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Boston Globe
06-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
A new ferry terminal on the Mystic? Boston, Everett officials team up to restore old pumping station.
'We're really excited about it,' said Patrick Herron, executive director of the Kathy Abbott, chief executive of the nonprofit The conversations around the pumphouse, currently owned by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, started a few years ago, long before state lawmakers approved legislation in November that rezones the adjacent site for a soccer stadium. That legislation removes the site next door, home to a shuttered power plant, from what's known as a Designated Port Area, where only marine industrial uses can be developed. However, per state officials, the legislation left the pumphouse property in the DPA. That could pose a challenge to any redevelopment of the site, although a ferry terminal would be an allowed use within the zone. Other challenges include the limited space for parking and a dilapidated seawall that needs to be shored up. Advertisement Herron said he expects state regulators would be willing to remove the site from the DPA because it's not currently home to an industrial use. (The MWRA stopped pumping at the facility in 1993, replacing it with a more modern facility across the street, though an active sewer pipe passes under one portion of the 1890s building.) Everett and Boston officials are also engaged in discussions about a harborwalk extension that would bring the path along the Mystic River In However, the Revs and Patriots ownership is not currently involved in the talks around the pumphouse's future. Advertisement Stacy Thompson, interim executive director at 'There's so much potential,' Thompson said. 'Could it be a ferry station or a landing point? Yes. Could it be something else that serves the community? Yes. We're not there yet [but] we're getting closer to understanding what's possible.' Jon Chesto can be reached at
Boston Globe
03-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Rising water bills could swamp household budgets
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up There's no end in sight either, because the electricity, labor, and chemicals needed to treat water get more expensive by the year. More important is the need to spend billions on replacing or refurbishing water treatment plants built decades ago, and are incapable of meeting tough new water safety standards. Advertisement 'Getting water is not our problem,' said Manny Teodoro, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and co-author of 'The Profits of Distrust,' a book about the failings of municipal water systems. 'Pipes and people and treatment plants, that's what's expensive.' Rising water rates are a problem for middle-class households, but a potential crisis for poor families, which can ill afford the additional expense. In December, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimated that up to 19 million households — 15 percent of all US households — can't afford drinking water without skimping on other necessities. 'Wealthier households probably don't think twice about their water bills,' said Casey Wichman, an economist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who studies municipal water systems. But 'for low-income households, I think this rise in costs is notable and concerning.' Advertisement One problem is the sheer age of the water infrastructure in many cities. 'We have systems that are well over a hundred years old,' said Jennifer Pederson, executive director of the Boston is scheduled to spend a little over $400 million in capital improvement projects between now and 2027, according to Luciano Petruzziello, the water and sewer commission's chief financial officer. In addition, the city faces price increases from the The MWRA has raised its wholesale rate by around 4 percent a year for the past 20 years, said its director of finance, Thomas Durkin. The agency has told Boston to expect annual increases of 3.3 percent for the next three years. The price hikes cover rising costs for labor, energy, and water cleaning chemicals, as well as $200 million in capital improvements. Petruzziello said that the Boston water system's payments to the MWRA will rise from $255 million last year to $302 million in 2029. Water and sewer upgrades can be more challenging for smaller communities because the costs must be shared among a smaller number of ratepayers. Jim Boudreau, town administrator in Scituate, said his town of about 20,000 has spent $30 million over the past decade replacing century-old mains. 'Some of the pipes were so old we could not flush the system, because the pipes would break,' Boudreau said. 'The town had not invested in literally decades.' Advertisement As a result, the basic rate for water service in Scituate has risen nearly 40 percent since 2020, with the sewer rate climbing 53 percent. Across the nation, water treatment plants nationwide are wearing out. Wichman noted that many of the nation's wastewater treatment facilities were built in the 1970s and 1980s, after the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act. Between then and fiscal 1984, the US government spent $41 billion on clean water projects in the biggest civilian public works program since the Interstate Highway System. But now those plants are half a century old, and someone must pay to replace them. The EPA estimates that the nation will have to invest $1.25 trillion over the next 20 years to maintain safe water and sewer systems. 'Water in general has been underfunded for decades,' said Pederson. 'Fifteen years we've been trying to raise the alarm that water systems need funding.' The EPA estimates that Massachusetts alone will need to spend $37 billion on water projects over the next 20 years, and noted that the massive infrastructure bill passed by the Biden administration will only contribute $1 billion in funding. Massachusetts residents will be on the hook for the rest. The hook will dig even deeper due to new federal mandates. The EPA has set tough new standards aimed at removing toxic 'forever chemicals' from drinking water. Massachusetts is one of 11 states that already regulate these chemicals, but the EPA standard is four times tougher. That means billions in treatment plant upgrades. The EPA is also cracking down on 'service lines.' the pipes that carry water from the mains to our homes. About 9 percent are toxic lead pipes, and the agency has decreed that utilities must remove these lead pipes over the next 10 years. It's a sensible public health measure, but it means digging up millions of front yards and spending billions of dollars. And all of us will be paying for it, with every glass of tap water. Advertisement Hiawatha Bray can be reached at
