Harbor of Shame No More

Harbor of Shame No More. South Boston. , In the 1980s, Boston Harbor was one of the dirtiest in the country, due to centuries of dumping raw and poorly treated sewage and industrial waste into its waters. Pollution threatened irreversible harm to the harbor's marine habitats, brought slime and foul odors, and closed beaches and shellfish beds., Today, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) operates the state-of-the-art Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, which removes pollutants from the wastewater of 43 communities. After treatment, solid sludge is made into fertilizer pellets, used in gardening and landscaping, while liquid effluent is sent into a 9.5-mile tunnel and discharged into the deep waters of Massachusetts Bay. Ongoing monitoring shows vastly improved conditions in the harbor and no degradation of the bay., The facility took 15 years, 3.8 billion dollars, and the efforts of thousands of people to plan and build. It transformed Boston Harbor into one of the cleanest in the nation. An environmental treasure that welcomed people to its waters. and shores for thousands of years can do so again., Top The Deer Island facility can process up to 1.35 billion gallons of wastewater daily. Key features: Tanks that separate solid sludge from wastewater. Secondary treatment that uses microorganisms. Egg-shaped digesters that convert sludge to methane-which powers the plant-carbon dioxide, organic solids, and water. ~Courtesy of MWRA, Bottom images left to right , Signs like this one often disappointed beachgoers, especially after heavy rainstorms overwhelmed the former treatment plant's capacity. - Courtesy of MWRA A storage tunnel under South Boston beaches virtually eliminates the sewer system discharges into the harbor that occurred there after heavy rains. Now the overflow, a combination of sewage and stormwater, is held in the tunnel, to be pumped to the treatment plant when capacity allows. ~Courtesy of MWRA, Fishing enthusiasts flock to McCorkle Pier to catch striped bass, bluefish, winter flounder and cunner, depending on season and tide. ~Photo by Robert Gillis/GillisPhotos.com, Boston beaches are swimmable again, and Pleasure Bay is one of the cleanest. In August 2021, Swim Across America Boston held their open water swim here to benefit cancer research. ~Courtesy of John Deputy, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute