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For weeks now, New Bedford residents have trudged over, slid on, scraped by, and maneuvered cars around heaving mounds of ash-colored snow. The piles, studded with discarded nips and other debris, bank every street corner and roadside, a dismal reminder that spring is not just yet around the corner.
But although the snow may be ugly and dirty, the longer it sits the more it helps New Bedford.
Snow plays an important role in replenishing groundwater for the spring and summer months ahead. By melting slowly and giving water time to filter into the soil, big snowpiles improve the region’s water quality and help stave off drought more than heavy rainfall events.
Mark Rasmussen is the executive director of the Buzzards Bay Coalition, an environmental nonprofit which among other things monitors the health of New Bedford’s watershed. Every time it rains, he explained, water carries pollutants from our streets into our river and bay. It’s no less dirty than snow, but residents don’t have to deal with the reminder.
“In some ways, the snow is actually capturing [pollutants], to the extent that snow is stockpiled and allowed to melt on land, which is the preferred policy that most cities and towns follow, and that is better than rain runoff,” Rasmussen said. “Because the pollutants, the sand and the salt that are stuck to the snow, end up being filtered through land.”
That filtration process means that heavy metals, oil and gasoline, and other contaminants commonly found in runoff don’t end up in New Bedford Harbor — and the water itself can move through the ground, too.
Southeastern Massachusetts has been under mild to significant drought for the past several years, even prompting some farms to close their apple-picking orchards. Normally, a “warm drizzle” would be the ideal way to replenish groundwater and soil moisture, Rasmussen said, but shifts in climate have increasingly brought hard, heavy rainfall that runs off the dry ground rather than soaking in.
To make matters worse, New England has had fewer icy, snow-heavy winters — until now. And the longer that snow sits, the better it is for water levels, Rasmussen said.
“For a lot of periods this winter the snow hasn’t completely gone away very quickly,” Rasmussen said. “And when that happens, it’s slowly seeping into the ground, replenishing aquifers and wetlands and soil, and this is all great for the watershed.”
But in some locales, the snow is simply too much. City officials in Fall River dumped snow directly into the Taunton River. Boston and Martha’s Vineyard both employed snowmelters to cull the excess piles. The dumptruck-size machines work like an oversized hot tub melting ice in heated water.
New Bedford does not own a snowmelter nor did the city request one from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency like the Vineyard did. Instead, the city opted to stockpile the snow at the former Aerovox facility and former Cannon Street Power Station and let nature take its course.
In an email, New Bedford Department of Public Infrastructure Superintendent Jamie Ponte estimated that there were approximately 70,000 cubic yards of snow at Aerovox and about 15,000 cubic yards at Cannon Street Power Station as of Wednesday morning. That’s over 1,000 truckloads — although that number is expected to decrease as temperatures reach the mid-50s later this week.
As far as Fall River’s approach, the days of dumping contaminants directly into the newly remediated New Bedford Harbor seem to be over.
“We are not aware of any requests or attempts to dispose of snow in the harbor,” Ponte said.
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
The snow piles are doing new Bedford good! Don’t you see now! New Bedford is doing its people a favor by not cleaning up the streets! They are “Passable” according to our illustrious mayor. What a freaking joke!
This is just media gaslighting us into forgetting the abysmal performance of the Mitchell Administrations handling of the snow. Clearing out the Zoo before the sidewalks were passable was an abject failure in judgement. Keeping seniors and the disabled blocked in their homes and unable to shop or travel to medical appointments is a shame. Having workers call in sick or pay exorbitantly for Ubers because their cars are inaccessible for such an extended period is a shame (yes, some New Bedfordites have jobs!).
Meanwhile here is the New Bedford Light, stepping up to the plate to make an Enviro-excuse story that justifies the crappy service we have received for our ridiculously high property taxes.
A mayor with a brain or a care would have had all the junkies surrounding city hall with shovels in their hands and organized a registered shoveler program. I hate to say it but: Mamdani actually beat Mitchell in this respect.
Do better. Stop making excuses.
Only the Light would try and put a positive spin on this. Growing up in New Bedford all my life we had plenty of major snow storms, and even though this was a bigger storm, we never struggled like this with snow clean up. All our City Leaders (the mayor, the city council) they are all failing us, in the past decade they have doubled our city budget, continue to spend more, continue to expand city government, and the only thing residents can count on is that every year our taxes will go up. 100% New Bedford needs new leadership.
That’s the TRUTH!
It’s wrong to suggest that snow piles on street corners and other impervious surfaces will contribute to long-term ecological benefit. These merely trickle into our municipal stormwater system, overburdening it. The many combined sewer discharges this week show reflect this (along with recent relatively minor rainfall). We still have multiple sightline hazards all over the city at this point, with insufficient clearance for safe turning, and uncleared bus lanes even on major routes. It’s ridiculous, & it’s fundamentally unsafe. To shine an “upside” on this problem by wrongly claiming ecological benefit is misleading. It also invites the tired dichotomy of old-school vs wing-nut worldview – shouldn’t we be done with that already? We are all in the same boat here.
Yes, slow trickle from piles on agricultural fields, gardens & yards has long-term benefit, but clearly what’s in our streets right now is unsafe for people – especially for our most vulnerable neighbors.
It is equally ridiculous to lay this exclusively at the feet of the mayor. The city council bears responsibility for having slashed the snow removal budget by nearly 50% during their heroic “cut night”, if I remember correctly. Way to go! Didn’t I read about that in the Light? We needed more crew under contract, with plows mounted & ready to deploy. This storm was prolonged, heavy, & destructive. Overall the crews worked hard & kept at it. Obviously we needed much more deployment for this one.
Just remove the street piles already! And no more city council “heroics.” People are getting hurt out there.
Omg I can’t believe the NBL published that title and article. No, massive piles of snow on the street corners and sidewalks are NOT OK. They’re literally an ADA violation.
They’re blocking access for disabled people.
Instead of praising the city the NBL should be investigating who is responsible for this failure by the City of New Bedford.