"This is the kind of action that a city can take to make a difference in pollution that runs into the Charles," she said.
The EPA is aiming to make the Charles clean enough to swim in by 2005.
"Each cup of grease, motor oil or fertilizer we can keep out of the river brings us closer to our goal," said the EPA's New England administrator John P. DeVillars in the release.
Mhesh Kapoor, the manager of Tanjore Regional Indian Cooking on 18 Eliot St., said he did not know who was responsible for the pollution in the Eliot Street storm drain.
He said the owner of the building which houses Tanjore recently asked tenants not to dump waste in the drain in the alley next to the building. To limit waste, the owner also installed metal grates on the alley's drainage holes.