Cape Karen
That line from the old Jackie Gleason Show came to mind when I read the following article from a few years back. It's an interesting article; (edited for brevity) maybe I'll pass it along to those who will eventually be in charge of the clean-up efforts of Lake Ponchartrain in New Orleans. It shows what can be done if people are determined and environmentally concerned enough to do it.
The Boston Harbor Cleanup by Brian Fitzgerald
Bruce Berman, poses an important question to his students:
"How clean is clean enough?" He's talking about the water in Boston Harbor. It's a brilliant July day, with the smell of salt spray in the air. The sky is clear, and so is the ocean. But there was a time when Boston Harbor wasn't so clean; when the stench of sewage assaulted the nostrils of anyone who went near it.
Berman, communications director for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay a public-interest environmental advocacy organization, pledged to help restore and protect the harbor and Massachusetts Bay. He also teaches a Metropolitan College summer course called: Politics, Public Relations, and Public Policy.
"The Boston Harbor Cleanup is an amazing success story, and I just love to share it with students," says Berman, noting that the harbor's "bad old days" weren't that long ago. In 1988, Vice President George Bush, during a campaign stop boat tour in Boston, branded it the "Harbor of Shame" seeking to embarrass MA Governor Michael Dukakis, his opponent in the presidential race, on his environmental record.
Those were the days when untreated human waste, syringes, condoms, and tampon applicators routinely washed ashore. The antiquated sewage treatment plants on Deer Island and Nut Island were so poorly designed and maintained that they flooded even during mild rainstorms, sending millions of gallons of untreated waste directly into Boston Harbor.
Since then, bacteria counts in the water have decreased by more than two-thirds. Now the harbor teems with plants and animals. Seals can be seen there, as well as porpoises, cormorants, and even humpback whales are sighted from time to time. "It was one of the filthiest harbors in America, and now it's one of the cleanest," says Berman. "It's fair to say that the Boston Harbor cleanup project was the most dramatic success story in environmental history, in terms of water quality," he proclaims.
"What I'm trying to impress upon my students is how this incredible comeback occurred; and how business, advocacy groups, environmentalists, and government can come together and affect the outcome of large projects such as the Boston Harbor Cleanup." says Berman. He points to the left, as the boat cruises by the cleanup's centerpiece: the gargantuan white egglike tanks of the Deer Island waste treatment plant which in 1995 replaced the antiquated facility. The plant treats an average of 350 million gallons of sewage a day.
"And what comes out of the Deer Island treatment plant?" asks Berman, his booming baritone competing with the roar of planes taking off from Logan Airport, as he puts his students on the spot to see if they've been paying attention, and to make sure that his lectures are truly sinking in. "The outfall pipe," say several of them simultaneously. "Treated water," chime in a few more. "That's right," he says with a smile. The plant separates the solid and liquid waste, and then pumps the treated water through the 9.5-mile outfall pipe which empties into Massachusetts Bay. The resulting sludge is converted to high-grade fertilizer.
The $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup was spurred by a lawsuit filed by Quincy City Solicitor, Bill Golden, in 1982 after he jogged through grease and sewage debris that had washed up onto Wollaston Beach. It was the first of several lawsuits aimed at forcing the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), which ran the region's sewer system before the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) was created, to stop the dumping of raw sewage into the harbor.
The litigation was effective: a 1985 landmark federal court case required that the harbor's beaches be made swimmable and fishable by the year 2000. In 1986, Golden, along with the late State Superior Court Judge Paul Garrity (the "Sludge Judge,") newspaper reporter Ian Menzies, and Beth Nicholson, a young mother from Brookline, MA, founded, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, an organization
dedicated to advancing the harbor cleanup and raising public awareness of the project.
The cleanup was a massive undertaking that naysayers said couldn't be done because of its hefty price tag. Sewer ratepayers in the forty-three MWRA cities and towns that would be financing the project cried foul over the prospect of astronomically rising bills. However, thanks to the determination of environmental advocacy groups such as Berman's organization, and judges such as Garrity and David Mazzone, senior judge of the U.S. District Court in Boston, the cleanup was largely completed on schedule.
On September 6, 2000, with hundreds of politicians, special guests, and Boston Harbor cleanup workers looking on, several gates were opened and treated wastewater flowed through the new subterranean outfall pipe at Deer Island. "In 1986, when Judge Mazzone ordered the construction of the new primary and secondary wastewater treatment plants, established a timetable for the cleanup, and gave an indication of where it would be by 2000, I knew it was going to be a reality," says Berman. "I was absolutely confident he would get this done."
"I've lived in Boston for seven years, but I had never been to the
waterfront until this class," says Trevor Kosmolsick (MET '05). "I've also wanted to go camping in the area, but I never knew that you could camp on a few of the islands. Bruce Berman is not only a great professor, but the ultimate tour guide."
Berman is also the consummate ambassador for recreation on Boston Harbor. An incurable chatterbox when it comes to the cleanup, he backs up his words with actions. Sometimes he takes off his shirt and dives in the water from his boat, The Shamrock, to demonstrate to passing boaters that it's safe to swim there now; and, to show people on ferries that fishing is safe, he's been known to grab one of the bluefish he's caught and plant a sloppy wet kiss on it.
"What I want everyone, and especially my students, to understand, is that an investment in the environment really does pay off. And there have been unexpected economic benefits, too," Berman says. He notes that a study, released in July by Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, found that during the 1990's the population of the Boston waterfront area grew at four times the rate of the entire city, the value of real estate skyrocketed, and employment was up 29 percent in nearby neighborhoods.
Not to mention how sweet it smells along the Boston waterfront these days.