How Clean is Clean Enough, and Who Should Pay?

 

Judge A. David Mazzone raises a glass of effluent at Deer Island
in celebration of the opening of the Mass Bay Outfall

 

In his very first order in the Boston Harbor Cleanup Case, the late, great U.S. District Court Judge A. David Mazzone ruled that “The Law secures to the People the Right to a Clean Harbor.” 

 

That simple sentence has focused my advocacy and policy work for the more than 30 years I served as Director of Strategy & Communications at Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and continues to guide my work as Lead Consultant to the Legislature’s Metropolitan Beaches Commission.

 

Mazzone’s first order immediately gave rise to two important questions: “How clean is clean enough?” and “Who should pay?”

 

For the Judge, the answer to the first question was clear: Boston Harbor should be clean enough for boating and fishing and the region’s public beaches safe for swimming “damn near every day”.  The answer to the second question was somewhat more complicated.

 

The Clean Water Act gave the Judge the legal tools he needed to craft a plan to replace the failing sewage treatment plant at Deer Island that served Boston and 43 cities and towns, which discharged more than 250 million gallons of largely untreated sewage from a broken pipe at the mouth of Boston Harbor every day. It also gave him the authority to replace the old primary treatment plant at Nut Island, ending 100 years of sewage discharge into the shallow waters of Quincy Bay.

 

Those two investments by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority have dramatically improved the health of Boston Harbor, Quincy Bay and Mass Bay as well.

 

Unfortunately, the Clean Water Act did not give Judge Mazzone the same authority to address the discharge of filthy, bacteria laden stormwater which continue to make some area beaches, including Wollaston Beach, unsafe for swimming after even a small summer storm.

 

Though the Judge was able to share the costs of the plant, the pipe and addressing Boston’s CSO discharges among the ratepayers of the 43 Massachusetts Water Resources Authority cities and towns, communities like Quincy have been forced to shoulder the financial burden of managing stormwater with very little help from State or Federal Government.

 

When we cut the ribbon on the North Dorchester Bay Combined Sewage Overflow Storage Tunnel in 2011 that has made the beaches of South Boston the cleanest urban beaches in the nation, my phone rang off the hook.

 

The first call I received was from then Senator Michael Morrissey of Quincy, who truly loves the sea and the beach. He wanted to know why the costs of the South Boston project were shared among all the ratepayers of the 43 MWRA Cities and towns, while Quincy was forced to “go it alone”.

 

I explained to him that the South Boston project was primarily designed to address combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into Boston Harbor during all but the largest summer storms as required by Judge Mazzone’s orders in the Boston Harbor Case, and fortunately had the capacity to handle storm water during all but the largest storms with few additional costs.

Unfortunately,  the persistent problems at Wollaston Beach were not caused by CSOs, but by filthy, bacteria laden stormwater discharges, which left the City of Quincy responsible for improving water quality on Wollaston Beach, and Quincy residents on the hook for the costs.

 

As a result, Quincy Water, Sewer & Drain faces the seemingly endless task of examining virtually every sewer connection and storm drain in the City looking for broken pipes and illicit connections and repairing them one at a time.

The truth is that Quincy simply does not have the resources on its own – roughly $250 million - to construct a miles long tunnel to store and transport stormwater though Nut Island to Deer island for treatment, which would end storm water discharges on Wollaston Beach in all but the largest storms.

 

Quincy is not alone here. Coastal communities across the nation are struggling to find resources to address these problems, even as they wrestle with the existential threats posed by sea level rise, coastal flooding and inundation.

 

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has done a remarkable job restoring the health of Boston Harbor, Quincy Bay and Mass Bay. They deserve our heartfelt thanks and continued support. Mayor Koch and the City of Quincy are doing their job as well, and should be commended for their persistence and tenacity, which has resulted in steady improvements on Wollaston Beach.

However, we all still have more work to do to make our beaches safe for swimming “damn near every day” as Judge Mazzone had hoped . To truly finish the job, both the State and Federal government have to step up to the plate and find new ways to help our coastal communities secure the resources they need to do get the job done.

 

Clean water is a core family value here in the Bay State. The Metropolitan Region’s public beaches are spectacular urban natural resources that belong to all of us. The costs of making them safe for swimming - and of protecting our coastal communities from sea level rise and global storming - should be shared by all of us as well.

 

Bruce Berman served as Director of Strategy & Communications for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay from for more than 30 years . He currently serves as Lead Consultant to the Commonwealth’s Metropolitan Beaches Commission and Chair of the Public Interest Advisory Committee of the Mass Bay Outfall Monitoring Science Advisory Panel.

 

Berman is publisher of the blog The View From Sea Level at https://theviewfromsealevel.blogspot.com/ and curates the web portal and streaming video site www.bostonharbor.com

You can follow him on www.facebook.com/bostonharbor  on www.instagram.com/bostonharbor1

at www.twitter.com/bostoharborone and now at www.tiktok.com/@bruceberman5

 

 

                     

 

 

Why I Support Dorchester Bay City

I am writing today in strong support of Accordia Partners LLC’s proposed development of Dorchester Bay City, which I believe is well-aligned with the City of Boston’s goals of increasing equity, inclusion, diversity, affordability and climate resiliency on Boston’s spectacular harbor and waterfront.

 

The updated proposal will transform 2,500 parking spaces into a resilient, transit-focused development with more than 15 acres of green and open space with 1000 new trees, creating new jobs and economic opportunities for all Bostonians, including Dorchester residents and Minority and Women owed businesses. You can find out more at https://www.baysideupdate.com/work/#about-the-site-new

 

 

The project will also create nearly 400 units of affordable housing on site, contribute more than $50 million to the City’s Neighborhood Housing Trust for affordable housing, and $10 million to the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance’s home ownership down payment assistance program to build generational wealth.

