Nonprofit Works To Clean Merrimack River Polluted By Raw Sewage After Rain Storms
LOWELL (CBS) -- It's a never-ending job for the Clean River Project crew. The non-profit works to clear debris from the Merrimack River, which is a drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of people.
But it's not just trash and street runoff that flows into the booms they have set up at various points, it's also the discharge of raw sewage from treatment plants during big rain storms. While that keeps sewage from backing up into homes and businesses, it pollutes the river.
"Every heavy storm that we get, they're going to open those valves up, and all this deplorable stuff comes out, toothpicks, the condoms, applicators, needles, hypodermic needles," said Rocky Morrison, the founder of the Clean River Project. He's been at it for 15 years.
"It's pretty disgusting, but someone has to do the job," he said.
That job would be tough enough if it was just garbage they were pulling out. "Everything that comes out of your toilet is here, too."
"The biggest polluters on the river today are the cities and towns with their CSOs," he added. CSO stands for combined sewer overflow. They're basically pipes that act as pressure valves, carrying raw sewage into the river when heavy rains would otherwise back the system up. It's an old system that pre-dates the Clean Water Act.
The Merrimack River Watershed Council estimates that nearly 800-million gallons of untreated sewage flowed into the Merrimack last year.
"It's definitely a health issue," Morrison said. "To think that 600,000 people drink from the Merrimack River."
The fix is to retrofit the sewage system. That's one of the things they did during the Boston Harbor cleanup, but it's enormously expensive.
"The EPA has to step it up. It's a mess out here," said Morrison.
The Clean River Project is hoping to get some help from the state. The organization wants to buy a new machine that would allow them to remove debris faster than they can now. The money for that is part of a bond bill, but so far the spending hasn't been authorized.
"We're trying to make a difference on the river but we're going to need help."