State expert urges dredging of Swampscott flood hazard

SWAMPSCOTT – A state storm water expert told residents who live around Hawthorne Brook that the brook should be dredged to help alleviate flooding, but acknowledged that finding the money to pay for the project will be difficult.”It sounds like a starting point would be to see if you can get the dredging,” Jan Smith, a Water Quality and Coastal Habitat Manager with the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, said in a meeting earlier this week.Smith said the accumulation of sediment in the brook – which a September report by environmental consultants and engineers said had significantly reduced the brook’s storage capacity – was “not an uncommon problem ? of course the struggle is where do you find the money” to fix it.Hawthorne Brook flows mostly underground from Swampscott Cemetery through Vinnin Square and Tedesco Country Club before heading towards its outflow at Preston Beach.It surfaces most notably at a pond across from Super Stop & Shop and a pond on the west side of Salem Street in Tedesco, two locations the September report recommended be dredged.The Department of Public Works has requested $350,000 from the 2013 Capital Improvements budget to dredge the ponds, but town officials have not decided whether to pay for the project.Members of the Hawthorne Brook Neighborhood Association asked Selectmen Jan. 4 to support the proposal and further study the issue. Flooding in their neighborhood had worsened from “years of negligence and poor planning,” Linden Avenue resident Roseann Mark wrote in a letter to Selectmen recently.Mark and several other neighbors gathered Tuesday with Smith to discuss next steps.”Starting around 2000 ? every [big] storm threatened a water invasion,” said Stanley Road resident Dick Murray. Murray showed a newspaper picture of water from Oct. 4 around his home like a moat.Smith said that the buildup of dirt and other debris in streams is a chronic problem for towns, particularly those with commercial development similar to that in Vinnin Square.Dirt, debris, leaves, and road salt and sand all collect on the acres of parking lot and then are washed into a stream in a rainstorm, he said. A Marblehead resident, Smith said he remembered when much of the area was covered with marshes that absorbed the leaves and rainwater.But Smith said that shrinking federal budgets made it very competitive to receive a grant for addressing the issue.He offered a few suggestions, however.He recommended contacting the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, as the overflowing toilets connected with the Oct. 4 flooding presented a potential health issue. He suggested residents propose an article at Town Meeting to fund projects such as the proposed dredging.He said that other towns have started a “storm water utility,” where a storm water management fee is added to water bills and funds flood-mitigation projects such as dredging.Mark predicted residents would be reluctant to have another fee with taxes “already high.”But she vowed to build support for the dredging proposal among the neighbors.We have to get more people involved, get grant-writing,” Mark said. “We definitely have to get this neighborhood together.”Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].