Following a series of sewage leaks in riverside communities, including one next to the Weld boathouse in September, two Harvard rowers contracted potentially-fatal blood poisoning after dirty river water contacted open blisters on their hands.

But despite the two infections and the river's heavy use by students, the Harvard community has had little to say about the river's problems.

Earlier in the year, coaches who run practices on the river said they treated the problem with "prudent awareness," but were not altering their practice schedule.

"It causes us some concern, but it hasn't actually affected our operations in any way," said Harry L. Parker, the men's heavyweight crew coach.

Addressing the Problems

While crew teams continue to make use of the river, local officials argue over priorities for the clean-up. Many, like Moraff, complain the MWRA has not fully addressed the Charles' CSO problem.

But as the marginal cost of CSO removal increases, organizations such as the MWRA, are searching for alternative ways to clean the river.

Although CSOs are a significant factor in the water quality problems, storm water runoff is also a major issue.

During any rainstorm, pollutants in city streets are washed into the river.

However CSO output only occurs in extremely wet storms and is a mixture of raw sewage and rainwater that seeps into overflowing sewage systems. It is a concrete problem which can be easily solved if money is provided to update disposal systems.

Solving the problem of storm water runoff, however, is not so simple.

Since runoff does not originate from any given place, it is difficult to eliminate.

Treating runoff is feasible by controlling pollutants including fertilizer, dog droppings, antifreeze and oil from cars.

But such a project requires the cooperation of an entire community or legislation preventing use of many products. Thus, curbing runoff is often a difficult task.

Unfortunately, most believe that runoff--and not CSO output--is the Charles River's primary problem.