Latest news with #DepartmentofConservationandRecreation
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass. Gov. Healey touts nearly $3B ‘Swiss Army knife' disaster preparedness bond plan
Massachusetts could pump billions of dollars into climate resilience improvements, land conservation efforts, clean water and more under a policy-heavy borrowing bill Gov. Maura Healey unveiled Tuesday in Braintree. Flanked by local officials and environmental activists who praised the measure's wide scope, Healey rolled out a more than $2.9 billion environmental bond bill packed with reforms she and her deputies said would touch topics ranging from wildfires to flooding impacts on home insurance to dams and culverts. Highlights of the 51-page bill include funding for upgrades to Department of Conservation and Recreation properties, flood control projects, clean water infrastructure and food security programs, as well as policy reforms such as streamlining environmental permitting with an eye toward speeding up housing development. Healey pitched the proposal as especially necessary at a time when President Donald Trump and Republicans who control Congress are pursuing significant spending cuts. 'We cannot count on the president or Congress to be there to make the investments that we want to see made in Massachusetts, in our communities. They're, in fact, doing the opposite, and taking away from and undermining important investments on a whole bunch of fronts,' Healey said. 'In the face of that, [it's] all the more important that we take action like the action that we're taking today.' Healey's office rolled out the bill with a detailed set of summaries, outlining its borrowing proposals and several of the most significant policy reforms it envisions. The five-year bond bill Healey proposed calls for $764 million in borrowing to fund upgrades at Department of Conservation and Recreation properties, $401 million for dams and flood control projects, $315 million for the Municipal Vulnerabilities Preparedness program, and $304.5 million for land stewardship and conservation. Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper said about 200 of the state's 3,000 dams are in 'poor condition,' and warned that many of the 25,000 culverts and small bridges sprinkled across Massachusetts 'are too small for the kind of rain that we are now getting.' 'This bill gives cities and towns the help they need. It removes old, unsafe dams and replaces broken culverts before disasters hit,' she said. Other major funding proposals include $505 million for clean water infrastructure and addressing contamination from PFAS, sometimes referred to as forever chemicals due to how long they take to break down, and $125 million for food security programs. The bill would also launch a 'Resilience Revolving Fund' that would provide 'low-interest loans to communities so they can invest in resilience projects that reduce risk and protect people and property,' Healey's office wrote in a summary. Healey wove some policy changes into the bill, too. Several focus on speeding up permitting involving waterways and environmental reviews, including with removal of MEPA environmental impact report requirements for some housing and natural restoration projects, according to a summary. 'The Mass Ready Act saves people money and jumpstarts housing, culvert repairs and other infrastructure projects by streamlining the permitting process,' Healey said. 'That was a charge to our team: streamline those regulations, streamline the permitting. We've got a lot to do, and we've got to get after it and get it done as quickly as possible.' Another section calls for increased disclosure of past flooding and flood risk to homebuyers. Steve Long, director of policy and partnerships for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, called the wide-ranging bill 'the whole package.' 'This bond [bill] provides the most holistic approach I've seen across four environmental bonds that I've lobbied on since 2008,' he said. 'It's like a Swiss Army knife that provides multifaceted funding and policy solutions. Mass Ready funding will provide a return on investment that will boost climate resilience by restoring natural systems to reduce heat, prevent flooding and cut community costs.' Beacon Hill typically approves an environmental bond bill once every several years to authorize state borrowing for near-term projects. Gov. Charlie Baker signed the prior iteration, a $2.4 billion package, in 2018. However, like other bond bills, not all of the approved dollars actually get deployed because the state faces a lower cap on annual borrowing. The most recent state capital investment plan for fiscal years 2025 through 2029 lists a five-year bond cap of $1.26 billion for energy and environmental affairs. Mass. AG Campbell sues Trump over obscure rule used to withhold federal funding to states Gov. Healey taps Lexington venture capitalist as new economic development chief Trump to strip protections from millions of acres of national forests. Here's how UMass study: Male TV 'talking heads' constantly interrupt female experts For the MAGA faithful, Trump's Iran strikes are all about 'America first' Read the original article on MassLive.
