People are advised not to eat fish caught in the main stem of the Massachusetts portion of the river. But progress has been made in improving the river's health. The first major help arrived in the form of 1972's Clean Water Act, which cut back on the amounts of heavy metals, ammonia, nitrates and phosphates that can be discharged into a river. As areas get more developed, polluted storm water becomes more of an issue. There is more impervious surface to cause it to run off directly into rivers.
Land use is an integral part.
Whatever you do on the land ends up in the water. Such efforts need to be done throughout the river basin, not just along the Blackstone itself, because protecting the headwaters will also help downstream, she said. One of the things that we can do now is look at how we use fertilizers on lawns near a lake or a river. As an example of such an effort, Ms. Williams pointed to improvements planned to alleviate sedimentation, thick weeds and algae in Flint Pond, in North Grafton and Shrewsbury. The pond is at the southern end of Lake Quinsigamond and its water eventually flows into the Blackstone.