Water Authority Considers Removing Charles River’s Safe-to-Swim Status To Allow Sewer Overflows— The Harvard Crimson

On October 29, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) revealed its long-awaited plan for addressing combined sewage overflows (CSOs) in the Charles: do next to nothing!

MWRA staff told their Board of Directors that the best path forward is to implement a smaller project that they admitted will mean dumping more sewage in the Charles River indefinitely. They even suggested downgrading the Charles from its EPA rating from Class B to Class D, allowing CSOs to continue while complying with the Clean Water Act. As CRWA’s Executive Director, Emily Norton, is quoted in this new Harvard Crimson article, “That’s not what the public wants. This would be going backwards. It would be a downgrading of the Charles, and it would be goodbye forever to the dream of a swimmable Charles." Visit cutthecrapcharles.org to sign our petition and tell officials you want to eliminate CSOs.