CRWA in the News

After Earth Day, Boston still feeling green

By Renee Nadeau

Boston Herald, Sunday, April 26, 2009

Though the holiday has passed, Earth Day celebrations continue with a weekend of pampering for Mother Nature.

The beloved dirty water of the Charles River has been receiving some much-needed TLC for years, and the effort continued yesterday. As more than 3,000 volunteers picked up trash along the Charles from Milford to Boston, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that the river has received a B-plus grade for water quality during 2008 - meeting boating standards 90 percent of the time and swimming standards 48 percent of the time.

“Lots of people in Boston spend time on the river, especially on days like today,” said Rebecca Scibek Wickham of the Charles River Watershed Association. “It’s nice to be able to give something back.”

As part of the Boston Shines initiative, volunteers including union carpenters helped repair benches, plant flowers, and clean and resod the grounds of Boston Common.