MyRWA was founded thirty years ago with a mission to restore clean water in the Mystic River watershed, protect water and related natural resources, and establish relevant public information and education programs. For the majority of its history, MyRWA functioned as a volunteer-run organization, mobilizing activists on a project-by-project basis. Between 1999-2000, MyRWA merged with the Mystic River Watershed Coalition, a coalition of groups that had been created to address the needs of the many small, more localized citizens' groups active throughout the watershed. As part of this merger, MyRWA expanded its membership format to include organizational members. Designees from member organizations are eligible to hold a seat on the MyRWA Board of Directors. The result of the merger is a stronger organization that can better represent and advocate on behalf of community needs.

Some organizational achievements:

• We have engaged thousands of local residents in traditional watershed association activities such as clean-ups, canoe trips, walks and lectures during the past thirty years. 1972- ongoing.
  
• MyRWA participated in a comprehensive joint research study of urban runoff with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Upper Mystic Lake Watershed Urban Runoff Project. We urged for the cleanup of hazardous waste in Woburn and advocated for the protection of wetlands near the Alewife MBTA station. We also successfully brought attention to and oversaw the State's removal of a huge natural deposit of hydrogen sulfide in Lower Mystic Lake in the center of the watershed. 1980s.
  
• We published An Alewife Area Ecology Guide, a guide to the natural history and publicly accessible open space in the Alewife Brook subwatershed, linking the cities of Arlington, Belmont, and Cambridge. 1994
  
• We created and are continuing to expand an annual springtime "Super Clean-Up" throughout the watershed, involving dozens of sponsoring groups and hundreds of volunteers. 1999-ongoing.
  
• Along with Tufts University, we announced the creation of the Mystic Watershed Collaborative to link faculty and student research, class projects and other “service based learning” activities with the real-world challenges and priorities of the Mystic watershed. Together, the two organizations publicly stated a goal of a "fishable and swimmable" Mystic River watershed by 2010. 2000.
  
• We developed a summer internship program with Tufts faculty members that places upper division undergraduate and graduate student interns with organizations and municipalities working on watershed-related issues. The third annual "River Institute" is expected to include 12-14 interns during the summer of 2002. 2000-ongoing.
  
• We were twice designated a partner under the National Park Service Rivers and Trails program. Our projects under this program focus on expanding greenway connections and improving watershed awareness. 2000 and 2001.
  
• We were awarded an EPA Urban Environmental Initiative grant to study and create guidelines for protecting open space in the Mystic River watershed. 2000-ongoing.
  
• We produced two large-scale ground murals depicting the watershed's major tributaries and public open space. Locations include the MDC parking lot between the Mystic Lakes in Medford, and Dever Park in Chelsea. 2001.
  
• With strong support from local residents, we completed the first shoreline survey of the Aberjona River in the upper part of the Mystic River watershed. 2001.
  
• We have continued Mystic Monitoring Network sampling throughout the year at ten locations throughout the watershed. 2000 - present.
  
• We designed and implemented a hot-spot sampling protocol to trace bacterial contamination in the Alewife subwatershed, a major source of pollution into the Mystic system. 2001.
  
• The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management awarded MyRWA a grant to create two watershed ground maps and a Blueways and Greenways brochure, highlighting trail and canoe access. 2001.
  
• With the City of Somerville and Tufts University, we were awarded an EPA EMPACT grant to implement real-time water quality monitoring at strategic public-use locations, develop a predictive model of bacterial contamination, and make this information readily available to the public via a website and on-site flagging. 2002.
  
• We published Mystic Monitoring Network Yearly Review: Baseline Water Quality Data for the Watershed (July 2000 – February 2002), written by Libby Larson. The report includes monitoring results and analyses for bacteria, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen parameters. 2002
  
• MyRWA has provided comments on a number of planned projects and permits with the goal of preserving water quality and protecting open space. These comments often rely on our monitoring results. Ongoing.

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