BOSTON, MA (6/21/2009) The Charles River Swimming Club, Inc. announced the cancellation of their 2009 swimming race due to rain. The race, which was supposed to have taken place on Sunday, June 21st, was to be the third of its kind. The club held successful races in 2008 and 2007. The at-capacity race had attracted 150 swimmers from around New England and was to be the largest to date. “Safety is of utmost importance to the club and the state agencies with whom we work. A dimension of our permit is a specific rainfall allowance between the time of the last water sample and the time of the race. Unfortunately…

The Hudson, like the Charles, has a sediment problem.  Unlike the Charles, the source of the Hudson’s PCBs and other nasties has been traced to an organization that can be held accountable — GE.  After a lengthy court battle the clean-up has begun.  Estimates are that it will be, initially, a $750 million dollar operation but possibly becoming “many times that.”  That’s going to hurt, even for a company of GE’s size. The probability of any similar, near-term spot-dredging in the Charles is next to nil in my opinion.  All of the original pollutant-spewing factories and mills along the Charles are now long out of operation and their respective companies…

It seems we’re not the only mammals swimming in the Charles (sorry pooches, dog-paddling doesn’t count).  Maury Eldridge took a couple of excellent photos of a pair of otters up in the Needham section of the Charles River.  Welcome back!!  Pictures are up on the CRWA website.

There is an interesting article in the Globe about Duxbury oysters being dropped near the mouth of the Charles River.  The idea is that these filter feeders will establish a colony and clean the water leaving the Charles River (and, arguably, salt water going upstream when the river levels are low). Fingers crossed that these friendly bivalves like their new home! The full story is available here. Paul Keleher took this nice picture of open locks at the mouth of the Charles as well as the Charlestown bridge.

Do you wonder what future swimming locations on the Charles might look like?  Now’s your chance. In a joint effort to bring swimming back to the Charles River, swissnex Boston is partnering with the Charles River Conservancy for the upcoming exhibit “Think Swim, Think Swiss: Bringing Swiss Style Swimming to the Charles River”. The exhibition, consisting of three dimensional Swiss cross kaleidoscopes, will display examples of Swiss bathing structures to explore the technological, environmental and cultural context of river swimming. Date: September 7, 2008, 2 – 5 pm Location: Weeks Footbridge, Cambridge More information is available here.