Cambridge Says the MWRA Has Dropped the Plan to Fence Off Magazine Beach, but the Park Is Not Yet Out of the Sewer Plan

Cambridge officials told the City Council on Monday that the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has backed away from the part of its sewage-overflow plan that drew the strongest objections in Cambridgeport, permanently fencing off 2.3 acres of Magazine Beach Park, according to accounts of the meeting by Cambridge Day and The Cambridge Independent.

"That type of long-term impact is absolutely off the table," Deputy City Manager Kathy Watkins said, according to Cambridge Day. She told councillors the MWRA had "moved on" from the idea.

Both outlets reported, however, that the park has not been removed from the planning documents, and that some form of work there remains possible.

What the MWRA proposed

MWRA representatives presented the proposal at an Oct. 5 meeting on preventing combined sewer overflows into the Charles River, according to The Cambridge Independent. A combined sewer overflow is a release of untreated wastewater and stormwater into a waterway when the sewer system is overwhelmed, typically during heavy rain.

The plan would have placed a 10-million-gallon storage tank under the park's soccer field. The 2.3 acres above it would have been closed to the public for security reasons, the MWRA said, according to the Independent. Digging down 75 feet and installing the tank would have taken 8.3 acres of the park out of public use for six to eight years, the paper reported.

The proposal was the subject of a community meeting in Cambridgeport the week before Monday's council session, where residents expressed outrage, according to Cambridge Day. City officials said they had been caught off guard by the prospect of permanently fenced park space.

What city officials said Monday

"The City Council and state reps and DCR have sent very clear messages, and that has been heard very clearly by the MWRA in terms of not being an appropriate impact," Watkins said, according to the Independent, referring to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. "I think MWRA has accepted it and has moved on from this idea."

Watkins also said, according to Cambridge Day, that "if there's going to be use of Magazine Beach in any way … it would need to be a plan that is much more universally supported."

City Engineer Jim Wilcox explained that Magazine Beach was listed as one of the options for a tank in the draft plan that Cambridge, Somerville and the MWRA submitted in April to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and federal environmental regulators, Cambridge Day reported. Some elements, including a six- to eight-year construction timeframe, had city sign-off and could still happen, the outlet reported.

Wilcox said the alternatives for controlling the overflows include separating sewers, building storage tunnels, which would also require space at Magazine Beach, and putting storage tanks elsewhere, according to the Independent.

Councillors push for another site

Councillor Cathie Zusy, who co-founded a nonprofit that raised millions of dollars for the park's revitalization, urged administrators to find another location, Cambridge Day reported. "We really do need an alternate location," Zusy said. She suggested neighboring Goose Park or a private land acquisition, and said years of closure and tree removal would be nearly as bad as permanently losing the fields, according to the two outlets.

State Rep. Mike Connolly said some work at the park could still be needed, such as connecting an underground pipe from a tank built in "some better location," such as the Goose Park area or an MIT parking lot, to the park's Cottage Farm facility, the Independent reported. "That said, there is confidence that we have effectively and collectively shot down the idea for a large new storage tank in the middle of the Magazine Beach park/recreation area," Connolly said.

The legal hurdle for any parkland taking

Any permanent use of the parkland would fall under Article 97 of the state constitution, which bars taking public parkland for another use without a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, the Independent noted. A 2022 law strengthened that requirement, calling for alternatives to be considered and for replacement land of equal or greater value.

Cambridge Day noted that in a city of 6.4 square miles, open space for a large underground tank is scarce, and Watkins acknowledged the current plan is untenable.

Also Monday

The council also unanimously passed a policy order directing city departments to strengthen awareness of disability rights and complaint processes, and a separate order to review the operating model of the Harvard Square kiosk, according to Cambridge Day.

Neither outlet reported a timeline for a revised MWRA plan, and the MWRA's own account of its next steps was not included in either report.