Charles aims for a clean 'A'

By Jon Brodkin
MetroWest Daily News Staff

Environmentalists are hoping a new product that recycles water from downspouts will make the Charles River thoroughly fit for fishing and swimming by 2005.

Once little more than an industrial drainpipe, the Charles yesterday received a "B" on its federal report card for the third straight year, meaning fishers and swimmers can use it safely in dry weather.

But river advocates are determined to make the Charles safe during and after rainstorms as well, which would earn it an "A" rating from the Environmental Protection Agency.

"It was very exciting through 1999 (when our grade was improving each year)," said Bob Zimmerman, executive director of the Charles River Watershed Association. "Now we're plateaued and having to face the real difficult issues."

The Watershed Association will soon begin producing a product that it hopes will cut down on river pollution and save money for towns and homeowners.

A homeowner would place two partially buried, 400-gallon storage tanks underneath roof drains to collect water before it hits pavement and picks up oil and other contaminants. The water would then go into the ground, or be stored for the homeowner's use.

Homeowners would save money, Zimmerman said, by watering lawns without paying their towns for water. And if towns supplied the technology to most or all of their residents, they could avoid much costlier environmental projects, he said.

Also, by increasing groundwater supplies, water flow into the Charles will improve, especially during the summer, he said. His plan is to make towns and cities "behave like urban forests."

Thirty or 40 Bellingham homeowners will next month begin using the product, called SmartStorm, in a pilot test. The system will cost about $2,000 for each home and could be ready for commercial production in a year or so. The participants and the source of funding for the test project have not yet been determined.

Bellingham Public Works Director Donald DiMartino said the plan "sounds tremendous to us."

If it works well, the town would think about paying for many homes in town to use the system, he said.

One of the major benefits would be reducing the amount of water people need from the town's supply, he said. The impact would be huge if even half of the townspeople were using the system to water their lawns during peak usage times, he believes.

"That's a benefit I can't even put a price tag on," DiMartino said.

Towns including Bellingham, Natick, Framingham, Milford, Ashland, Hopkinton, Holliston, Medfield and Millis are paying millions for environmental projects such as separating combined sewers, Zimmerman said. Combined sewer overflow, a common plague on rivers in Massachusetts, happens when rainwater and wastewater flow into the rivers during heavy rains.

But if SmartStorm succeeds, towns could end up paying half or less of what they expect to now, Zimmerman said. He hopes to convince local Public Works departments and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority of the project's economic and environmental benefits.

"We believe they could save quite a bit of money by helping to subsidize SmartStorm," he said.

Natick began fixing the combined sewers in 1993, but is still a long way from finishing, Zimmerman said.

Natick DPW Director Charlie Sisitsky said he's interested in SmartStorm's potential for conserving water. He said he isn't sure about its possible benefits to the Charles River because he hasn't seen the plans.

The river was given a "D" rating by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1995, but has earned steady B's since 2000. The river was clean enough for boating 82 percent of last year, up from 39 percent in 1995, according to an EPA press release. It met swimming standards 54 percent of the time, up from 19 percent in 1995.

"We've been highly successful closing off the pipes and eliminating illegal connections that were responsible for much of the river's pollution," Robert Varney, EPA's regional administrator, said in the press release. "Now it is time to focus our attention to the challenge of getting every homeowner, every car owner and every small business owner to play an individual role in reducing the flow of contaminants into the river."

Until the Clean Water Act was passed in the early 1970s, companies were dumping dyes and other waste into the river, which was reflected in its changing colors, Zimmerman said.

"There's been tremendous progress made to end that kind of dumping," he said. "Now we're going toward more insidious stuff."

Anyone who drives a car contributes to the pollution, as rainwater picks up oil on pavement and seeps into drains. The result is the Charles is too polluted for swimming or fishing for days after rainfall. Oil, grease and even animal excrement on people's front lawns can get into the water.

"We have to reduce the amount of water running off surfaces," Zimmerman said. Catching the water as it comes off a roof is key, because at that point it is close to being drinkable, he said.

Zimmerman is skeptical about public works' directors endorsing the project, as he said they tend to rely on older technologies.

But the threat of droughts should convince towns that it's important to conserve water, said Bill Walsh-Rogolski, who is leading the Charles River cleanup for EPA.

"People are going to become more and more willing to use rainwater to water their gardens," he said. "It's prime time to understand the value of recycling water."