Worcester's willing to pay to pollute the Blackstone River

By Colin M. J. Novick

I woke up Wednesday morning to discover that my beloved city has fallen under a spell.

My city, that not so long ago declared itself a "green city," a city with some of the purest and cleanest drinking water in the nation, a city with an award-winning, free, curb-side recycling program, a city that relies on no landfill for its sins but burns its trash as an alternative source of energy, a city with hybrid vehicles for its Department of Public Works, a city with a leaf-composting operation second to none, has decided to make a principled stand to pollute the American Heritage River, the National Historic River, our Blackstone.

Indeed, the City Council is so upset that they are prepared to pay $25,000 per day in order to defend our right to pollute the river.

Now I am not going to go into what we might do with the more-than-$9 million-a-year in fines that we will be opting to pay. I am not going to point out that this national standard is not some evil plan hatched by the EPA to wickedly single out Worcester for unreasonable wrath and punishment. I am not even going to outline how Woonsocket, Rhode Island, has not only met, but beat the federal standards we are fretting over. I will point out that there are other courses — other than the one we are heading on — available to us.

Worcester, to my eye, has a bit of a tendency to be the brilliant kid in the back of the class who regularly wins awards for creative writing contests and academic competitions, but is a little bit lazy. As an example of this: it wasn't roughly until the FAA banned airlines from taking on water at the Worcester Airport that we finally got going on the state-of-the-art drinking water filtration plant that is one of our current sources of pride and joy.

So, are we polluting the Blackstone?

Yes. Let me take you on a verbal trip south from Quinsig Village in a canoe. The banks are overhung with the branches of trees. It is dark at mid-day on account of the thick vegetation that enfolds the river. There are short rock waterfalls, sandbars and brown cobbled rocks on the river bottom. There are countless birds, along with turtles, frogs, and the odd raccoon, skunk or muskrat. After we pass through the tunnel under the Massachusetts Turnpike, we come to a fork in the river. This is where the outfall of the Wastewater Treatment Plant joins the Blackstone. Truthfully, the volume from the plant is so large that it dominates the Blackstone. It is here that the river changes markedly. No longer is the river bottom covered with sands, cobbles and rocks with the hews of brown that the earth is made. No, the river bottom is now fluorescent green with the thick algae that feeds on the overload of phosphorous that comes from the treatment plant. Not just that, but this is also where the river picks up what I politely refer to as its "bouquet." Place me anywhere in the country next to a river blindfolded and I can immediately tell you if that is the distinct "bouquet" of my favorite river. You don't need a degree, or water sampling stations to see, smell and know that what we are making of the river is unnatural and unhealthy. This is what the Clean Water Act is all about remedying.

So we have invested all of our municipal energy into coming up with a high and scary price tag for fixing this problem. We have placed our energy into studying the regulations with an eye for loopholes and imagined injustices against which we might rail. We have complained, ground our teeth, and shaken our fist. We have sworn to do nothing.

Let us be honest. The job isn't going to go away on its own. The rules and standards are clear. The fines will start building. Now is the time for some leadership.

Let's not put our creative energies into devising impassioned speeches and media strategies about unfair mandates. We can stop creating elaborate displays and excuses.

Our Department of Public Works is full of some terribly intelligent civil servants who have proven themselves capable of all manner of creative solutions. Our crack team of management in the DPW has decades of public goodwill based on their proven track record for brilliance when facing a challenge that demands our city's attention.

I am not asking my fellow citizens to be excited about this or even happy. Be angry! Blame whomever you prefer. Print up bumper stickers and run off lawn signs about perceived injustice if it helps. BUT let us get on with the task at hand.

When the city has established the Blackstone River as yet another national example of our municipal creativity and know-how, when we have won awards, then we can change our tune and talk about how proud we all are of our progressive, cutting-edge leadership, and our commitment to being a green city. For now there is planning and work to be done.o

Colin Novick is a life-long resident of Worcester and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Greater Worcester Land Trust. Comments? E-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it