City Council to Consider Housing Plan

Yes, Virginia, the Charles is polluted. No, Virginia, we can't do anything about it.

Howard Whitmore Jr. '29, commissioner of the Metropolitan District Commission, wrote the City Council late last month about pollution in the Charles. Yesterday his letter was read to the City Council.

Whitmore reported that the MDC had talked to four or five companies about ridding the Charles of an oil slick that has stuck along the river's banks since early spring. With one company, the MDC conducted a "thorough experiment."

"This experiment proved that a full cleanup would be time-consuming, expensive, and not entirely effective. We are continuing to attack the problem as best we can, but is a most difficult one. Decisions have not been made, pending further investigation," the commissioner said.

But Cambridge and other cities were not without fault, Whitmore noted. "Raw sewage has been observed flowing from Cambridge sewers into the river at a point between Lars Anderson Bridge and the Weld Boathouse," he wrote. "This may well be the result of lack of capacity of the sewers in periods when overflow is required.