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After a storm in Boston, a decades-old sewage system discharges untreated wastewater into the Charles River, making it unsafe for swimmers and boaters for 48 hours. For the four days following the storm, even just being around the sewage-tainted water can cause gastrointestinal issues.
But to the dismay of advocates and residents, the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority proposed a plan at a Wednesday meeting that would allow for the continuation of the sewage system by declassifying the Charles River as safe-to-swim.
The Combined Sewage Overflow system discharges wastewater into several waterways throughout the Boston-area, including Alewife Brook, Mystic River and The Charles River after moderate to severe precipitation. For decades, the CSOs in Alewife have caused flooding of residents' homes.
Throughout the last few decades, the MWRA has removed nearly 90 percent of the CSOs in Massachusetts, however several variances have allowed for their continued existence in Cambridge, Somerville and Allston.
The Wednesday meeting included presentations of development and financial data collected by AECOM, an outside consultancy group employed by the MWRA board to assess the future of CSOs in the Charles River.
According to Brian Cabosco, the chief engineer at AECOM, the remaining CSOs are increasingly difficult and expensive to eliminate.
“Low-hanging fruit is gone,” Cabosco said.
As a result of the recommendations, Frederick A. Laskey, the executive director of the MWRA suggested downgrading the Charles from an Environmental Protection Agency rating of Class B to Class D. This would allow continued CSO discharges while technically complying with the Clean Water Act, which prohibits sewage releases into Class B waters.
A Class B rating deems the waterway safe for recreation including swimming, boating and fishing, while waterways rated Class D are deemed unsafe for extended human contact.
“This is the generational decision that we need to make,” Laskey said. “But we do have to move forward with a responsible plan that we can defend, and that's continuously, at the end of the day, financial stability.”
“We’ve already spent 900 million in reducing CSOs,” he added.
The proposal evoked outrage from the local advocacy groups and residents, including Emily J. Norton, the Executive Director of the Charles River Watershed Association.
“To get wrapped up in, ‘Oh no, it might cost this, so we just better leave it as a toilet forever’ is just unbelievable. It’s irresponsible,” Norton said in an interview after the meeting. “That's not what the public wants.”
Prior to major clean up efforts by the EPA beginning in 1995, the Charles River was not safe to swim in. For nearly two decades, the MWRA worked to improve water quality by removing CSOs and reducing sewage discharge to storm drains. In 2013, their efforts proved fruitful — the river reflecting its “cleanest water in decades,” according to the EPA report card that year.
Now, the EPA deems the river safe to swim in 70 percent of the time.
During the meeting, Norton urged the MWRA board to reject the proposal, warning that it would prevent the Charles from ever becoming safe for swimming.
“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,” Norton said.
Norton also submitted a letter to the board which included a petition to eliminate CSOs signed by over 1000 Massachusetts residents.
In March, advocacy groups for the Charles River, Mystic River, and Alewife brook formed the Coalition to End Sewage Pollution to continue pushing for the complete removal of CSOs in Massachusetts. A state bill, if passed, would set a deadline of 2050 for their elimination.
At the meeting, Patrick M. Herron, executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association, cautioned against the ramifications of the reclassification, claiming that “tens of millions” of gallons of untreated sewage would be allowed to flow down the Mystic River.
“You don’t hear anybody celebrating the conditions of the Mystic River,” Herron said. “The Alewife Brook remains a blight on public health and a drag on prosperity and private property values,” he added.
Norton said that as summer temperatures rise, the inaccessibility of the Charles for swimming is an equity issue in addition to a public health crisis.
“If you have means, you might have a lake house to escape to, or a beach house, or your private club,” Norton said. “Wouldn't it be amazing if you had the opportunity to just jump in your clean, healthy Charles River during a hot summer day, regardless of how much money you have?”
“There is no reason we can’t achieve that,” she added.
The MWRA board plans to consider and further discuss the proposal at their meeting on Nov. 19.
