| The picture of Mother Brook on the front page of the Times on Friday bore no resemblance at all to what Mother Brook looked like that day. It was as if someone had hit a switch and the Brook filled in again, so not only couldn't you see the grass on the river bottom, you couldn't see the bicycle frame or other trash mentioned in the picture's caption. It wasn't quite up to its highest levels, but it was a very noticeable increase. The story quotes Bob Hanson as saying an old agreement, still in effect today, allows Mother Brook 1/3 of the water from the Charles (on a side note, this is the second time in the past few weeks that he has been referred to as our "official historian." I always thought he was simply Dedham's unofficial historian. Has a vote ever been taken to give him this title?). The dam that controls how much water gets diverted is located off Rt 1 between the Dedham Mall and Uno's. Since 1931 the US Geological Survey has been monitoring how much water has been flowing through it. I can't get the chart to reproduce here, but it shows it declining all throughout August and then has a sharp up tick on Tuesday, going from less than 4 cubic feet per second to 11. It has been falling again ever since. It is controlled by the Division of Conservation and Recreation's Office of Dam Safety, and I am waiting for a call back to hear who decides how much water gets sent over it each day. I'm told by the former marine biology teacher at Dedham High that Boston pushes for as little water to go over as possible in dry times such as this. They don't want the the lagoons off Sturrow Drive to become mud holes. You can't blame the mayor for looking out for his constituents, but it would be nice if we had someone looking out for us as well. If we are entitled to 1/3 of the water, and there is no other compelling reason to give Boston more, we should make sure that you can't walk across a dry riverbed in East Dedham so Back Bay residents can have a pretty view. [Update: Bill Gode from DCR did call me back and told me that the increase in the amount of water you can see from Sawmill Lane isn't due to an increase in the flow of it coming from the Charles, it is due to fixing the dam further down near the Mother Brook condos. He also tells me the diversion sending water from the Charles is in the full upright position and so only water that flows over it ends up in the Brook. Apparently it is broken and can't be lowered any more until it is repaired. He couldn't explain why the USGS survey showed an increase in the flow from the Charles. He also told me that the lagoons in the Back Bay were not really a concern when determining the hieght of the diversion and that the level of the Charles had to legally be within a two foot range. He knew there was an agreement that was over a century old entitling Mother Brook to up to 1/3 of the water from the Charles, but wasn't sure how anyone would go about enforcing it.] |
