"$700-million-plus cleanup that could last decades"

A great retrospective from the Berkshire Eagle on the long term financial and environmental cost of severe river pollution:

Nine years into an estimated $700-million-plus cleanup that could last decades, the river is both adored and dreaded: Anglers catch fish that they dare not eat; boaters canoe and kayak in the water but never swim; and farmers raise crops and animals near it, just outside the polluted floodplain.

This is a part of the legacy of industrial western Mass. How are China's rivers doing? How much will they cost to clean? Can experience here become a business there?

BlackStone River - Worcester Sewage Treatmant

The Worcester Telegram and Gazette reports on sewage treatment and the Blackstone River:

"WORCESTER— The city intends to fight the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the courts, if necessary, over the permit it has issued mandating dramatically lower pollutant limits at the regional sewage treatment plant in Millbury."

"The EPA contends that the Blackstone River, into which the treated sewage is discharged, is one of the most polluted in the state"