Massachusetts water resources body punts on permanently dumping sewage into Charles River

Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald on Nov 15, 2025

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BOSTON — The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority may have been caught loving that dirty water a little too much, as its board has halted a proposal that clean water advocates fear would dump sewage into the Charles River forever.

The MWRA Board of Directors has tabled its upcoming vote, scheduled for Wednesday, on whether to reclassify the Charles as a water body that allows for maximum sewage overflows.

This comes after the Charles River Watershed Association and other clean-water advocates slammed the MWRA for considering the option to address a decades-old problem of combined sewer overflows, or CSOs.

These systems collect stormwater and household and industrial waste in the same pipes, destined for treatment plants. But it allows rain to overwhelm the system and dump sewage contamination out through overflows. The CRWA says CSOs have proven to be a “key source of pathogen and bacteria contamination.”

“The public has responded loud and clear. No amount of sewage is acceptable to be dumped in our beloved Charles River,” CRWA Executive Director Emily Norton said in a statement. “We are glad to hear that MWRA is finally listening to public input and postponing a decision on this terrible proposal.”

MWRA spokesperson Sean Navin said that officials need to address questions and comments before the plan is reconsidered at a future meeting.

The MWRA says it has invested more than $900 million to eliminate 90% of CSOs in its service area over the past few decades.

The problem remains, though, with outfalls located in the lower Charles River and in the Alewife Brook/Upper Mystic River Basin. Advocates argue that climate change is exacerbating the issue, as CSOs struggle to handle excess polluted water from heavy rainstorms.

“This is the generational decision that we need to make,” MWRA executive director Frederick A. Laskey said at last month’s meeting. “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.”

The Charles River Watershed Association has long been pressuring the MWRA to stop polluting the Charles with sewage. Most recently, in April, the organization launched a campaign in which nearly 800 people have signed petitions or sent emails to the MWRA, urging the association to “cut the crap.”

The CRWA also says the proposal is “at odds” with how the Healey administration’s so-called “biodiversity plan” has a goal of “dramatically” reducing water pollution.

“Significantly reduce or eliminate combined-sewer overflows (CSOs),” the plan states, “sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), stormwater runoff, and septic pollution through sewer separation, treatment plant upgrades, sewer expansion, aquatic habitat buffers, and green infrastructure to protect biodiversity, shellfish beds, and public health. Increase investment and technical assistance for curbing stormwater pollution to ensure waters are swimmable and fishable.”