The Muddy River truly lives up to its name. Trickling from Jamaica Pond through the Back Bay Fens and under Storrow Drive before connecting to the main Charles River Basin, it remains the most polluted above-ground tributary of the Charles River watershed.
From 2002 to 2024, the Muddy River has shown no improving trend in its annual bacterial letter grades, which range from D- to C+. Every year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the Charles River Watershed Association, assesses six waterbody segments of the Charles River Watershed on E. coli levels, cyanobacteria blooms, and combined sewer overflows. Since 2019, five out of the six waterways have received grades within the “B” to “A” range, with the Muddy River being the exception. Despite improvements from the 10-year Muddy River Restoration Project, research conducted by the Charles River Watershed Association reveals that sewage-filled stormwater and illicit sewage discharge continue to pollute the river daily, and the volume is only increasing because of climate change.
When I was younger, I loved spending time walking along the Muddy River. At the heart of the Emerald Necklace, it is a beautiful refuge from Boston’s concrete urban landscape. One look beneath the river’s surface, however, reveals murky depths filled with frothy scum and algae. In 7th grade, I set out to learn why the water quality is so poor by collecting samples and measuring their nutrient content and salinity—research that won me first place at the Michael Driscoll School science fair.
My results indicated that the Muddy River water has high salinity and nutrient enrichment as well as traces of cyanobacteria. These findings led me to conclude that larger and more intense precipitation events were fueling the growth of algal blooms by increasing the transport of nutrients into waterways via stormwater runoff. The contamination my experiment revealed is the result of years of historical neglect, intense urbanization and illicit sewage discharge that together have ultimately culminated in the Muddy River’s unsatisfactory bacterial letter grades.
To understand the pollution that affects the Muddy River today, you need to understand its history. The Muddy River is an interconnected watershed spanning Boston, Brookline and Newton. The majority of the Muddy River watershed resides within Brookline’s boundaries.
The town’s history is interwoven with the Muddy River. Before Brookline was incorporated in 1705, it was actually called the Muddy River Hamlet. The river was long stewarded by Indigenous communities, but by 1667, all of the land surrounding the Muddy River had been forcibly taken by white English settlers. The colonial era posed several environmental challenges. After rapid urbanization transformed the landscape, the river took on a horrible stench and became a raw sewage dump.
During the late 1800s, Frederick Law Olmsted set out to redesign the Muddy River within his Emerald Necklace. In just a decade, his design successfully cleaned out the dirty water and removed the putrid scent.
100 years later, the park system fell into a degree of disrepair once again. In 1996, severe flooding and record rainfall caused millions of dollars worth of damages.
The Muddy River Restoration Project was born out of this disaster. Setting out to reduce flood damage, improve water quality and enhance the landscape, the project began construction in 2013 and concluded in 2023. In total, seventy million dollars were spent on this project, which restored 40 acres of habitat, removed 90,000 cubic yards of sediment and planted 460 trees. Despite these major improvements, the water of the Muddy River remains heavily polluted in comparison to the rest of the Charles River watershed.
The Muddy River remains polluted because of multiple environmental issues that afflict the watershed today. Wet weather pollution is caused by impervious surfaces that block stormwater from soaking into the ground, resulting in the stormwater running off into the river carrying various pollutants with it. Even during dry weather, illicit sewage discharges from leaky pipes with old infrastructure or illegal direct sewage connections into stormwater drainage pipes can pollute the river. 44 percent of the surfaces along the Muddy River watershed are impervious to water and there are over 20 pipes that funnel wastewater directly into the Muddy River.
The Muddy River watershed also has a much smaller water volume than other tributaries of the Charles River, and it runs through dense urban areas, making it very susceptible to E. coli bacteria contamination and cyanobacteria blooms. 30 years of monthly bacteria sampling indicate that the Muddy River’s average E. coli bacteria levels from dry weather and wet weather pollution are above the Massachusetts swimming standard.
Our town’s river is still suffering from the harmful effects of centuries of urbanization and ongoing pollution, and there is much more work to be done. As a high school student, there are countless ways you can make a tangible difference in the river’s health. Engaging in citizen science by monitoring water quality, removing invasive plant species and conserving water at home are all ways we can help protect and preserve the Charles River watershed. Through widespread advocacy, we can also encourage the town to invest in climate adaptation and green infrastructure. Preventing illicit sewage discharges from sending millions of gallons of sewage-filled stormwater into the Charles is key to restoring the river ecosystem.
As Brookline community members, it is our responsibility to maintain the natural beauty and water quality of the river that our town was once named after.
