Boston Harbor is made up of fifty square miles and includes 180 miles of shoreline and 30 islands. It is a precious and valuable part of New England, but over the past three and a half centuries, we have not treated Boston Harbor with the respect and gratitude that it deserves from us. Ten years ago, it was one of the most polluted harbors in the United States. This web site will uncover the history of the pollution and environmental damage to the harbor, the government and political actions pursued and ignored to clean up the harbor, what has been going on in the past ten years, and the potential that the harbor has in the future.
HISTORY
Boston Harbor has been settled by different groups, from the Native Americans
and explorers to the English. It was looked upon as the perfect location
because of its abundant resources and secure location.
The first environmental law in the United States was passed in Boston in
1656, restricting butchers from dumping animal parts and other garbage into
the harbor waters. In the 1660's, Boston Harbor was
the major import harbor from England.
Health and Pollution
The health of the community started to become affected by this pollution problem. In 1796, there were a series of illnesses breaking out. The outbreak of typhus near the tidal flats was attributed to the exposure to the exhalations from the spoiled substances lodged in the wharves and docks. The first comprehensive blueprint for public health in Boston was created in 1850. It linked the high mortality rate among immigrants to poor sanitary conditions. It also included recommendations to collect refuse and sewage for agricultural purposes. This is one of the early examples of recycling and reusing waste. The 1863 cholera epidemic lead to a public cry for improved sewage.
Early Cleanup Efforts
As early as the latter part of the 1800's, warnings were posted to not
swim in the Boston Harbor for fear of boils. The harbor was obviously a
mess, and what was the city going to do about it? In 1889, the first steam
driven sewage pumping station was built in East Boston, and another followed
in 1899 on Deer Island. These stations were considered to be a great improvement
to the harbor, but it still pumped raw sewage into the harbor, only filtering
out large objects.
MODERN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL ACTION
Throughout most of this century, there has been a constant concern for Boston Harbor, but the actions pursued were just not effective. There have been many situations that have dealt with the clean up of the harbor where the government just wasn't putting enough effort into the cause and then denying the problem.
Metropolitan District Commission
In 1919, the government created the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) to oversee the water and sewage systems of the region. It was responsible for the three pumping stations, East Boston, Deer Island, and Nut Island. The only problem with the MDC was that it was funded by the state budget, so without enough funds, there was only so much that could be accomplished, and by 1939, a Special Legislative report called Boston Harbor conditions revolting and that the harbor violates all of the public health requirements. The report also recommended a 24 million dollar project to clean up the pollution in the Hingham and Quincy Bays.
The MDC built a primary treatment plant in 1968 on Deer Island, which was in use until 1995, when the new Boston Harbor Project took effect. Before court intervention and the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority, the MWRA, 350 million gpd (gallons per day) was treated here, but only 10% of the pollutants in the waste water were removed. The sludge that was removed was sent through a digester and then dumped into the harbor because it was thought that the currents would just carry it out to sea.
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, requiring secondary treatment for discharged waste water from all publicly owned treatment plants. This Act did allow waivers for coastal cities, and of course, Boston applied for one, but was denied. This is when Boston Harbor was at its worst, and when it really needed secondary treatment, but the Environmental Protection Agency and the State were being very lackadaisical about this pollution problem. Where the EPA was very strict and coming down on a lot of cities, it was surprisingly lenient with Boston.
Governor Dukakis
Michael Dukakis served two terms, inconsecutively, as governor of Massachusetts. Whenever confronted about the issue of Boston Harbor, he said he wasn't the one who polluted it, but he was the guy who was going to clean it up. If he wanted to clean it up, why was he resisting the compliance with the Clean Water Act and asking for a waiver? Boston Harbor was at its worst In the 1970's. A report was put out in 1975 on the community conference, and included in this report was the question of whether Boston Harbor was really polluted! When the harbor pollution was addressed in this report, money was the main issue, and whether the budget should give that much money to the clean up of the harbor. If the government had put money into the harbor then, it wouldn't be costing them so much now. When Dukakis came back into office, he pushed for the bill for the MWRA to take over the responsibility of the sewer and water systems. Was this an act of concern for the harbor, or was it the threat by Judge Paul Garrity to halt new construction unless a clean up plan was initiated that influenced this decision?
