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Entrepreneur Use
Entrepreneurs on the Neponset River designed a separation of the water from the Charles River to power their mills. Over time, a total of 20 dams were built along the Charles -
Moody Street Dam
Moody Street Dam was contstructed in 1814 to power cotton mills and it created a 200-acre mill pond with bays and inlets between Newton Lower Falls and Waltham. -
Pollution in the Dams
Government reports listed 43 mills along the 9.5-mile tidal estuary from Watertown Dam to Boston Harbor being polluted by bi-products from the mills that were dumped into the Charles River. -
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Transformation of the Basin
Charles Elliot and others convinced political leaders to move industry back from the lower Charles River. -
Estuary to Basin
Transformation of the "stinking tidal estuary" into the manmade Charles River Basin. -
Quabbin-to-Boston Water Supply System
Due to the human acitivities impact on the Charles River, The Quabbin-to-Boston Water Supply System was constructed. This engineering feat started the growth density in metropolitan Boston. -
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Citizen's to the Rescue
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CRWA
Charles River Watershed Association was formed in responde to increasing public concern about the environment and the declining condition of the River. -
Clean Water Act
Afterthe passage of the Clean Water Act, the CWRA was successful in promoting construction of modern waste water plants in the upper Charles River and get strict limitations on the industrial discharges into the river. -
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On the Rebound
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Efforts Intensified
The efforts to clean up are intensified when Conservation Law Foundation sued federal and state officials to clean up Boston Harbor. -
US EPA Clean Charles Initiative
CRWA is working with the EPA to implement innovative features in the federal permitting process that will further upgrade waste water treatment at plants on the river to reduce discharge pollutants.
