The Charles River is full of crap.

Well, not really. But there’s a lot of raw sewage flowing into the water, and the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) is running a new campaign, “Cut the Crap,” to raise awareness about CSOs—combined system overflows, which happen when sewage and stormwater systems both overflow and send untreated wastewater into natural waterways like rivers and streams—and deal with this icky, unhealthy mess.

The CRWA is hoping the “Cut the Crap” Campaign will educate the public about CSOs and also push the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the cities of Cambridge and Somerville to stop the sewage from polluting the Charles River.

“When people hear we are still dumping sewage into the Charles, they are shocked and disgusted. Our problem is that not enough people are aware,” CRWA Executive Director Emily Norton said. “We hope that this action will help bring that awareness and inspire people to join our campaign to ‘cut the crap’ in the Charles!”

CSOs are more common in heavily developed areas like Greater Boston, but they impact rivers and streams everywhere, and climate change is making CSOs more frequent.

The CRWA campaign website, CutTheCrapCharles.org, links to a petition that demands the complete elimination of CSOs from the Charles and even has pre-written messages you can send to the MWRA as well as officials in Cambridge and Somerville.

“The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) deserves credit for much of the cleanup of the Charles over the past several decades,” the CRWA petition page reads. “But now the MWRA and the cities of Cambridge and Somerville are balking at finishing the job.”

The CRWA says outdated water removal systems that put stormwater and wastewater into the same pipes to be sent to a treatment plant are being overloaded during heavy rains and can’t handle the excess water, which pours into the river—raw sewage and all.

Last summer, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection granted Cambridge, Somerville and the MWRA a water quality standards variance allowing them more time to phase out their clean-up of CSOs incrementally, meaning more pollution into the Charles River, Mystic River and Alewife Brook in the meantime.

But clean water advocates like the CRWA say the time to clean the crap from the Charles is right now.

“The Clean Water Act of 1972 promised fishable, swimmable rivers by 1983. Yet 40 years later, it’s still not safe to swim in our river,” the CRWA petition page reads.

Newton has worked on removing CSOs for years and can stand proudly in this discussion.

“We don’t have CSOs anymore, I’m happy to report!” Norton, a former city councilor, said.

For more information, checkout CutTheCrapCharles.org.