Boston Globe
18-06-2025
- Boston Globe
These beaches have the best water quality in the Boston area, new study says
'You don't have to go all the way to the Cape or Newburyport,' said Chris Mancini, the nonprofit's executive director. 'We have amazing beaches right here, and many of them are exceptionally clean.' Advertisement Though the region generally ranks highly in terms of water quality, there were a few beaches on the list with more dismal grades and Four beaches fell below 80 percent on the nonprofit's scorecard, meaning that last year, they 'failed' at least one out of every five tests for enterococci, an organism similar to E. coli: two on the North Shore (King's Beach in Lynn and Nahant Beach) and two in Dorchester (Tenean and Savin Hill). Tenean and King's have historically ranked poorly in the nonprofit's annual list, which relies on daily and weekly testing conducted by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. When tests exceed the bacterial limits set for beaches for two consecutive days, the water is considered unsafe for swimming and the beaches are required to close, according to Related : Advertisement Beaches with frequent closures are generally located in areas with aging or unreliable sewage systems, which are stressed by heavy rainfall causing storm water runoff. Those issues are exacerbated by the worsening storms and warmer water temperatures brought by climate change. Nevertheless, most of the beaches are on the list 'reliably clean,' Mancini said. 'You see anything over 85 [percent], you're kind of going, 'this is good,'' Mancini said. 'Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about any beach that was over 85 percent.' Pleasure Bay and City Point have both maintained perfect safety rating ratings for the past six years, while other South Boston beaches have consistently scored over the 90 percent mark. Beaches in Revere and Winthrop have generally floated around the middle of the pack over the same period. After King's Beach in Lynn — which, though still one of the worst performers, rose 11 points from a rotten 55 percent rating in 2023 — the most improved beach was Malibu Beach in Dorchester, which scored 7 points higher than 2023. Puzzlingly, nearby Savin Hill Beach saw its water quality sharply decrease, according to the study. 'That was the big surprise,' Mancini said. 'We're trying to look into that one.' He suggested that the drop may be simply a statistical anomaly; unlike Malibu, which is tested daily, Savin Hill's water is tested weekly. That means that three or four bad samples, perhaps caused by excessive rainfall runoff the night before, could have an outsize impact on the final rating. Advertisement Mancini also noted both beaches are located in a basin that is relatively cut off from the rest of Dorchester Bay, which means less tidal flow than other beaches that face the open harbor. Savin Hill residents have raised concerns over the basin's water quality in the past. 'We are trying to bring attention and resources to it because it really needs to be cleaned up,' Greg Bedrosian, head of the Dorchester Yacht Club, told the Run-off from the Southeast Expressway may contribute to the contamination, as well as the lack of tidal flow under the Beades Bridge, which carries Morrissey Boulevard across Dorchester Bay. 'The problem is that silt has built up in it over the years, and so there's no way that water can flush through there anymore,' said Bill Walczak, president of the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association. '[It's] been that way for decades.' Walczak said that calls to dredge up the silt under the bridge have fallen on deaf ears. 'All you have to do is look at the build up underneath it, and you can say, 'Wow, this area would be a lot clearer and cleaner and healthier if the state were just willing to clear out the silt,'' he said. Still, Mancini said that generally speaking the water quality in the Boston area is just as safe as other major urban beaches, such as Coney Island in New York City, and Malibu Beach in Los Angeles. Some, like Imperial Beach near San Diego, have reported substantially worse bacterial levels in recent years. Advertisement 'The South Boston beaches have always gotten 100,' he said, adding that, as far as his metrics go, 'you can't get cleaner than 100.' Short Beach in Revere is the only public beach of those surveyed to be closed as of Tuesday, A beachgoer enjoys the sun at Tenean Beach in Dorchester. Tenean slipped two percentage points in this year's water quality report, indicating higher levels of bacteria than in years past. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Camilo Fonseca can be reached at
