Word: nossing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that the Charles fails to meet one of the two standards of swimmability--transparency, indicated by the visibility of a white and black disc four feet underwater--because upstream swamps and marshes release organic acids that turn the water dark. "As far upstream as you go, it's brown," Noss insists. Chlorinating the river would help solve this problem, but it would do little to meet the more serious objections to the water's quality...
...other standard for swimmability that the Charles fails to meet concerns its bacterial content. The biggest single reason for the river's high bacterial content, Noss said, is that during storms the sewer systems of Boston and Cambridge overflow, flooding the river with raw sewage. There are a number of plans for over $16 million worth of new collector sewers and new treatment plants, including one for storm overflows near the B.U. Bridge which will include a huge, one-and-a-half million gallon holding tank. But the new facilities probably won't solve the problem completely...
...overflows relate directly to the sewer system itself, which is--well, if wasn't built yesterday," Noss said. "It's very costly to put in a new sewer system and it tears up the street for a long time; it's an inconvenience. There are some overflows up near Eliot Bridge, and to build a sewer system that far up may not be prohibitively expensive but it is quite expensive. Besides, the major sewer systems are under Memorial Drive and Storrow Drive and you don't really want to tear them up either...
...extended to the whole river (via a large plant at Watertown Dam) if it succeeds in cleaning up Storrow Lagoon next summer. The plant will treat water already in the Charles with chemicals that bind with river water "to form a matrix in a fluffy kind of stuff," as Noss put it. There's some skepticism as to how well the plant will work: Sabin Lord, the engineer in charge of the lower Charles, has said he thinks the Metropolitain District Commission was sold a bill of goods. There are also as yet unapproved plans for a $500,000 plant...
...some processes are tough to reverse, and pollution is prominent among them. Most of the Charles's fish are dead, for example, although there are still occasional schools of goldfish to startle the unwary passerby. "The first ones to die are the nicest ones, really," Noss said mournfully. "Trout need five parts oxygen per million, and carp need only point five parts. And down at the bottom of the Lower Basin, it's constant by now, really, there's almost no oxygen at all, so there are no organisms to clean...