For Immediate Release
May 2, 2006
Please Contact: Michael Bloom, 617-722-1650

Barrios Honored for Work to Protect Mystic River

Senator Jarrett T. Barrios was honored Friday April 28 as a “Mystic River Mover and Shaker” by the Mystic Watershed Collaborative for his leadership in working for cleaner water and more access to the Mystic River watershed.  Senator Barrios has worked with communities along the river to protect citizen water quality monitoring and to create a bike/pedestrian crossing on the Amelia Earhart Dam to connect Somerville and Everett. 

“Senator Barrios has been a tireless advocate for important watershed goals,” said Nancy Hammett, Executive Director of the Mystic River Watershed Association, in presenting the award.   “From his sponsorship of Environmental Justice legislation, to help in advocating for pedestrian path connections in the Lower Watershed, to pressing for information on dam safety, he has been an important voice in the legislature for watershed concerns.”

The Mystic River Watershed has an area of approximately 76 square miles, encompassing 21 communities north and west of Boston, Massachusetts. Home to about 8% of the state's population (more than half a million people) in less than 1% of its land area, the Mystic is one of the most densely populated and urban watersheds in Massachusetts. Ten of the twenty Massachusetts communities "most intensively overburdened" by cumulative environmental hazards lie within this watershed, according to environmental justice research.

“Residents in the dense urban communities of the lower Mystic River deserve cleaner water and more access to the waterfront,” said Senator Barrios.  “I am honored to be recognized by the Mystic Watershed Collaborative and proud to work side by side with them to protect the watershed and improve access for residents throughout my district.

The Mystic Watershed Collaborative is a partnership of Tufts University, the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), and other community groups, including the City of Everett and the Friends of Mystic River.  MyRWA is a community organization whose mission is to protect and restore clean water and related natural resources in the basin's communities and to promote responsible stewardship of our natural resources through educational initiatives. The overarching goal of the Collaborative partners is to make the Mystic River fishable and swimmable by 2010.  For more information about the watershed and MyRWA, visit: http://www.mysticriver.org/.