BOSTON HARBOR CONTINUED

 Boston Harbor continued.

Once the lawsuit was filed planning began in earnest. Much had to be decided. The CWA allowed a waiver of Secondary treatment (a more advanced  biological treatment  ) to any coastal community if it could show that the discharge would not cause environmental harm. Should we allow it? Should there be two plants or one. How long should the outfall be? Where should it be located? How should the sludge produced be handled? How long should the design and construction take to complete? These questions and more had to be resolved. In a perfect world the parties involved would reach agreement quickly. In the real world planning took several years. Some of the more contentious issues were settled by Judge David Mazzone. In the case of the sludge it was settled by the politicians

In 1988 there was a Presidential campaign in full swing between President George H.W. Bush and Governor Michael Dukakis. The Vice President made an issue of the conditions in Boston Harbor. After a boat tour he held a press conference and declared that the Governor was derelict in his duties and that Boston Harbor was in deplorable condition. No mention that we were In the process of correcting the problem. The MWRA estimated the project would cost somewhere around three billion dollars.  It was obvious that we would need federal financial assistance if the project were to move forward. To his credit the President did support funding. It didn’t hurt that the Speaker of the House was Congressman “Tip” O’Neil.

The decision was to build a single waste water treatment plant on Deer Island. If we were to build the plant by conventional methods it would require filling in Boston Harbor. Fortunately it came to our attention that the cities of Tokyo and Osaka faced a similar land situation and built their plants not horizontally but vertically. So a group of us including the MWRA, Mass. DEP, members of MWRA Board and our engineer consultants headed to Japan. We were treated royally by the Japanese and gave us all of the technical information we needed. Because all of the arrangements were made by the State Dept. they must have thought we came straight from the oval office 

 

The project was completed in 2000 and cost 3.8 billion dollars. It is the second largest wastewater treatment plant in the U.S. On a daily basis 43 communities are served and some 360gpd of effluent is treated. It is capable of handling a peak flow of 850gpd. The sludge is pelletized and used as fertilizer. The twenty four foot diameter outfall discharges 9.5 miles off shore. More importantly the Harbor has been restored to near pristine condition.  I was proud  to play a part in it.

 

BOSTON HARBOR

 

Southie Blog

As a youngster I spent a great deal of my summers swimming off the coast at Carson Beach. In my teen years after my family moved to City Point I used the beaches more at M street and at the L St. Bath House.  Little did I know at that time I would play a major role in the cleanup of Boston Harbor. In the early 1960’s the country became fed up with its polluted rivers and lakes and its unhealthy air. Citizens demanded from the Government a plan to clean up the mess. In April of 1969 the first Earth Day was celebrated worldwide to move all Nations to improve the environment. In the U.S. President Nixon reacted and by Executive Order created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Agency was made up of all the existing agencies dealing with the environment. At the time I was employed by the Federal Water Quality Administration and as a result began with the new Agency on day one.

Unfortunately at the beginning we only had weak legislation on the books so we were not too helpful. That all changed with passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 and its subsequent amendments. The major components of the Act provided substantial construction grants to Municipalities to help defray the expensive costs of new waste water treatment plants. It established a national permit system (NPDS) to ensure that discharges met water quality standards. It also gave EPA enforcement capabilities to certify all conditions were met.

The states were to set the priority for construction. Unfortunately upgrade of the treatment plants at Deer and Nut Island were low on the list. This was about to change when the City of Quincy sued the Commonwealth ( MDC )  because of the frequent impacts of closures at Wollaston Beach. The Regional office in Boston joined suit. Things were about to move at a much faster pace. I was chosen by the Regional Administrator to be the focal point as Chief Engineer to oversee and coordinate with the newly formed Massachusetts Water Resource Agency ( MWRA ) on all planning, design and construction activities. I had to also coordinate with our own lawyers and the Department of Justice on matters dealing with the Court. This all happened in 1985. To be continued.