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Fairfield, Dartmouth footbridges over Storrow Drive to close briefly to pedestrians for work detail
The Fairfield and Dartmouth footbridges over Storrow Drive will be temporarily closed to pedestrians on Thursday for safety line striping work, state officials said. Storrow Drive will remain open for the duration of work, and a police detail will be on site, Department of Conservation and Recreation officials said Wednesday. Fairfield Footbridge will be closed from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Dartmouth Footbridge will be closed from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Boston Globe
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Today in History: June 3, the Zoot Suit Riots begin in Los Angeles
In 1888, the poem 'Casey at the Bat' by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. In 1898, Governor William Eustis Russell signed a bill creating the Metropolitan Parks Commission, the nation's first regional park system. (Starting with 7,000 acres, the service, now managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, encompasses almost 20,000 acres of woodlands, beaches, swimming pools, skating rinks, bicycle paths, and open areas, including the Charles River Esplanade.) In 1935, the French liner SS Normandie set a record on its maiden voyage, arriving in New York after crossing the Atlantic in just four days. Advertisement In 1937, Edward, The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in Monts, France. In 1943, an altercation between US Navy sailors and young Mexican Americans on the streets of Los Angeles led to several days of clashes known as the Zoot Suit Riots, during which white mobs attacked Mexican Americans across the city, injuring more than 150. Advertisement In 1965, during the Gemini 4 spaceflight, astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to 'walk' in space. In 1989, Chinese army troops entered Beijing's Tiananmen Square to begin a crackdown on student-led pro-democracy demonstrations. In 2016, former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, whose athletic feats and activism placed him among the most revered athletes of all time, died in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 74. In 2017, elite rock climber Alex Honnold became the first to climb solo to the top of the massive granite wall known as El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without ropes or safety gear.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Popular Mass. beach to close for summer 2025 as $6M construction underway
A popular Massachusetts beach will remain closed for the entirety of the summer as a new multi-million dollar bathhouse is constructed. The main beach at the Walden Pond State Reservation in Concord will be closed the 2025 summer season while construction workers build a $6.1 million bathhouse, according to an announcement on Friday from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Another beach at Walden Pond, called Red Cross Beach, will still be open for the summer, but no lifeguards will be stationed at its designated swimming area. Parking will also be limited at the reservation due to the construction. The $6.1 million bathhouse project will replace a current two-story bathhouse at the pond with a single-story building designed to be 'universally accessible' and meet state and federal accessibility requirements, according to DCR. The new bathhouse — complete with new restrooms and changing areas — will be DCR's 'first net-zero facility,' DCR said. Signage about the construction and related beach closure has been posted around the park. DCR suggested the following beaches and pools as alternative options for swimming in the summer time: • Ashland State Park • Cochituate State Park in Natick • Hopkinton State Park • Charles E. Shannon Jr. Memorial Beach in Winchester • Raymond Lord Pool in Lowell • Connors Memorial Pool in Waltham • Clarence W. Dealtry Memorial Pool in Watertown, • Francis J. McCrehan Memorial Pool in Cambridge • Raymond Lord Memorial Pool in Lowell Walden Pond attracts nearly 600,000 visitors per year in its 462 acres of protected space, according to The Walden Woods Project. It was made famous through the work of Henry David Thoreau called 'Walden,' or 'Life in the Woods.' Mass. State Lottery winner: Father gifts daughter $2 million ticket High bacteria levels close Mass. beaches as temperatures begin to soar First woman police officer in Mass. town dies, remembered for 'breaking barriers' Rotary Club of Southwick holding annual Tag Sale June 21 New orthopedic urgent care clinic opens in Westfield Read the original article on MassLive.
