Assabet River NWR Final CCP - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

- 22 -
Chapter 3: Refuge and Resource Descriptions
the state have been generally decreasing toward better quality since 1988.
Massachusetts has made significant progress in attaining the CO standard
by implementing air pollution control programs. The last violation of the
CO NAAQS occurred in Boston in 1986. The Boston metropolitan area was
redesignated to attainment of the CO federal air quality standard by the
USEPA in 1996. Lowell, Springfield, Waltham, and Worcester remain in
non-attainment of the CO standard. MADEP is currently preparing a
request to the USEPA to redesignate these areas to attainment for CO
because monitoring data has been below the standard for many years. The
redesignation request, which includes technical support and a maintenance
plan, will be subject to public review and comment prior to being submitted
to the USEPA.
In recent years there has been concern regarding the aerial deposition of
mercury from atmospheric sources outside the northeast region (see for
example Sweet and Prestbo 1999). Researchers have speculated that this
may be the source of mercury levels found in some species and age-classes
of fish in New England above the 1 part per million standard established by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) (see discussion in the
water quality section below).
The annual average concentration of lead in the air decreased substantially
since 1985 from more than 300 ug/m 3 to less than 0.05 ug/m 3 (the annual
average NAAQS for lead is 1.5 ug/m 3 ). Massachusetts is well below the
standard. This result is attributed to the use of unleaded gasoline in motor
vehicles, which are the primary source of airborne lead emissions (MADEP
2000). While air quality concentrations of lead have dramatically decreased,
there may still be concern regarding residual lead levels in soils along
heavily traveled roadways deposited prior to the change to unleaded
gasoline usage.
Water Quality
The waters of the Assabet River have been designated as Class B, warm
water fisheries by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Class B waters
are defined as being suitable for “protection and propagation of fish, other
aquatic life, for wildlife, and for primary and secondary contact recreation”
(MADEP 1998). All sections of the Assabet River are included in the
MADEP 303(d) list of waters as failing to meet the Class B standards,
primarily due to elevated levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, and low
dissolved oxygen concentrations (OAR 2000). The source of nutrient input
is thought to be associated with discharges from seven municipal
wastewater treatment facilities, storm water runoff from lawns and
agricultural lands and releases from nutrients previously settled in the
sediments of the river bottom (OAR 2000). Environmental consulting firms
working for the Army have conducted four studies of contaminants in
surface water, sediment and fish of Puffer Pond since the mid-1980s.
Assabet River NWR