Mystic River Watershed in the News
February 22, 2010
This morning, local NPR affiliate WBUR ran a segment on the Mystic River featuring some of the dedicated people in a network of nonprofits working on environmental issues in and around the river. We are proud to be a part of this network in our role of providing technical and Internet support for their work. This Collaborative, as its called, works on environmental justice issues in the Mystic River Watershed (in Boston and its northern communities).
In our role, we provide technical support in the form of collaboration tools and constituent relationship management capabilities, but the real work of the network is done by the community advocates and committed scientific and legal experts experts on the ground doing this important work.
The Lower Mystic River has long been an environmental troublespot due to extensive oil and natural gas facilities in the area and large immigrant and lower income communities that lack as strong a political voice as some of their wealthier neighbors in the Metro Boston region. When compared with its sister river that feeds the Boston Harbor, the Charles River, it has largely escaped the clean-up efforts and attention of environmental regulatory agencies. While the EPA proudly advertises the improvements in water quality in the Charles in recent years, it can make no such claim in the Mystic River.
The good news is, thanks to the work of this network, that is beginning to change. This radio spot is a great piece about the work they're doing to improve water quality and river access to one of Eastern Massachusetts' greatest natural resources.
