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.

Women's Future

 

Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas having been victorious overturning Roe vs Wade has suggested the Court should revisit contraception and same sex marriage. Thomas also suggests how women should dress in the future. Here is something he is contemplating . It is the fashionable Burqua worn throughout the Arab world. It comes in 3 colors black, very black and ultra black. And since women will have to be accompanied with a male escort while out in public they may as well give up their driving licenses. Don’t laugh. It’s coming.

AIRPLANE SHADOW

 

When I was about 11 years old my family moved to the City Point section of Southie or as our West Fifth St. neighbors put it—You are moving to the “Lace Curtain” section of town. For me it was the best of all possible moves. As a sun worshipper I had easy access to the beaches. The M St. beach was my second home. Bicycling was another passion. I could bicycle all the way to Castle Island and back. I even made it out to Franklin Park once.

When I reached my Teens I got various jobs and couldn’t spend as much time doing those things. But my back yard provided me the opportunity to sun bathe in relative privacy so I still got my sunning in. The only thing that bugged me was the drone of the planes when their flight patterns took them directly overhead. It interrupted any conversations you might be having, Once when I was out back a plane cast a shadow directly on me. I saw the distinctive outlne of its wings and engines. It happened so fast I almost missed it. I thought wow that was a once in a lifetime event.

Last week I was enjoying the sun on the deck of my home located some 40 miles north of Boston. You see I still love the sun. The funny part is the planes fly overhead in the same flight pattern as when I lived in Southie. The drone is still annoying. The only difference is the planes are at a much higher altitude. But would you believe the shadow of one of them passed directly on me and again in a flash I made out the outline of the wings and motors. I thought wow that was a twice in a lifetime event.

WARNING

 

As a child I grew up in the neighborhood surrounding West Fifth Street in Southie. There were children of all ages to play with and games ended only because of darkness or being called in for dinner. We played all of the familiar games and when we got bored we made up our own. So it was strange when my Mother warned me not to play with the children of the family recently moved in almost directly across the street. It was obvious that the other mothers informed their children likewise. One day when the street was relatively quiet the boy about my age wandered over and asked if I wanted to play catch. Sure, but heeding my mother’s warning I suggested his back yard. He seemed normal to me so when he invited me in for a drink I accepted.

The first thing I noticed that it was quite dark. It was if there was a deliberate attempt to close off everything to the outside light. Otherwise all seemed normal. So what was it that caused this angst among the women on the street. As we wandered from room to room I searched for any clues. It wasn’t until the living room that all was revealed. In the middle of the room was a round table and chairs and in the middle of the table was a crystal ball. “My mother reads fortunes” is what I heard next.

That explained the constant flow of traffic in and out of the house at all times of the day. Fortune telling was considered some sort of witchcraft and of course was forbidden by the Church. The family didn’t stay long since they sensed they were being shunned by their neighbors. I met his mother and thought she was very nice. Maybe if I was a little older she would have read my fortune.

 

EARLY TV

 Every night I sit down to watch TV there are endless number of cable channels and I have my choice of several hundred movies and tv shows. Between Netflix, Prime, You Tube, and You Tube TV I am sure to find entertainment to my likening. That was not always the case. When television came first on the scene there were only 3 networks NBC, CBS and ABC. My neighbor downstairs was the first to purchase a tv on our block. It was a Dumont, a large piece of furniture with a 14 inch black and white cathode tube in its center. That was around 1948.

The popular show at that time was The Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle. It was basically a vaudeville show with slapstick comedy, dancers, singers etc. Our neighbor would invite us to watch the show. The adults sat on the sofa and chairs and we kids on the floor. We were thrilled with the novelty of having entertainment in our own homes. It was this show which caused thousands of tv’s to be purchased and earned Berle the title of “Mr. Television”.

I remember television was only shown during prime time. For the remainder a pattern was televised to allow adjustments to the tv. Foolishly we even watched that because we were so thrilled to have television in our homes.

PHONE PARTY LINES

 

Our household didn’t have a phone in my early childhood. My father didn’t apply for a phone line until 1945. Although WWII had ended materials were still in short supply and as a result, we had to share our line with 3 other parties. AT&T was the company that supplied the line (the only company since they had the monopoly). It wasn’t until 1984 that the US Government broke them up into 7 smaller regional “Bell” systems.

We were assigned certain rings so we would know that it was our call. It was an honor system where conversations were meant to be short in duration and no one was supposed to listen in on the other parties’ calls. In my young persons’ mind (I was 10 at the time) those were the rules for adults not necessarily for children.

I would wait until one of the other parties picked up the phone then gently pick up the cradle covering the mouthpiece with my hand. I felt like a detective listening in to other peoples’ conversations. I wasn’t good at it since before long I would hear (“Get off the line this is a private call. The nerve of some people”) I hung on anyway until their anger got so that they stopped talking.

Within the year we got a separate line which pleased my parents no end. For me I

lost a form of entertainment.