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.