area (see slides 38-39: https://www.crwa.org/uploads/1/2/6/7/126781580/how_can_we_build_climate_resilience__2021.pdf)
A report I highly recommend was recently released by CRWA where we worked with Weston + Sampson + 15 cities and towns (including Newton) to model future rainfall scenarios and then various solutions that could be applied. Let’s just say the results were sobering in terms of how much we are going to need to do in future years to prevent chronic catastrophic flooding: (it’s a long report but there is an executive summary) https://www.crwa.org/uploads/1/2/6/7/126781580/charles_river_watershed_model_report_v1.pdf
Emily,
Any comments on using some of the 60M+ stimulus funds to resolve the flooding?
It should qualify as its water infrastructure. Its equitable as it benefits EVERY single person through less pollution to charles river.
I feel the brook is pretty much at peak now. Stablizing run off for new development is not enough, it should actually reduce run off compared to prior site.
Bugek:
The former sites of Austin St. and Trio were worse. They had zero mitigation in place, Austin Street was a parking lot, and Trio was 100% built out space or parking lots. New development isn’t perfect, and you can build better that the mitigation requirements Newton has (Boston often has very complicated water mitigation requirements especially in the South End, where the worry is that the pilings are rotting due to insufficient water exposing the pilings to air), but blaming new development for the flooding issues is like blaming the most recent person to show up at a crime scene for the actual crime because of their proximity to the crime scene. It has taken decades of allowing surfaces to be paved over, brooks and streams to be buried, sewer systems not invested in, and the river/watershed ignored. I would bet the larger projects, especially Trio, put their water underground, since large amounts of run-off would be unacceptable to the immediate neighbors and the city.
As for the flood being worse this time for Cheesecake, over the past few decades I remember similar floods. First time a car got stuck in it that I remember. I’d fully support Emily’s plan to make it more natural, although the flow is not consistent so I’m not entirely sure how that works and how far up that would go.
Bugek: I agree the opportunity is now with ARPA money prioritizing water infrastructure, as well as the infrastructure bill. There is also a state program called MVP that Newton has already benefited from but could apply for again: https://www.mass.gov/municipal-vulnerability-preparedness-mvp-program
On Thursday the 19th, I was taking a walk on Elm Street after the storm let up and saw that Border Street was flooded in a major way. A man who works at one of the businesses on that street was saying that it happens periodically because Cheesecake Brook runs underneath the road, but the city has been unable to do anything. A DPW worker was warning people to stay away because there was likely sewage that came up with it. (Insert barf emoji) Parents were trying to pick their kids up from Joanne Langione at the time.
@emily that’s why we need more clay tennis courts :>)