Ecologists Consider Banks of the Charles

For thousands of springtime habitues of the Charles River, ecology now looms as an all-important social question.

As the perennial downstream journey of smoke scum, chemical pollutants and broken gin bottles becomes visible once again to the University public, conservationists and local officials are turning more of their attention to environmental conditions along the length of the Charles.

With the passage of anti-pollution legislation designed to protect the state's waterways, and with the beginnings of their implementation by the Charles' major polluters, activists and officials alike are now emphasizing what they maintain was always the major issue-the development of land along the river's banks.

In a joint report soon to be submitted to the State Legislature, the Department of Natural Resources and the Metropolitan District Commission contend that industrial construction near the river-not the ecological excesses which activists associate with industry-is itself the principal cause of the Charles' troubles.

The report recommends that the MDC and local conservation commisions exercise dual control over the lands along the river in order to reduce pollution.

Headwaters

Although the MDC exercises jurisdiction over the river banks within Boston and has sought to forestall pollution along the river in this area, it cannot act on that part of the river which lies outside of Boston, where much of the source for the river's pollution allegedly lies.

"We need quality control of the headwaters. Right now, we have no control of what they're wasting down on us," said Max Straw, engineering assistant to the MDC and co-author of the report.

On a recent tour of the Charles, Mrs. Lydia Goodhue, chairman of the League of Women Voters in Boston and an ecological activist, underlined the problem of construction along the river.

Industrial or private development of riverways often necessitates the filling-in of adjacent wetlands, she explained, which can lessen the river's depth and lead to greater chances of flood. "During floods, of course septic tanks and chemical pollutants become part of the river," she said.

Mrs. Goodhue also claimed that it would be difficult to improve ecological planning and enforcement along the river unless state and federal funds were inade available for the purpose. "Public health offices can't be fully staffed and anti-pollution legislation isn't being entirely carried out because there is n't enough money for it," she said.

Straw agreed that present budgetary allocations for anti-pollution activities are too scaree. He explained that although the MDC is a state department, its program are assessed by the state treasurer upon the communities in which they take effect.

Industry along the river has begun to grapple with the problem of it's own pollutants, but has not yet fully implemented anti-pollution legistation.

At the Clicqnot Club plant in Millis, a workman was raking hay throuch water which flowed from the factory to the river in order to cleanse the water of heavy pollutants.

"You won't find any big fish in here." he said.