IIASA RepositoryA Water-Quality History of the Blackstone River, Massachusetts, USA: Implications for Central and Eastern European RiversP.ShanahanauthorThe Blackstone River is a relatively small river that drains the area around Worcester, Massachusetts, one of first industrialized cities in the United States. Until the 1970s, the river was highly polluted by industrial and municipal wastewaters -- not unlike the current situation in degraded rivers in areas of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Today, the Blackstone enjoys considerably improved water quality as the result of two historical processes: continuing investment and improvement in municipal wastewater treatment in response to increasingly stringent U.S. federal water-quality laws, and the control or elimination of industrial discharges. A key factor in the river's restoration was the early development of and continued adherence to a comprehensive basin water-quality plan. A similar planning process is recommended for CEE countries. Nonetheless, achieving acceptable water quality in the Blackstone was a slow process, requiring decades of intensive improvement in wastewater treatment. A similarly slow process can be anticipated in the CEE countries unless cost-effective interim improvements in wastewater treatment are sought.1994-05WP-94-031Monograph

For work being deposited by its own author: In self-archiving this collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata, I grant IIASA Repository the right to store them and to make them permanently available publicly for free on-line. I declare that this material is my own intellectual property and I understand that IIASA Repository does not assume any responsibility if there is any breach of copyright in distributing these files or metadata. (All authors are urged to prominently assert their copyright on the title page of their work.)

For work being deposited by someone other than its author: I hereby declare that the collection of files and associated bibliographic metadata that I am archiving at IIASA Repository) is in the public domain. If this is not the case, I accept full responsibility for any breach of copyright that distributing these files or metadata may entail.

Clicking on the deposit button indicates your agreement to these terms.