The nutrient limits of .1 milligram per liter (mg/l) for phosphorus (twice the Telegram has incorrectly stated the phosphorus limit as .01 mg/l) and 5 mg/l for nitrogen should stand; the Blackstone is overwhelmed with nutrients from both direct discharges from wastewater treatment plants, and from indirect sources such as polluted stormwater runoff.  Consistently achieving water quality standards requires drastic action to address all sources of nutrients, hence the EPA’s focus throughout the country on nutrients from treatment plants as well as from stormwater.

The EPA is not picking on Worcester; nutrient reduction is a national goal.  Within the Blackstone watershed, Rhode Island plants have similar limits: Woonsocket, .1 mg/l phosphorus, 3 mg/l nitrogen; Providence’s Bucklin Point, 5 mg/l nitrogen; Fields Point, 5 mg/l nitrogen.  In Massachusetts small secondary plants in Douglas, Northbridge and Upton have phosphorus limits of .25, .2, and .2 mg/l respectively.  The small secondary plants of Grafton, Hopedale and Uxbridge are presently operating under expired permits and are awaiting new draft permits, which we have been assured will also have strict nutrient limits. Keep in mind that the Upper Blackstone is by far the largest plant at 56 million gallons per day.  In the neighboring Assabet River watershed all five plants have a phosphorus limit of .1 mg/l.

The EPA’s estimate the cost at $100 million .  The City’s absurd estimate is $200 million. 

The City and the Upper Blackstone claim the plant should be required to fully treat only to the design flow of 56 million gallons per day. 

I know Worcester well, if only from old times.  I'm a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, class of '76, and when I was there, the Blackstone River, which passed just across the road from the school's football field, was a running joke.
The year before I entered Holy Cross, the school's field house caught fire, and water from the Blackstone was used by the local fire department to help extinguish the blaze.  The building wasn't badly damaged, and the Holy Cross football team was soon back in the Blackstone-annointed building holding their practices.  As an apparent result of their contact with the river's water, the just about the entire team contracted hepatitis and forfeited the remainder of their season.
So maybe it's a sign of progress that the worst thing the sewer plant is dumping in the river these days is excess nitrogen and phosphorus, which are admittedly bad things at those levels, but at least don't turn your skin yellow and put your liver at risk.
(Note that the story is true, but the "subject" header should carry a sarcasm warning...)

Worcester has been brought kicking and screaming by the Clean Water Act into the late 20th Century (it's still there while other cities are in the 21st).  I live beside the Blackstone.  When I first moved here in 1970 my insurance agent's dog went frolicking in the river and died as a result.  Now my dog frolics in the river and only stinks.  In 1970 the Blackstone had one species of fish--white suckers.  Now it has 32.  It is the only river in the nation (as far as I know) that gets cleaner as it nears the sea.  Near Providence it actually sustains hatchery trout.  That's because the other communities in the watershed are cleaning up; and because the river aerates over rocks.

I am tired of hearing that the blackstone River only had one species of fish during the 60's and 70's. That is totally untrue at least for the Blackstone River in Woonsocket and Manville. My friends and i would catch many large moutrh bass of sizable weight, all varieties of sunfish, calico bass, ocassional smallmouth bass and pickerel, also yellow and white perch in numerous quantities at night great fishing for catfish commonly known as horned pout in our community. But and i emphasize this the river flowed in different colors on a daily basis =if not more frequently and you would catch more toilet paper on most days than fish. But please don't try and tell me the Blacksone only had one species of fish cause i know better and caught many more species than one.