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Salisbury Pond Watershed

Fouling of pond brings fines: Institute Park is beneficiary

By John J. Monahan, T&G Staff

February 15, 2004

It had happened many times before: The stream flowing into Salisbury Pond would turn colors and the fish would start dying.

When the tributary that runs behind the Grove Street Fire Station turned a milky color on Jan. 15, 2002, and fish began floating dead on the pond surface, citizens, city fire and health inspectors, and state environmental enforcement staffs took action.

Roger Frost of Frost Manufacturing, whose plant abuts the brook, had been checking the stream regularly as a member of the Millbrook Task Force, organized to monitor pollution of the pond as part of the Blackstone Headwaters Coalition.

He notified state and local agencies the plume of toxic chemicals was traced back up the brook to the former Bradlee's Department Store building that was being converted to a Home Depot store on Gold Star Boulevard. Work crews were using a toxic material to clean a large concrete floor and flushing it into storm drains that empty into the brook

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This week, officials of the Department of Environmental Protection completed the enforcement action in the case: The three companies involved will pay fines that will be used to improve Salisbury Pond.
Home Depot U.S.A. Inc., based in Atlanta the general contractor remodeling the store, DiMarco

Construction LLC of Rochester, N.Y. and a subcontractor on the job, Advanced Coatings Equipment Inc. of East Windsor, Conn., have agreed to pay a total of $32,250 in penalties to pay for environmental projects at Institute Park.

"All of the companies involved have accepted responsibility for their part in damaging this urban park," said Lee Dillard Adams, deputy regional director for the Department of Environmental Protection Central Region office.

"We are pleased that in Home Depot's case, a significant share of the penalty directly benefits the citizens who use this park. The money was paid to the city to support its efforts and those of the Millbrook Task Force, the Blackstone Headwaters Coalition and others to revitalize Institute Park and improve Salisbury Pond and Mill Brook," she said.

She was not alone in appreciating the results.

"Well, alrighty. That's cool," said Donna Williams of Grafton, who helped organize the ongoing citizen monitoring efforts for streams and ponds that make up the Headwaters Coalition, on hearing the disposition of the case

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" To have vigilant stewards of our waterways paying attention to find these violations is really what, in particular, our volunteer water quality monitoring program is all about," she said, crediting Mr. Frost for the time he takes to keep a close eye on conditions in the brook.

"It's unfortunate these things happen, but these violations obviously deserve a penalty. The level of enforcement is increasing, and it's wonderful to put that penalty to use locally to improve the waterway where the violation occurred," she said.

It took a small army of people to identify the problem and correct it.

After the initial alert, Fire Department Lt. John M. Ford checked the brook he found dying fish and a slick on the water and notified city Health Department inspectors.

Health Department sanitarians Philip J. Jakubosky and Christopher McMahon, who noted that the odd-colored discharge smelled like oranges, tracked the pollution up the stream to the rear of the vacant store building being remodeled.

They talked to the job foreman at the store building and learned the large concrete floor was being cleaned with a substance that smelled like oranges. City public works officials notified the work crews that the material could not be put in the storm drain, and DEP investigators took samples of the dead fish and the polluted water.

Some of the fine will be used to pay for a new master plan for the park, which is being done in concert with plans for a firefighter memorial, honoring the six who died in the Dec. 3, 1999, Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse building fire. The memorial will be adjacent to the park near where the brook enters the pond.

The city is holding the first in a series of public meetings for the master plan at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the American Red Cross building, 61 Harvard St.

Indian Lake is the largest body of water located completely within the City of Worcester, Massachusetts (population of 170,000+). The 193-acre Lake with a mean depth of approximately 10 feet offers many family activities including two public swimming beaches, picnic and recreation areas, a public boat launch and a tennis court. Indian Lake originally encompassed 40 acres and was surrounded by marshes and farmland. In the late 1820’s during the industrial era, the Blackstone Canal was built to create a new transportation link between Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. The Mill Brook was dammed at Indian Lake to form the headwaters of the Blackstone Canal and Blackstone River to control the flow of water through the canal. In the late 1840’s the Lake was used to harvest ice for local businesses. The Upper Mill Brook Watershed area is approximately 15 square miles and extends northerly into Holden. The main outlet from Indian Lake flows through a gated valve in a southerly direction into Salisbury Pond and eventually into the Blackstone River. The watershed area is heavily urbanized and the major tributary entering into the Lake is Ararat Brook entering at the northwest corner of the Lake.

