They don't love that dirty water

The federal government wants to join a local environmental group's lawsuit against Boston for allegedly failing to keep crap out of rivers feeding into Boston Harbor.

In a motion filed in US District Court in Boston yesterday, the EPA said it agrees with the Conservation Law Foundation's suit that the Boston Water and Sewer Commission has failed to do enough to keep bacteria, oil and dissolved metals and chemicals out of Boston Harbor. The gunk comes from 201 "outfall" pipes that collect road runoff from nearly 20,000 catch basins - and from Brookline - and pours into the Mystic and Charles Rivers, from which they flow into the harbor.

H. Curtis Spalding, regional director of the federal EPA, said in a statement that the suit will help get the BWSC to fulfill its obligation to keep the Harbor clean after all the money spent to keep raw and partially treated sewage out of it.