1. Introduction.
2. DCR to “Improve” the Boston side of the Charles River.
3. Proposed resolution.
4. Added Thoughts.
The following is based on a letter being received by the Cambridge City Council on September 23, 2019 and previously received by the Cambridge City Manager. A similar letter was mailed to the Secretary/CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, with appropriate modifications.
There is added an analysis below in which I guess that it was the Cambridge City Manager who accomplished the actions taken to undo the in source of the poisoning of the Charles River located at Magazine Beach on the Cambridge side of the Charles River.
The most important difference between this post and the MassDOT Secretary’s letter is that the Cambridge City Council is part of the problem while lying about which side it is on; MassDOT is part of the solution and is a lot more discrete in its public claims. The MassDOT letter is restructured and rewritten.
1. Introduction.
Thursday evening, September 12. 2019, I attended the meeting of the Advisory Committee which the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has appointed concerning its plans to rebuild Interstate I90 (Mass. Pike) on the south side of the Charles River across from Magazine Beach in Cambridge.
Magazine Beach is the subject of ongoing construction activities which are associated with destruction of 59 or more mostly excellent trees, continued heartless animal abuse and poisoning of the Charles River. This activity is a continuation of years of abuse of resident animals and the destruction of more than 150 mostly excellent trees between the BU and Longfellow Bridges. Also currently pending are plans to destroy the thick woods which graces the BU Bridge on the Cambridge side. Guilty is the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation with support of the Cambridge City Council.
The immediate topic of this post is poisoning of the Charles River which is the result of an agent of the DCR who has been called their “Kind of Activist” in Cambridge City Council debate blocking poisons drainage systems at Magazine Beach and causing those poisons to flow into the Charles River. Here is the relevant portion of a formerly secret map she placed on the record of the Cambridge City Council.
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Poisoned drainage area blocked by City Council's "kind of activist" WORKING FOR THE DCR AND WITH CAMBRIDGE HELP is the area bounded by the broken line toward the bottom middle with the leftward appendage. Parr of a formerly secret DCR map made a City Counco record by the City Council's "kind of activist."
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My letter to City Council and City Manager, received by City Manager and City Clerk on September 5, and posted as communication 191 on the September 9, 2019, meeting, entitled “State Agency Admits to Poisoning the Charles River. Photos of Outrage”, did a very strong job detailing the efforts which this year have resulted in the Charles River being called a health risk because of algae infestation.
The City Manager / City Council letter delivered on September 5 is essentially posted on the Charles River White Geese blog at https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2019/09/state-agency-admits-to-poisoning.html,
To be concise, in the 2000's, the DCR and Cambridge under the management of a person who subsequently served as City Manager of Cambridge, instituted the use of poisons on the previously pristine playing fields of Magazine Beach. Cambridge and the DCR use the euphemism “chemicals.” To keep these poisons out of the Charles, Cambridge and the DCR spent a lot of money creating a drainage system to keep those irresponsible poisons out of the Charles River.
In December 2017, a woman who has been described as their “kind of activist” in City Council debate led an operation for the DCR which blocked the bigger drainage system WITH CAMBRIDGE ASSISTANCE. The DCR has posted a sign which brags that the drainage system keeps THEIR poisons out of the Charles River. The sign does a good job of communicating, but does not mention that their agent has blocked the drainage system and has since been moving the irresponsibly introduced poisons into the Charles River.
Here is one photo of the blocking CREATED BY CAMBRIDGE, THE DCR AND the City Council’s “kind of activist.” The Charles River is toward the top. The area between the Charles River and the buildings is the area MassDOT is working on in the I90 project.
Many other photos are available on the above link.
This year there has been more than a month of algae infestation in the Charles River near Cambridge. The public health warnings have been strong. This infestation is very clearly the joint creation of the City of Cambridge and the DCR.
2. DCR to “Improve” the Boston side of the Charles River.
At the September 12, 2019, meeting of MassDOT’s Advisory Committee on the I90 rebuild, a female DCR manager presented her plans for vegetation on the Boston side of the Charles River as part of the I90 rebuild.
Following is a MassDOT plan of the project cropped to show the Charles River portion. The large grey area next to the right is the Magazine Beach playing fields to which the DCR and Cambridge are applying your beloved poisons, poisons which Cambridge and the DCR have now caused to flow into the Charles River. The green sliver next to the river to the left is the planned parkland.