Filed Suits
Many organizations and people in general were growing tired of the fact that nothing was being done to clean up the harbor, so they decided to get the courts involved. THe Conservative Law Foundation became fed up with the EPA an the state's lack of concern, so it sued both. Along with this law suit, in 1982, Quincy man filed suit against the MDC on behalf of the city of Quincy because of the human excrement and sewage that had washed ashore on Wollaston Beach. In 1985, the cases were settled, and found the state in violation of the Clean WAter Act. The legislature realized that they had to either give more money to the MDC for expansion, or create a new authority to remedy this mess called Boston Harbor. The MWRA was then created and took over the responsibility from the MDC. in 1986, after other legal actions were settled, an eleven year timetable was set up for the construction of new primary and secondary treatment plants to stop the pollution of Boston Harbor.
DEER ISLAND
Deer Island consists of 210 acres of land and is actually a peninsula connected to the town of Winthrop, Massachusetts, located just north of Boston. The island has been home to a variety of people, from the Native Americans, to criminals, to orphans and quarantined immigrants, and now it will be home to the site of the second largest waste water treatment plant in the country. It added to its list of inhabitants that of a treatment plant site in 1889, when the first steam driven pumping station was constructed. It was the largest of three stations, in which the waste water was sent to Deer Island to be screened for large objects, then pumped into the harbor, untreated. The MDC built a primary treatment plant on the island in 1968, which was state of the art for its time, and handled most of the region's water. This plant operated until 1995, when the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) opened a new primary treatment plant. A secondary treatment plant was started in 1996, an is expected to be finished by 1999.
CLEAN UP PROGRAM
When the MDC just wasn't doing the job it was created to do, the government finally created the MWRA. It took over the water and sewer services in 1985. What made the difference with the MWRA was that it was not funded by the state, so it didn't have to deal with tax increases and cuts in the budget. The MWRA has started a multibillion dollar project that requires ten years of construction. This project consists of new facilities on Deer Island, including a primary and secondary waste water treatment plant that will treat waste water from 43 surrounding communities of Boston, and a headworks on Nut Island. It will finally bring the waste water discharges into compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act, which requires secondary waste treatment from publicly run plants.
Primary Treatment
The treatment of the waste water involves many steps. Before the primary treatment, large debris and smaller objects like cigarette butts and sand are screened out on Nut Island, and brought to a landfill. From Nut Island, it is sent via two and a half mile long tunnels to Deer Island for the primary treatment. The primary treatment is a physical method. The waste water is brought to the clarifiers, where the heavier solids, or sludge, are allowed to sink to the bottom, and the floatable substances, scum, remain a the top. The sludge is scraped off the bottom and sent to the digester tanks and treated in a 10-22 day process. This "anaerobic process" will cut the volume of sludge almost fifty percent. The digester storage tank is an egg shaped tank. This unique shape was chosen to get rid of dead spots and to allows smaller surface area on the top and bottom for the build up of scum and sludge. It is also less expensive to operate and maintain. Scum, the floatable substances, like oil and grease, are skimmed off the top and also treated in the digesters.
Secondary Treatment
Secondary treatment is a biological process. It combines wastewater and microorganisms in the tanks with a constant aerator and circulation to remove most of the biochemical oxygen demand and the remaining solids in the water. This secondary sludge is also pumped into the digesters. The sludge is then converted into fertilizer pellets. The clarified waste water flows into disinfecting basins and mixed with sodium hypochlorite (bleach). The waste water is then dechlorinated and the residual chlorine is removed. The treated effluent is finally sent through a 9.5 mile tunnel, and discharged into Massachusetts Bay in the last mile of the tunnel through 55 pipes to ensure proper mixing with the sea water.
Environmental Factors
The Boston Harbor Project will improve the water quality of Boston Harbor to the state and federal standards. Upon completion of the project, there will be a significant difference in the quality and appearance of the harbor, but are these standards high enough? The effluent tunnel pumps the treated wastewater only a few miles from Stellwagon Bank, a prime fishing site and home to endangered whales. Could this treated water, although much cleaner than ten years ago, be harmful to this rich marine habitat? The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, along with other organizations, are conducting studies on containment levels in sediments, observing the effects on the marine life. The Boston Harbor Project is a great improvement to what was once on the most contaminated harbors in the nation. Hopefully pollution awareness will increase and Boston Harbor can repair itself and finally return to what it was like three and a half centuries ago.
Want to see more? Here are some other links of interest:
WWW.BOSTON HARBOR.COM
The Boston Harbor Association
Massachusetts Water Resource Authority
The photos on this page ... MWRA
Historic Tours-Boston
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute- Coastal Briefs
.....created by Nicole Speredelozzi