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Sat 13 Jul, 2013 08:30 pm
Fully sanctioned swimming in a river that has been described as a sewer extension since the 1950s resumed Saturday. Full story
here.
Old non-Bostonian Abuzz hands will be gratified to learn that the swimming spot is near the Hatch Shell.
@Lustig Andrei,
Quote:Swimming in the Charles River, like playing in the street, is something generations of
Boston children have been taught will lead to no good. At the very least, to a tetanus shot.
But since 1995, when the EPA gave the water quality a grade of D, the health of the river
has improved dramatically, rising to a B in 2011, and now meeting the state standards for
swimming most days of the summer. The bottom of the river remains a toxic mess, but if
a swimmer can get in and out of the water without touching the squishy bottom, no tetanus
shot is necessary.
i love that dirty water, but i sure as hell ain't going swimming in it...
@Region Philbis,
Me neither. I learned how to handle a sailboat on that water and was so happy that I never fell overboard. It was one of my major fears, wearing life-vest and everything.
Went in a couple of times canoe-racing.
Fortunately, my tetanus shots were up-to-date.
Going canoeing on the Mystic this afternoon.
My plan is to keep the boat upright.
@George,
I walked on top of it one time but I never even felt religious.
@Region Philbis,
But, how do you enter a river without touching the bottom? Hot air balloon, I suppose, but it sure sounds awkward.
We probably eat and drink the same stuff in our recycled water and processed food every day.
@edgarblythe,
Not quite. Exposure to sewage, quantities of heavy metals and chemical by-products at this level is a lot more risky. If you could see pictures of the bottom...well, you couldn't see. Jimmy Hoffa is there in pieces.
Reminds me of a Coleridge poem about the Rhine;
[ln Koln, a town of monks and bones,
And pavements fang'd with murderous stones
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches ;
I counted two and seventy stenches,
All well defined, and several stinks !
Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne ;
But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine
[/quote]
@Ragman,
Ragman wrote:
I walked on top of it one time but I never even felt religious.
So did I one winter back in the mid-1950s when the ice was solid. I actually walked all the way across from Boston to Cambridge. There was a Cambridge cop standing on the far bank, having something akin to apoplexy. He took my name and address and gave me a stern lecture on risking my life that way but apparently couldn't think of any laws I might have violated. So he let me go.
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