Originally the size was about 40 acres. In the late 1820's Mill Brook was dammed at Indian Lake to control water for the Blackstone Canal. In the 1840's the lake was used for ice harvesting for local businesses.

The watershed is heavily urbanized. Over the last 50 years development within the watershed has increased dramatically, which has caused water pollution. High phosphorous loading and rapid sedimentation has lead to accelrated eutrophication. This has caused severe impairment in water quality, low dissolved oxygen, nuisance plants, turbidity and organic enrichment

The Indian Lake Watershed Association [ILWA] was formed in 1985 and now has a membership of 300+.

Over the past 50 years, development within the watershed has increased dramatically which has caused increased water quality problems at Indian Lake and its tributaries and inlets. This development has attributed to rapid sedimentation from both upstream development and urban runoff. High phosphorous loading has also led to eutrophication and has resulted in severe impairment of water quality, primarily in the form of low dissolved oxygen, nuisance aquatic plants, turbidity and organic enrichment. This has been documented in numerous studies and routine water quality monitoring conducted by the Indian Lake Watershed Association (ILWA) through the Blackstone Headwater Monitoring Team (BHMT) Program and by the City Department of Public Health (DPH>

The ILWA has completed many major tasks to protect and restore the quality of the in the recent years. These tasks include:sewered homes along Indian Lake, dredged a portion of Indian Lake lobbied against major land taking for construction of Rte 190, lobbied City to repair sewer pumping station on Holden Street, periodic treatment of Indian Lake with chemicals to control weeds construction of Morgan Park completion of diagnostic feasibility studies of both lakes coordination of the stenciling of almost 1,500 storm drains, which ultimately discharge into the waterbodies gained support from the City for an annual drawdown of Indian Lake to combat weed growth successfully lobbied City to pave a local roadway and long stretch of sidewalk that washed sediment into Indian Lake during rain events worked with the City to repair a failing septic system at Shore Park, located on Indian Lake, coordinated funding weed control of 80% of Indian Lake to control weed and algae growth, and continuously identify and repair numerous illicit sanitary/storm sewer connections entering Salisbury Pond.

At present, the Lake does not currently meet Federal water quality standards and is listed on the Massachusetts 303d list of impaired water bodies for nuisance aquatic plants, organic enrichment and low dissolved oxygen.As a direct result of water quality degradation, there has been a loss of recreational opportunities and wildlife habitat at the Lake.

In the spring of 2002, the ILWA joined forces with the Mill Brook Task Force (MBTF) to complete one of the first Massachusetts Department of Fish & Wildlife Riverways Lake Watershed Stewardship Programs of the entire 15 square mile Upper Mill Brook sub-watershed to Salisbury Pond and Indian Lake in Worcester, Massachusetts. Key issues were noted, summarized, and presented to city and state officials and an action plan to address these issues was created as part of our lake management program. During this survey, several areas were identified as potential pollutant source to Indian Lake. These areas will be monitored for water quality by volunteers through this project.

This existing information indicates that any long-term solution to restoring the Lake must start with reducing the sediment, phosphorous, and other contaminant loading to the Lake. The implementation of the tasks identified in our recently awarded 319-grant proposal seeks to achieve this loading reduction through the design and installation of a series of stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs).

Other City and State Departments including DPH, MADEP and EOEA have partnered to provide financial and technical assistance to ILWA with the restoration project. There has been a strong commitment from the Federal, State and City government to restore the water quality within the Blackstone River Watershed. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which is one of three colleges and/or universities within the Upper Mill Brook Watershed, provides educational aspects and several students have completed comprehensive resource restoration evaluations within the Mill Brook Watershed.Jolin Paving & Excavating, a local construction company and long time supporter of the ILWA will donate construction equipment and some labor for the project. Massachusetts Audubon Society, Blackstone Headwaters Coalition, Regional Environmental Council all assist with educational outreach and education through their many environmental based programs. Several area businesses including Tighe & Bond Engineers, Morgan Construction and Norton/Saint Gobain Company have provided both financial and volunteer assistance as well.

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