Progress on the Charles

October 3, 2004

THE GLOBE was spot on in its Sept. 14 editorial ("Hot Water in the Charles") urging the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to strengthen their draft permit for water discharges from the Mirant Kendall Station power plant in Cambridge. For nearly a decade a broad coalition of public agencies and private and nonprofit institutions has been working hard to meet EPA-New England's goal of a swimmable Charles by Earth Day 2005. Great progress has been made; the river is now swimmable 90 percent of the time, more than twice as often as it was a decade ago.

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Granting a permit to allow a 500 percent increase in 100 degree water discharges would represent a giant step back at a time when so many have stepped so far forward on behalf of a cleaner, healthier Charles River. The EPA and the DEP should reaffirm their commitment to the Charles by strengthening the Mirant permit requirements.

JOHN P. DeVILLARS
Boston

The writer was regional administrator of the EPA from 1994 to 2000.  

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