Water Authority Board Tables Vote on Proposal to Dump Sewage in Charles River Forever (Press Release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 13, 2025
Contact: Stefan Geller, Senior Communications Manager

BOSTON, MA – Following a wave of public outrage over the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s (MWRA) recently-proposed plan to allow for sewage to continue to be dumped into the Charles River forever, the MWRA Board of Directors has tabled a scheduled vote on the proposal at its November 19 meeting.

“The public has responded loud and clear. No amount of sewage is acceptable to be dumped in our beloved Charles River,” said CRWA Executive Director Emily Norton. “We are glad to hear that MWRA is finally listening to public input and postponing a decision on this terrible proposal.”

During a meeting with its Board of Directors on Oct. 29, MWRA officials presented multiple options for addressing combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in the Charles, and recommended adopting the option that would increase sewage overflows by the largest amount.

CSOs are a key source of pathogen contamination to the Charles and are becoming more frequent as our climate changes. In these outdated sewer systems, stormwater and household/industrial wastewater are collected in the same pipes to be conveyed to a wastewater treatment plant, but during heavy rainstorms, the combined system cannot handle the excess polluted water and releases it into the river.

MWRA and the city of Cambridge are legally required to carry out an extensive CSO planning effort to address 9 of the 10 remaining CSO outfalls on the Charles, and must submit a preferred project option by the end of 2025. The national precedent for these plans, known as Long Term Control Plans, is to reduce the amount of sewage being discharged into a waterbody. MWRA proposing an increase was an unexpected outcome.  

MWRA’s proposal recommended the state downgrade the legal classification of the Charles River. Massachusetts water quality standards currently classify the mainstem of the Charles as a “Class B” water body, which does not allow any CSOs. MWRA recommended a downgrade to a classification known as “Class B(CSO)” allowing it to dump sewage into the river forever.

MWRA is only allowed to dump sewage into the river today because of a variance it has received from MassDEP and U.S. EPA, which is intended to be a time-limited, interim measure while MWRA makes progress toward CSO elimination. 

In April, CRWA launched its Cut The Crap campaign to create public awareness around CSOs and generate pressure on the MWRA and the City of Cambridge to stop sewage from polluting the Charles. Since then, nearly 8000 people have signed petitions or sent emails to the MWRA, urging them to “cut the crap” being dumped into the Charles River.