The Dorchester Yacht Club is leading an effort to get more state resources for improvements to water quality and navigation in the basin that includes the club’s property and Savin Hill and Malibu beaches. An attorney hired by the club won the support of the push by members of the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association at its January meeting earlier this month.

The club is focused on getting state funds dedicated to dredging work around the John J. Beades drawbridgewith a goal of flushing out waters that the yacht club’s commodore, Greg Bedrosian, says have become contaminated over many years.

“There’s a lot of things that happened in that bay and I don’t think everyone is aware of that,” Bedrosian told the Reporter this week. “We are trying to bring attention and resources to it because it really needs to be cleaned up. It’s part of the Boston waterfront…It’s really contaminated, and I don’t think anyone knows just how contaminated it is.”

The problem in the basin, Bedrosian says, has been compounded by its proximity to the Southeast Expressway and the run-off from the roadway that empties into Dorchester Bay. A tractor-trailer accident on I-93 last year is a case in point, he said.

The accident, which happened just after 7 a.m. on July 4, involved a south-bound Amazon truck driven by a Rhode Island contractor. Across from Savin Hill, the truck lost control, jack-knifed, and careened into the HOV lanes, rupturing two massive fuel tanks that emptied 150 gallons of diesel fuel onto the highwaynear to three catch basins with drainage pipes running right into the Dorchester Bay basin. As public safety and environmental officials rushed to deal with the crash, the fuel was flowing into the catch basins and pooling into the waters around the club.

“About an hour after the crash, it started to rain, and I was getting calls from people getting ready to go boating saying the club was filled with diesel fuel,” recalled Bedrosian. “It smelled awful and there was a sheen everywhere and we called DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] and they responded to clean it up.

“Had no one told me, all that fuel might not have been seen for quite some time and it would have just lingered in the cove,” he continued. “We got lucky, and they cleaned up most of it in time, but you have to think about the lasting effects of years and years of runoff like that going into the bay every time it rains or there’s a spill.”

According to DEP records, 14 drums of fuel materials were recovered and disposed of, as well as 2.15 tons of oily solids – all apparently paid for by Amazon and the Rhode Island trucking company, which were deemed responsible for the spill in September.

The incident prompted Bedrosian and the DYC to focus on the environmental situation around the club, including Savin Hill and Malibu beaches and the buildup of sand under the Beades drawbridge, which they say prevents proper tidal “flushing.”

The club hired an environmental attorney, Jamy Buchanan Madeja, to champion the cause of getting attention and funding toward the highway spills, the contamination on the floor of the bay, and the dredging issue under the Beades bridge.
 
As part of her appeal to the civic group this month, Buchanan Madeja said: “The DYC is looking to improve the water quality of all of Dorchester Bay, which is no small challenge. The more people that support it, the better.”

She noted that there are 27 outflow pipes and culverts from the expressway with “no technology, no pollution protection, and not even fuel oil separators” to prevent spills and highway grime from flowing directly into the basin.

She also claims that testing on the floor of the basin done two years ago, and earlier in the 1980s, showed high levels of mercury, PCBs, and other toxic substances. There was a slow increase, she said, in levels between the testing in the 1980s and that done two years ago.

Some attendees expressed concern with the presentation on water quality. “We just had a lot of people charge into that water on Jan. 1 for the Polar Plunge,” noted Columbia-Savin Hill president Bill Walczak. “Maybe we shouldn’t have.”

Another resident, noting that she kayaks in the bay frequently, said, “It could be toxic to me.”

Buchanan Madeja warned: “You should all be very careful.”

One short-term solution advanced by DYC and others would be to dredge five openings under the Beades bridge, an area filled with sand and sediment. Bedrosian said they have tested the sand accumulation, and it isn’t contaminated; in fact, he said, it is sand that once covered Savin Hill Beach. 

Neighbors at the civic meeting agreed that an “easy” dredging operation would be a sensible first step to allow the tides to flush out the bay twice a day. Right now, one person said, it has become “a stagnant swamp” because the tides are blocked.
“What’s happening is that it has gone on so long that at least half or three-quarters of the channel is covered up,” said Bedrosian, “and that presents navigation problems for the boats because it whips them into the side of the bridge. It’s dangerous and a hazard to navigation. [The sand] can simply be dredged and put back on the beach.” 

The John J. Beades Bridge, above, carries Morrissey Boulevard over Dorchester Bay and allows for maritime craft to enter and exit the basin in Savin Hill. Built in 1928, the bridge was intended to last for 50 years. It was renovated in 2001 at a cost of $9.1 million. The state’s Department of Transportation said last year that a full replacement could cost $122 million. It has contracted with a Canadian engineering firm, WSP, to evaluate and design a replacement. The agency has told the Reporter that it intends to coordinate any work with the ongoing planning efforts for Morrissey Boulevard. Bill Forry photo

The longer-term request – dredging the floor of the entire bay and fixing runoff from the highway, for two things – will take longer and require more advocacy, the club concedes. Those interested in helping are encouraged to take photos or write testimonies of observed contamination and other such problems and email them to community@dorchesteryachtclub.com. 

That information will be gathered and used as part of Buchanan Madeja’s advocacy to state leaders and the Legislature’s Boating Access Caucus.