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AG Schwalb suing DC restaurant for allegedly underpaying employees, denying overtime, sick leave
WASHINGTON () — D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced that he is suing a D.C. restaurant for allegedly underpaying employees and denying overtime and sick leave. Talea is an Italian restaurant that opened its doors in 2024 in the D.C. neighborhood of Cathedral Heights. Talea's owner and managing partner, Hamza Hadani, is a business owner with several restaurants in D.C. 'It's frustrating and we think it's also wrong': DC Mayor, leaders defend self-governance as Trump pushes for federal control According to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), some of the laws that Talea and Hadani violated include: The Minimum Wage Revision Act (MWRA), Sick and Safe Leave Act (SSLA), Wage Transparency Act (WTA), and the Wage Payment and Collection Law (WPCL) 'Hamza Hadani exploits his employees while basking in the attention he receives as a well-known restauranteur,' said Attorney General Schwalb. The OAG said the unfair labor practice started even before the restaurant opened, when Hadani had an alleged 'training' period in which some employees worked up to 70 hours per week while getting paid lower than the federal minimum wage. When the restaurant opened its doors in June 2024, the tipped minimum wage was $8 per hour and soon went up to $10 per hour in July 2024. However, many of the tipped workers get paid less than half of what they're supposed to, some even getting paid as low as $3.99 per hour. They also did not make sure that the wage for tipped workers' hourly pay met the regular minimum wage, which is $17.50 as of July 1, 2024. Trump appoints Maryland, Virginia governors to Council of Governors The OAG said that Hadani and Talea did not pay its employees one and a half times their regular rate when they worked overtime (More than 40 hours a week). It also found that Hadani told employees to not clock in for their shift until they started doing table service instead of when they got to work, which resulted in employees losing about two hours worth of pay. When employees get sick, they have to go unpaid and find another coworker to cover their shift. Hadani and Talea also do not track absences or leave that employees should generally be eligible for. Hadani also forced employees to get a doctor's note if they were going on sick leave and would fire employees who were not able to give him a note. One employee was allegedly fired after not providing a note because they couldn't afford to go to a doctor due to being underpaid. Hadani and Talea also did not maintain proper payroll records as required by D.C. law. There were time were employees were paid with handwritten checks that did not include itemized statements that showed wages and tips, what was deducted or added as well as the amount the were earning per hour for during the pay period. Mitch McConnell: About the U.S. senator from Kentucky Because of this, employees did not know the amount of hours they were being paid for, the hourly rate, how much was deducted from their check or how much they were expecting to take home. This made it easier for Hadani and Talea to continue its unfair labor practice since it was easier to keep employees underpaid. The investigation also revealed that Hadani would verbally attack employees with profanities when they asked questions about their pay. He also told employees to not talk to each other about pay and threatened with baseless defamations suits for telling former coworkers about wage and hour violations. Hadani also fired employees who he suspected were cooperating with OAG's investigation. He also used his connection with people in the restaurant industry to contact the workplace of former employees in efforts to get them fired again. 'Servers, hosts, food runners, bussers, and bartenders are underpaid, lied to, denied sick leave, refused overtime—and then, if they speak out about such illegal conduct, are intimidated, harassed and fired. As the District's independent Attorney General, I will continue to fight to protect the workers who are the lifeblood of our city's vibrant restaurant culture and work tirelessly to ensure a level playing field for restaurants that play by the rules,' said Schwalb. Officials investigating bomb threat at Kennedy Center, police say The OAG wants Talea and Hadani to comply with D.C.'s employment laws and stop its illegal conduct. It also wants employees who were not allowed minimum wage, overtime, and paid sick leave to recover unpaid wages and paid sick leave as well as civil penalties. Hamza Hadani, the Managing Partner at Talea Ristorante, provided a statement to DC News Now saying: We take issue and have denied and continue to deny the Government's allegations as this matter has been at issue for almost one year.. The only resolution is for the parties to utilize the resources of the Court for the District of Columbia.' Hamza HadaniManaging Partner Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
