Arlington Select Board Unanimously Backs Stronger Sewage Controls Ahead of MWRA Vote

ARLINGTON -- November 10, 2025, Arlington Select Board votes to pressure MWRA on sewage controls and sets FY26 tax rate at $10.67. The board voted unanimously Monday to authorize Chair Diane Mahon to send a letter to the MWRA board urging a higher level of combined sewer overflow control for Alewife Brook before the authority's regulatory submission deadline this Thursday. Patrick Herron, executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association, told the board the MWRA's draft plan would allow as much as four times the current volume of raw sewage into Alewife Brook by 2050 and fails to close a single outfall. Rosemary Anderson of Save the Alewife Brook said the MWRA inflated cost estimates for sewer separation to as high as $2 million per acre, four times a figure the authority's own staff cited in writing just a year ago. The board also tabled a letter of support for the watershed association's planned federal court intervention until at least December 8, set the fiscal year 2026 property tax rate at $10.67 per thousand with no commercial shift, and approved three unanimous votes on right-of-way documents for the Stratton Safe Routes to School project, reducing just-compensation costs from $677,100 to $457,800 after a negotiated cut in temporary easement duration from five years to three.