Publicly, as part of the September 12 meeting, I pointed out to the DCR manager the health hazard the DCR and Cambridge have achieved in the Charles River and asked if she intended to use “chemical maintenance” (I used the euphemism to avoid needless nastiness.) in the park being created on the Boston side.
She checked with an associate in the room and commented that it was too early to discuss maintenance issues. That would be appropriate later.
A relevant part of the record is the large poison drainage facilities installed in the Cambridge side of the river at Magazine Beach to keep those poisons out of the river (see map and photo above). I have pointed out above that the drainage area which was created by Cambridge and the DCR HAS BEEN BLOCKED by Cambridge and the DCR resulting in the creation of a health danger in the Charles River.
At Magazine Beach, the drainage facilities were a major part of the planning to AVOID the poisoning of the Charles River WHICH HAS HAPPENED.
The DCR representative contended in the I90 rebuild that it would be normal practice to defer decision on use of poisons until AFTER the plans for the new parkland are created. Thus she will tell MassDOT whether she will use the DCR’s beloved poisons AFTER the layout of the land IS ESTABLISHED and it is too late TO CHANGE PLANS to put in drainage facilities to drain off poisons which, AS AT MAGAZINE BEACH, should not be used on the banks of the Charles River.
3. Proposed resolution.
This is copied from the prior letter on the poisoning of the Charles River to just show the DCR resolution which I propose.
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The legislature started the correction of Charles River destructiveness when it destroyed the Metropolitan District Commission.
The legislature failed in this task when the destructive planners simply moved to the Department of Conservation and Recreation with their vile plans and proceeded to destroy using a new name.
The Department of Transportation has officially performed part of the MDC responsibilities on the Charles River since the MDC was destroyed. MassDOT has been the adult in a room also occupied by the reprehensible DCR and City of Cambridge.
DCR responsibilities on the Charles River must be transferred to MassDOT by the legislature, WITHOUT TRANSFER OF DCR employees to MassDOT.
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Nothing complicated about it, except for the destructive government in the City of Cambridge which is clearly very happy with the destructive DCR.
How much more environmental destruction by this destructive entity is too much? And how much longer will members of the Cambridge City Council claim to be environmental saints in the middle of THEIR OWN EXPANDING environmental outrages?
It should be noted that, after I filed the prior letter, in the days prior to the submittal of this letter, action was taken to remove the blockage which has been in place for 20 months with very severe harm to the Charles River.
I can only guess where the cleanup originated. My guess is the Cambridge City Manager. Whether he ran it past the DCR in advance is beyond my knowledge.
As I said, a DCR representative certainly looks like she is taking action to maneuver MassDOT into more poisons on the Boston side of the Charles River.
4. Added Thoughts.
I very clearly objected to City Manager and City Council when this blocking of the poison drainage was created, with multiple follow ups. It took a health crisis on the Charles River and more of my photos of reality before the blocking of the poison drainage was ended.
Poisons continue to be applied to the banks of the Charles River at the Magazine Beach playing fields with apparent intent to expand the use of poisons, part of a massive outrage co-funded and praised by NINE members of the Cambridge City Council.
Following is the photo I provided in my letter complaining about the pousoning flaunting the DCR’s bragging of the poisons and the letter which is the basis of this report. The photo shows the reality at Magazine Beach behind the claims of environmental sainthood by members of the Cambridge City Council. Photo by Phil Barber.
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Phil Barber photo. Very large trees destroyed with moneys from the Cambridge City Council in spite of funding games designed to let them lie of environmental sainthood. Structure in rear is the 80 year abondoned bathhouse which the City Council's "kind of activist" has spent years telling people to look at and not look at the hundreds of trees being destroyed on the Charles River. The City Council vote was one of several SECRET votes taken so that they can claim they did not know what they were doing, or, more importantly so that their voters do not know what they area doing.
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I am under the impression that the Cambridge’s City Council’s “kind of activist” continues to give well meaning people the impression that the 59+ mostly excellent trees pending to be destroyed in this project DO NOT EXIST. She somehow brags about trees she is supposedly protecting.
But then again, 20 months ago when she was achieving her blocking of the poison drainage for the DCR with Cambridge help, she did not tell people she was poisoning the Charles. We loudly objected on grounds that she was. The Cambridge City Council did not want to know.
