Charles River Enforcement/Assistance

An organizing principle of EPA's Clean Charles Initiative is that it is problem-solving based. That means that EPA has identified a problem and used a variety of tools to produce results. Below is a listing of the various tools we employed to reduce contaminant loads to the Charles:

Assistance

EPA provided technical assistance through the Center for Watershed Protection to all lower Charles communities developing stormwater management plans (2000);
EPA assistance team visited 92 auto care facilities closest to the river. Sent information brochures to 900+ auto care facilities in watershed (1998);
EPA provided oil pollution prevention grant to CRWA (1988) ($ 25K).
Innovative Stormwater “Best Management Practices” trade show (1988);

Enforcement

EPA brought the following enforcement actions aimed at reducing or preventing discharges to the Charles:

Settlement between EPA, Commonwealth of Massachusetts and MWRA to reduce CSO's into the Charles River (2006)
EPA case against NSTAR for oil discharges to Charles (2003)
EPA case against MIT for RCRA and air violations (2001)
EPA coordinated inspection of Underground storage tanks at all single wall tanks within 1000 feet of river: several notices issued (1998)
Enforcement Sweep: Warning to 200 facilities with follow up inspections (1998);
EPA case against BU for oil spill violations (1997)
EPA issued orders to municipalities in 1995 and 2004 to remove illicit discharges: removed over 1 million gallons of illicit discharges to Charles since 1995
EPA case against MWRA: 90% reduction in CSO bacteria loads to Charles (from 1.7 billion gallons/year to 160 million gallons/year (1983)

Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEP)

EPA has included the following supplemental environmental projects in enforcement actions to benefit the Charles in various ways, as described:

NSTAR SEP: Installed rainwater recovery and reuse system at Harvard Vehicle Washing Facility (2004)
MIT SEP: Groundwater detention /treatment at Strata Center reduces flowrate 50%; solids 90% (2001)
MIT SEP: Three urban education programs (2001)
MIT SEP: Virtual campus environmental management program: see website for campus consortium for environmental excellence (2001)
Genzyme SEP: Partnered with CRWA for water quality sampling on Charles; Boston University SEP: conducted oil remediation at site; Env. Mgmt. Systems and stormwater research (1999)

Permits

EPA issued permits that address bacterial, thermal, nutrient and other discharges to the Charles:

Final-Issued Individual Permits and Permit Modifications
Draft-Issued Individual Permits and Permit Modifications
Storm Water Permits
- Boston Storm Water Phase I permit (1999)
For all other Communities

Innovative Tools to Further Protect the Charles River

Public Education, 1997-current: EPA provided financial support for CRWA flagging project, which posts flags at 9 boating facilities indicating whether river is safe for boating;
Charlescast Project: EPA supported Tufts/CRWA project to build model using real time data to predict water quality in the Charles. Model predicts whether boating standards will be met with 92% accuracy and info is posted on CRWA and Boston Globe websites.