{"id":16707,"date":"2026-04-16T15:15:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/mwra\/?p=16707"},"modified":"2026-04-16T14:18:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:18:44","slug":"press-release-1b-in-mandated-cso-spending-new-advisory-board-cso-dashboard-shows-what-it-means-for-each-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/press-release-1b-in-mandated-cso-spending-new-advisory-board-cso-dashboard-shows-what-it-means-for-each-community\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE – $1B+ in Mandated CSO Spending: New Advisory Board CSO Dashboard Shows What It Means for Each Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advisory Board releases first community-level CSO cost analysis ahead of MWRA plan filing<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

CHELSEA, MA\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u2014 The MWRA Advisory Board today unveiled a new CSO Dashboard, an interactive tool that, for the first time, shows the full long-term cost of proposed combined sewer overflow (CSO) investments at the community level through 2072.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the MWRA prepares to file its Draft Updated CSO Control Plan by the April 30 deadline, the dashboard translates systemwide cost projections into community-specific financial obligations, reflecting how costs are\u00a0actually assessed\u00a0to the communities that fund the MWRA\u2019s sewer system.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Public discussion has focused on systemwide costs or average household estimates\u2014but not how those costs are\u00a0actually distributed\u00a0across communities. The Advisory Board\u2019s analysis closes that gap by extending beyond the MWRA\u2019s standard projection window, which ends in 2050, to reflect the full lifecycle of debt service through 2072.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once adopted and incorporated into the Long-Term Control Plan, these investments become mandatory, non-negotiable spending that must be funded by ratepayers across the region\u2014multi-decade financial commitments that will shape community budgets for decades to come.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In larger communities like Quincy, total costs can reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars over time, while even smaller communities like Winthrop face obligations in the tens of millions\u2014extending decades beyond 2050.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The dashboard highlights the scale of these decisions. Under the MWRA\u2019s recommended approach – referred to by the Advisory Board as the “Future Storm Protection Plan” – total community costs extend into the billions of dollars over time. A more expansive approach – referred to as the “Extreme Storm Protection Plan” – would increase those costs by several billion dollars systemwide, with impacts distributed across all member communities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All scenarios in the CSO Dashboard are based on forward-looking 2050 climate projections, accounting for increased storm intensity rather than relying on historical rainfall patterns.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These decisions come as the MWRA faces major upcoming reinvestment needs in core infrastructure, including the long-term rehabilitation of the Deer Island Treatment Plant, while member communities continue to manage their own local wastewater and stormwater obligations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about whether to invest\u2014it\u2019s about making sure those decisions are made with a full understanding of the costs, benefits, and tradeoffs,\u201d said Matthew A. Romero, Executive Director of the MWRA Advisory Board. \u201cThere is no MWRA money\u2014only ratepayer money. These are real dollars for real ratepayers and families. Our job is to make sure communities understand the full costs, benefits, and tradeoffs\u2014and how those decisions translate into long-term financial commitments and on-the-ground impacts for the people they represent.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Advisory Board emphasized that the next phase of CSO investment differs fundamentally from earlier efforts, following decades of work that have significantly reduced and treated CSO discharges and improved water quality across the region.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, remaining CSO events are\u00a0largely associated\u00a0with infrequent, high-intensity storms, and further reductions require increasingly complex and costly infrastructure.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already done a lot of the hard work cleaning up our rivers,\u201d said Andrew\u00a0Pappastergion, Vice\u00a0Chair\u00a0and longest-serving member of the MWRA Board of Directors,\u00a0representing\u00a0the MWRA Advisory Board. \u201cWhat\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0looking at now is spending a lot more money for smaller gains. At some point, you\u00a0have to\u00a0ask whether\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0the right balance\u2014or if\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0chasing a victory on paper.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The CSO Dashboard is intended to provide policymakers, municipal officials, and the public with a clearer understanding of those tradeoffs, grounded in how costs are\u00a0actually experienced\u00a0at the community level.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By reframing the conversation around long-term\u00a0financial impact, the Advisory Board aims to equip decision-makers with the information needed to evaluate proposed investments not only as environmental initiatives, but as binding financial commitments that will shape community budgets and ratepayer costs for decades to come.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\ud83d\udcc8 View the CSO Dashboard here<\/a>\n

 <\/p>\n\ud83d\udcc4 View CSO Dashboard methodology memo here <\/a>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Advisory Board releases first community-level CSO cost analysis ahead of MWRA plan filing\u00a0   CHELSEA, MA\u00a0\u2014 The MWRA Advisory Board today unveiled a new CSO Dashboard, an interactive tool that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","category-press-release","has-not-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcdev3.com\/mwra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}