LAWRENCE — The Merrimack River Watershed Council has released a new video and web page explaining why sewage is frequently discharged into the Merrimack, and what is being done to help solve the problem.

The eight-minute “explainer” video, narrated by council environmental science fellow Jose Tapia, looks at the causes of the Merrimack’s sewage discharges — known as combined sewer overflows or CSOs for short, according to a press release.

The video includes interviews with regional leaders who are trying to address the problem, as well as tips on what concerned residents can do to help. It can be viewed by subscribing to the council’s YouTube account, or by going to the following link: youtube.com/watch?v=hS6ACfygDU4&t= 152s.

The video was produced by Elevated Thought, a Lawrence-based art and social justice nonprofit, and is the first to specifically address CSOs in the Merrimack River.

The video is paired with the release of a new educational webpage (https://merrimack.org/cso) that further highlights important data points and describes pathways to solving the problem.

CSOs have become a frequent news headline in the Merrimack Valley, and have fueled much discussion and debate on social media platforms.

“We field many questions from the public about sewage overflows, said John Macone, the council’s policy and outreach specialist, in the release.

“There is a lot of concern and outrage over this problem, but there are also a lot of misunderstandings about the facts of CSOs,” he added. “This video is intended to give people an accurate overview of the CSO problem in the Merrimack.”

CSOs often occur during moderate to heavy rainstorms. They happen in five of the Merrimack Valley’s cities — Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Nashua and Manchester — where street drains are connected to sewer lines.

During rainstorms, too much water enters sewer lines, so excess quantities are discharged into the river to prevent damage to sewer plants and sewage overflows into homes and businesses.

“CSOs are a relic of 19th and early 20th century sewer systems that were built in the Merrimack Valley’s industrial cities,” Macone said. “Those old sewer systems were designed to dump all sewage into the river, and they are very expensive and complicated to replace.”

On average, about 500 million gallons of CSO wastewater is discharged into the Merrimack in a typical year. That’s a significant drop from 20 years ago, when an average of 780 million gallons were discharged in an average year, according to the council.

The reduction is due to drought conditions in recent years, and also work being done in cities to replace their sewer lines and upgrade infrastructure – work that is required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The cost of these upgrades can be in excess of $100 million, and progress can be slow because they are funded almost entirely by sewer fees collected from city residents and businesses. But lawmakers in Massachusetts are considering a plan that could provide up to $400 million in American Recovery Plan Act funding for water and sewer projects.

This year has already proven to be an unusually active year for CSOs. This month — one of the rainiest Julys on record — more than 160 million gallons of CSO waste have been discharged into the Merrimack, according to data from the region’s sewer treatment plants.

Scientists have predicted that climate change will result in heavier rainfalls in the Northeast, which would increase the likelihood and frequency of CSOs.

For more information, visit merrimack.org.

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Chance for significant progress on river pollution

(A continuation of the story above)

The peak of the summer season is upon us, and along the Merrimack River, there’s a sudden burst of activity — thousands of boats of every kind, and tens of thousands of people swimming, wading and fishing all along the river.

From Lowell’s popular riverfront parks to the sandy shores of Plum Island and Salisbury Beach, the river is being enjoyed as one of our region’s premier outdoor resources.

But this year has been different, and according to climatologists, it’s a climate change canary in a coal mine.

After a long period of drought, July pounded us with rain — one of the wettest Julys on record. Frequent downpours sent roughly 200 million gallons of untreated sewage and wastewater spilling into the Merrimack in July alone.

As climate change wreaks havoc on the Earth’s jet stream, we are seeing a glimpse of our future. We can expect to see New England go through long periods of heat and drought, punctuated by intense periods of rain. This is not the weather that we in New England are used to.

On the Merrimack, where five cities struggle to handle rainwater that infiltrates their sewer systems, July has been notable for an unfortunate statistic. Over the past month, the river has been too contaminated with bacteria for people to safely swim or wade.

Why, in the 21st century, are sewers overflowing due to rain? It’s called a CSO, short for combined sewer overflow, the technical term for the discharge of untreated sewage and stormwater into a river.

This happens in over 800 cities across America, mostly in older industrial centers where street drains and sewer lines are interconnected. During downpours, sewer plants can't handle all the water coming into them, so they discharge some of it into a river. It’s a relic of our nation’s industrial past, and one that is hugely expensive to fix.

But right now, there is hope to make a major change in our CSO woes. Gov. Charlie Baker has proposed spending up to $400 million of the state’s $5.3 billion American Rescue Plan Act funds on water and sewer infrastructure, including CSOs. The Massachusetts Legislature is drafting its own proposal. This is a visionary moment to reduce one of climate change’s major impacts on our rivers and our health.

The Merrimack has a long history as an industrial river, where some of the nation’s first manufacturing centers were born — and dumped their waste. Today’s Merrimack is far cleaner than a half century ago.

The bustle of the riverfront mills has been replaced by an explosion in river-facing activity — recreation, development and water-based businesses. Not to mention that 600,000 people get their drinking water from the Merrimack, and that hundreds of species of flora and fauna count on a healthy river as their home.

We urge Massachusetts legislators to support spending at least $400 million on CSO and water-related infrastructure projects.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make significant progress on a messy problem that has been plaguing our rivers for nearly 200 years.

Matthew Thorne is executive director of the Merrimack River Watershed Council.

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