Safe Harbor

In 1988 then-Vice President George Bush aired a campaign advertisement set against the backdrop of the polluted and frothing seawater of Boston Harbor, calling it the "filthiest harbor in America."

Twelve years later, Boston Harbor is cleaner now than it has been in decades. It is a model for large-scale, urban environmental projects both in the United States and overseas.

This month, the completion of a pipeline that transports

But the changes have not come cheap or easy, costing the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority more than $4 billion and coming as a result of several legal battles.

Recen Chhanes

Prior to September 2000, treated wastewater from the Deer Island Treatmen Plant re-entered the harbor through a series of outfall pipes and diffusers located along the President Roads, the main shipping channel connecting the inner harbor with Massachusetts Bay.

But due to the shallow waters of the channel, a plume of wastewater frequently set up off Deer Island that could be seen by any jet aircraft taking off from Logan Airport. Ships passing through the area carried the toxins both away from the harbor and back toward shore. Although 85 percent clean, this plume occasionally fouled dense areas of marine life in large parts of the inner harbor.

Following the opening of the $390 million Massachusetts Bay outfall tunnel, treated Deer Island wastewater now proceeds 9.5 miles under the ocean to a point in the middle of Massachusetts Bay. There it is diffused over almost 1000 feet of pipe into Massachusetts Bay.

That far out in the bay, the water is 100 feet deep and the currents are strong. According to MWRA Director of Communications Johnathan Yeo, this, combined with the more disinfected water that emerges from the outfall, makes it "unlikely that any one living fifteen miles away on Cape Cod will feel effects from the new outfall pipes."

Yeo says his statements about the new outfall are supported by scientists from four major Boston-area universities including Harvard.

"Predictions, tests, and data on the new outfall all seem to indicate that this is a safe system. It is certainly much cleaner and healthier for the environment in general and the harbor in particular," Yeo says.

In deep water

Though just outside the city that pioneered the concept of water and sewer systems in early America, Boston Harbor lay nearly biologically dead in the mid-1980s. Besides the unsightliness of the harbor that formed the backdrop of Bush's political advertisement, Boston Harbor experienced large-scale and wide-ranging ecological problems.

In violation of the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972, which mandated that cities put all wastewater through two filtering processes before releasing it into the ocean, Boston had been pumping improperly treated sewage into the harbor for years.

As a result, many types of shrimp fishing had been prohibited by 1970 because of the tendency of the shellfish to accumulate toxins. The harbor's famous lobster population was all but decimated. The Charles, Chelsea, Mystic, and Neponset River estuaries--the portions of the rivers where fresh and salt water converge--were also nearly devoid of the diverse wildlife that is typical of such areas.

Schools of fish, birds, and smaller marine organisms vanished in the wake of solid waste matter and oxygen-depleting pollution in the water. Normally bluish-green, relatively transparent 30-feet deep harbor water had been turned murky and brown.

Periodically, Boston built and upgraded plants specifically for treating sewage.

After several years of use, however, each of these cleanup projects ultimately failed to keep up with the area's growing population, the most notable failure being the Nut Island treatment plant in Quincy during the 1980's, which ultimately resulted in a lawsuit against the city of Boston.

Their Day in Court

While Boston began work toward compliance with the Clean Water Act, the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) repeatedly applied for waivers from the EPA, under a clause stating that coastal communities whose pollution did no environmental harm could obtain exemptions from the act.

A series of legal battles and a mandate from the federal courts, however, finally forced the city into action.

By 1982, unlawful sewage discharges related to the Quincy plant had grown so bad that the city of Quincy filed suit against the MDC, which had been responsible for Boston's wastewater treatment and disposal.

In 1983, the EPA rejected the MDC's waiver application, disputing the commission's scientific claims. It would do so again in 1985.

Largely in response to the Quincy lawsuit, the Massachusetts Legislature in 1985 created the MWRA, which functions as an independent authority with the power to set and raise water and treatment rates, as well as to direct and execute infrastructure projects as needed.

The founding of the MWRA was in part an attempt to avoid the quick fix that had characterized Boston's cleanup efforts up to that point and permanently cure the harbor's sewage problems.

That same year, however the EPA and Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit against the MWRA for violations of the Clean Water Act.

The fallout from that lawsuit?

A mandate from Federal District Court Judge A. David Mazzone for the construction of new primary and secondary water treatment plans over a 13-year period.

Only now, upon the completion of that 13-year plan, are the city and the communities along the harbor seeing the results of the subsequent years of cleanup efforts.

Cleaning Up

The MWRA moved on Mazzone's mandate by upgrading and expanding the scope of the primary wastewater treatment operations--those processes that remove most solid matter, sludge, and acute toxins from wastewater--on Deer Island.

And in 1990, the MWRA began construction of entirely new facilities there.

This would finally allow the phasing out of the decrepit Nut Island plant, but would also result in the first of several water and sewer rate increases that would eventually more than triple rates region-wide.

Beginning in 1995, when the new primary waste treatment facilities were completed, the MWRA moved to expand Deer Island's capacity still further.

In this round of additions, the Deer Island facility was upgraded to secondarily treat all wastewater--thus fulfilling one of the Clean Water Act's original mandates--to remove 85 percent of carbonaceous oxygen-depleting matter, bacteria and suspended solids before re-releasing the treated water through outfall pipes into Boston Harbor.

Secrets to Success

According to James S. Hoyte, former Massachusetts secretary of environmental affairs, and current assistant to President Neil L. Rudenstine, establishing the independent role of the MWRA was one of the most important parts of the harbor revitalization.

"The system deteriorated in the past because elected politicians were unwilling to fund the maintenance and construction to keep the system operating efficiently and effectively," Hoyte says.

With its budget set aside from that of the rest of the state--and therefore immune to political bickering--the MWRA raised its rates to secure the necessary funds to begin attacking the problems cited in the EPA and DOJ lawsuit.

Yeo says the MWRA has also made a broad commitment in the last decade to keeping the public informed about the progress of the cleanup efforts.

Much of the MWRA's scientific analysis, as well the data from scientific and engineering studies related to the MWRA, are accessible at the organization's website, http://www.mwra.state.ma.us, or available to the public on request.

As a result of the efforts, many of the species that were being destroyed by the sewage are beginning to thrive again.

And after a long hiatus, the people are returning harborside as well.

"Boston Harbor is so gorgeous," says Jeanne A. Gosage of Duluth, Minn., "I'm happy that I am finally able to come here on vacation and see it."