Swimming in the Charles

Many around here are familiar with the Standells’ ode to the Charles River “Love that Dirty Water,” and during sailing lessons at Community Boating when I was young, we were told to be careful about falling into the water because of its unsavory quality. Well, the water did look a bit murky,*and there was some kind of urban legend circulating around Boston that if you fell into the water, you would have to get a tetanus shot. So we wore long pants and hoped we wouldn’t capsize in spite of the fact that there were plenty of challenging wind gusts created by Boston’s buildings around the basin.

Then I learned that the legend had a basis in fact when I read recently that Boston’s Mayor Kevin White had fallen off the back of a boat in the Charles and did have to go to a hospital for treatment! That, of course, predates the memorable moment years later when Governor William Weld jumped into the river fully clothed and lived to tell the tale.

Now I have come across an article by Courtney Humphries at the Boston Globe “Dirty Water is Not Forever,” (December 29, 2013) referring to the presence of bathhouses in the late 1800s. Swimming even then was not in pristine waters, and as the situation worsened, the river was closed to swimmers in the 1950s.

So what IS the condition of our urban river today? We can look at the many accomplishments of the Charles River Watershed Association, often working with the EPA, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, for the fact that the waters of the Charles have greatly improved since the sixties when CRWA was founded. At that time, a concerned group of conservation-minded people met to discuss the condition of the river after a summer beset by drought. From the beginning, the CRWA (as its name indicates) has advocated for the improvement of the river through projects in the watershed area, comprised of the riverbanks, groundwater, tributaries, and streams that feed into the river, encompassing an area that includes thirty-five towns and cities. In 2011 that advocacy earned the organization the prestigious international Thiess Riverprize for outstanding programs in river management.

An early intervention for preserving and improving the quality of the river was the partnering of CRWA through the leadership of director Rita Barron with the New England leaders of the US Army Corps of Engineers to protect 8,300 acres of wetlands in the Upper Charles. These wetlands protect downstream communities from flooding by storing the excess water and cleaning the water of pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

The many approaches to improving the quality of the watershed have included monitoring and legislating against the misuse of the water supply and identifying sources of pollution such as company effluence, illegal dumping, and runoff of chemicals from residential and commercial properties.

For many years the CRWA has analyzed water quality from a number of sites on a monthly basis with volunteers obtaining the samples for scientific analysis. Volunteers have also contributed by pulling invasive water chestnuts from shallow areas of the river that are choked by the heavy growth, especially in Waltham’s Lakes District, allowing stream life to return.

The CRWA has studied the effects of stormwater runoff from the pavement during rain when the water brings with it pollutants from the streets and sewage overflow, and the organization has advocated the planting of urban gardens and the use of semi-permeable surfaces so that rainwater and stormwater runoff can percolate through soil and root systems that serve to improve water quality as the water moves through the ground.

The annual CRWA cleanup on Earth Day brings volunteers from all over the greater Boston area to remove items that have been carelessly thrown into the water or dropped along the shores. This annual event is a cooperative effort that includes the Charles River Conservancy, the Esplanade Association, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and other organizations.

The Charles River Conservancy began in 2000, a non-profit group that is dedicated to the renewal, enhancement, and stewardship of the urban parklands along the Charles River, promoting the active use of this urban treasure. CRC partners with the Department of Conservation and Recreation to establish and improve green areas along the river from the Harbor to Watertown and has more recently worked with the Mass Department of Transportation to enhance Boston and Cambridge’s bridges and overpasses.

In 2004, the Charles River Conservancy launched the Swimmable Charles Initiative. Then in 2013, the CRC, with the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Charles River Swimming Club organized the first swim in fifty years! This was followed by the swim in July 2014, and two swims this July (called “City Splash”) launched at a dock on the Esplanade near the Hatch Shell and Fiedler statue.

So to those who ask whether people will be able to swim in their river on a regular basis, the answer is that the river is reaching an acceptable, safe level, going from a “D” on its report card to days when a “B” has been recorded!

 

*It should be noted here that the dark brown color of the water is often due to the tannin from leaves falling into the river.