Boston's Charles River Gets B-Plus For Clean Water
BOSTON (AP) — The federal Environmental Protection Agency has given the Charles River a B-plus for water quality, down slightly from last year's A-minus.
The EPA said Friday that the lower end of the river from the Watertown Dam to Boston Harbor met state bacterial water quality standards for boating 91 percent of the time, and for swimming 65 percent of the time. The grade was based on samples taken from 10 monitoring sites last year.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says the latest report card shows progress continues to be made but more work is needed.
Once ridiculed in song for its "dirty water," the Charles was deemed safe for swimming only 19 percent of the time and for boating 39 percent of the time in its first report card 20 years ago.
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