Representatives from the region’s water authority proposed permanently fencing off 2.3 acres of parkland at Magazine Beach at a Monday meeting, saying it was needed for infrastructure to prevent waste overflows into public waterways. There was outrage from attendees for a plan state representative Mike Connolly called “dead on arrival.”
“There is absolutely no way the future use of a large part of Cambridge’s second-largest park will be sacrificed for water-storage and pumping facilities,” Connolly wrote Tuesday on his State House blog. The park is protected by the state constitution, and conversion to another use would require a two-thirds vote from both branches of the state Legislature. “This so-called option, were it ever allowed to proceed as presented,” Connolly said, “is dead on arrival.”
He called it “ludicrous” that the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority would say putting a tank under Magazine Beach meant fencing off the area above it for security reasons, but that this was proposed to the nonprofit Magazine Beach Partners and Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association members at a meeting at the Morse School with city and authority staff.
Language from the city of Cambridge was more measured Thursday, but reflected discomfort with the proposal. “We are intending to formally respond to the MWRA regarding this matter,” said Jeremy Warnick, a spokesperson for the city. He said Cambridge leaders believe “it is critical to balance the design of any improvements with the fundamental need to maintain Magazine Beach as an amazing high-quality open space that is used and loved by many in our community.”
Requests for comment were also emailed early Thursday to the authority, where a spokesperson said staff who could respond were away for much of the day; the neighborhood association; and councillor Cathie Zusy, who led Magazine Beach improvement work before joining the council in 2024. Zusy agreed that the MWRA proposal was off the mark. “If this must happen, it must be designed in such a way that it is less detrimental to the park,” Zusy said. “We’ve wanted to be supportive because we understand the need for cleaner water, but not at the expense of Cambridge’s second-largest park.”
A neighborhood association board member, Steven Miller, said it was fortunate that what MWRA presented was still “only a proposal and not yet an adopted plan” but worried there was only a short time left, until Oct. 30, for better alternatives to be brought forward.
“To the shock of the Cambridgeport residents at the meeting, it was clear that no meaningful and less destructive alternatives had been examined,” Miller said in an email sent to association members.
The 17-acre park was badly run down when Zusy began work securing funding and support for a $10 million-plus, 16-year restoration project that led to a grand reopening in 2020. The work has continued, including a $2.2 million public-private investment phase – Covid-relief funds that Zusy helped secure – that began in September 2025.
Where water storage tanks have been installed or proposed in Cambridge and Somerville by the cities’ governments, what’s overhead has always stayed usable, including a contested sewer overflow tank at 135 Sherman St. in Cambridge that would be a Public Works facility at ground level, or a stormwater tank at 10 Poplar St. in Somerville that would be the ArtFarm park.
The current draft proposal at Magazine Beach removing essentially the park’s entire sports area would take about eight years to complete and require closing off at least an additional 6 acres of the park for staging supplies and equipment, Miller said. The football-sized, 75-foot-deep holding tank would reach close to the surface, with an “enormous collection of pipes extending further out,” requiring constant mining and truck traffic on Memorial Drive, and the costs would drive up water and sewer rates every year, reaching 171 percent of their current level by 2050, he explained.
Cambridge, Somerville and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority have been working for four years on a $1.3 billion plan to reduce combined sewer overflows, the term for releasing waste into public waterways when sewer and water systems get overwhelmed. The plan has drawn resistance for its failure to fully prevent the CSOs or to keep up with their worsening as climate changes grow more severe in the coming decades – but to go up to higher level of control increases costs to around $4.7 billion, deputy city manager Kathy Watkins said.
Supporting the principle
During a council meeting Monday, Zusy spoke of the seriousness of the problem and how it drew support from the group Magazine Beach Partners, which she once led, for the 10-million-gallon tank going under the soccer field at Magazine Beach. “We hope it will be as least disruptive as possible,” Zusy said. “Maybe people will still be able to play soccer on that soccer field.”
“This is going to be a huge, disruptive project that will go on for many years with lots of dirt leaving Magazine Beach and going I don’t know where. But again, we’re supporting this because we must respond to climate challenges of the future,” Zusy said.
The MWRA plans were known to Zusy since February, she said, and she’d pushed for Monday’s meeting since the spring and was frustrated that it was scheduled for when she would be in council.
She and others were told the proposal was negotiable, though, and they could lobby for the 2.3-acre site not to be fenced off – an element that was missing from the Monday meeting, Connolly said, and he wondered if the outrageousness of the plan that was presented while Zusy was away was purposeful.
“It reads like the MWRA maybe didn’t appreciate being pushed to do better with the CSO plan, so they floated the idea of destroying Magazine Beach,” said Connolly, whose district covers eastern parts of Cambridge and Somerville.
“A proposal this obscene”
Connolly said he told authority staff at the meeting that what they were showing was not an option. “The MWRA has made little effort to address the obvious question: If a tank were built here, why not restore usable parkland above it?” Connolly said. “We will never abide the loss of Magazine Beach.”
On Wednesday, Cambridge officials said they didn’t realize the MWRA was proposing a permanent removal of public parkland, which is inconsistent with other tanks, Connolly said, though “it’s also been noted that what was presented wasn’t an actual design, and that the MWRA’s stated construction impacts may have been exaggerated.”
A communication was sent by Connolly to Rebecca Tepper, who oversees the state Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and chairs the MWRA, seeking “accountability at the MWRA for the manipulative and irresponsible proposal,” Connolly said. Tepper responded early Thursday and agreed to meet, Connolly said.
“A proposal this obscene really harms people’s trust in government. I am furious and disappointed,” Connolly said.
Zusy spoke Thursday from the perspective of the person who pushed to bring Magazine Beach back, then pushed for months to ensure a meeting affecting the site took place. “What was presented to us was different from the presentation Monday,” Zusy said.
This post was updated Oct. 8, 2026, to add a response from Rebecca Tepper to state representative Mike Connolly’s request to meet, and to add context from city councillor Cathie Zusy throughout.
