The Charles River has been getting cleaner for years, but that progress has stalled, according to the latest water quality report card.
According to a statement released Friday by the Charles River Watershed Association, two sections of the river have declined between 2022 and 2023. Still, the organization’s director, Emily Norton, told NBC10 Boston that swimming in the Charles could still be more regular.
“Our standards show that there are sections of the river, even in Cambridge and Boston, where it is now safe to swim, and we think now is the right time to start that discussion,” Norton said.
The two parts of the river where water quality declined in the most recent report for 2023 were the lower basin, the part that flows past Boston, and the lower middle catchment further upstream.
But only one section of the river received a grade worse than B-. That’s the Muddy River branch, which flows through Fenway and past Brookline and Jamaica Plain, received a grade of C.
Much work was done to make the Seine in Paris floatable, and similar efforts are being made on the Charles River.
The Charles is not normally open for swimming, but Norton said it was time to talk about reopening the seven beaches that once lined the river.
“They assume you can’t swim in your local river,” she said. “That’s crazy. We should be demanding, the public should be demanding, that we can swim in our river and that the river is clean enough.”
Also released Friday were report cards for the Mystic River and Neponset River basins. Grades are determined by levels of bacteria in the water, which are often linked to sewage overflows and runoff from the urbanized areas surrounding the rivers.
The certificates are the result of cooperation with the US Environmental Protection Agency.