 

As part of their updated proposal, the proponents will invest more than $35 million in off-site transportation infrastructure improvements to JFK/UMass Station and K Circle, improving vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle access. It will also provide up to $235 million to support UMass Boston and its education mission

 

I have spent the past 35 years working to restore, protect and share Boston Harbor, our waterfront and the region’s public beaches with all Bostonians and the region’s residents, who have invested more than $5 billion dollars in the Boston Harbor cleanup.

 

I believe that Dorchester Bay City will truly connect the City to the Sea, creating a more than 3 acre park along the Harbor that will strengthen the physical and programmatic connections to DCR’s Carson Beach Reservation and the City of Boston’s Joe Moakley Park. This is particularly important to Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and their community partners in South Boston and Dorchester,  and to the thousands of young people from across the city who take part in their free youth and beach programs each year.

 

As you may know, I served as Director of Strategy & Communications at Save the Harbor/Save the Bay for more than 30 years, and currently serve as Lead to Consultant to the Massachusetts Legislature’s Metropolitan Beaches Commission. In those capacities, I have led or participated in hundreds of planning sessions, public meetings, and public hearings focused on strengthening Boston’s waterfront neighborhoods and the region’s public beaches.

 

Though no plan satisfies everyone, the  planning process for this project has been one of the best I have participated in. I would like to commend the BPDA for conducting an open, inclusive and extensive public process.  I would also like to thank the project’s proponents for listening to advocates, activists, and the community – and for reflecting so many of our concerns in their plans.

Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act

On Friday morning October 7, Boston Harbor advocates and activists joined Senator Edward Markey, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Boston's Mayor Michelle Wu, USEPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox and Regional Administrator David Cash, and MADEP Commissioner Martin Suberg at Piers Park in East Boston to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act (CWA) on Boston Harbor. There was lots to celebrate.

 

Just 30 years ago, Boston Harbor was a national disgrace. Today, it is home to the cleanest urban beaches in the nation. Though the Clean Water Act is a critical tool in the fight for clean water, the existence of the CWA is not enough to guarantee environmental victories. If it were, every harbor in the nation would be as clean as Boston Harbor is today. Sadly, many are not. 

As we work together to protect the gains we have made, regulators and decision makers need to recognize that though effective legislation and litigation are necessary they are not sufficient to guarantee the public’s right to clean water. 

So how do we explain the "Boston Harbor Success Story"?

On December 23, 1985, in his first order in the Boston Harbor Case, the late U.S. District Court Judge A. David Mazzone wrote “The Law secures to the people the right to a clean harbor.” The law that he referred to is The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948, as amended in 1972, now known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). This ambitious Nixon-era law created a framework for regulating the discharge of pollutants into the waters of the United States and gave the USEPA broad authority to set standards for wastewater. It also funded the construction of sewage treatment plants, before that was phased out by President Ronald Regan, a fact that his Vice President George H. W. Bush conveniently ignored when he cynically made Boston Harbor an issue in his 1988 Presidential campaign against Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis.

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay's Founding Chair Beth Nicholson often says that "Environmental victories are seldom won outright, they are just postponed to another day." That observation seems particularly poignant today, with the Clean Water Act - and the environmental victories we have won in the past 50 year under assault by an increasingly partisan Congress and increasingly conservative courts.

The best protection we have against assaults on clean water is an unassailable and enduring consensus of thousands of people from every community and all walks of life who believe in the power of clean water to transform communities and improve people’s lives. That’s precisely what we have done here in the Bay State, where access to clean water is a core family value.

Over the years, we have learned that best way to strengthen that consensus so that it cannot be undone by a change of administration, the stroke of a pen or a reactionary court, is to share the benefits of our
$5 billion investment in clean water with all Bostonians and the region’s residents alike.

Save the Harbor’s Executive Director Chris Mancini puts it well when he says that “The best way to “Save the Harbor” is to “Share the Harbor” with everyone, regardless of their race, their ability, or the language they speak."

The best way to "Save the Harbor" is to "Share the Harbor"

 "That's why Save the Harbor/Save the Bay brought more than 5,000 kids and families on free trips to the Boston Harbor Islands this year." he continued. And that's why we run free youth and beach programs that have connected more than 250,000 people to the harbor we have worked so hard to restore and protect since our free programs began.”

It is a powerful and proven strategy, which has been embraced by Governor Baker and former Governor Patrick, the Department of Conservation & Recreation as well as Legislative leaders including Sen. Brendan Crighton of Lynn and Rep. Adrian Madaro of East Boston, who Co-Chair the Metropolitan Beaches Commission. In the spring, the Commission will release a report on improving beach access for people of color, people with disabilities, and those who do not speak English as their first language, which they hope the next administration and the Department of Conservation & Recreation will embrace as well.

As we celebrate the Boston Harbor success story today all of us owe a debt of gratitude to Judge Mazzone, the USEPA, the Department of Justice and the other lawyers who took part in the Boston Harbor Case. We also owe a debt of gratitude to the women and men of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority for their extraordinary work, and to the region’s ratepayers, who continue to pay the bills that make it all possible.

But most of all we owe a debt of gratitude to the tens of thousands of people who make up what the Save the Harbor Co-Founder Ian Menzies called a “barely restrained but well-disciplined mob” to demand a harbor that is safe for boating, fishing and swimming “damn near every day” as Judge Mazzone had hoped.

Advocate, author, educator and avid angler Bruce Berman is Lead Consultant to the Metropolitan Beaches Commission and has served as Director of Strategy & Communications for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay since 1990.

Berman is the editor of The View From Sea Level, curates the web portal www.bostonharbor.com, and live streams from the Verandah at Constitution Marina on Boston Harbor at https://www.youtube.com/bostonharbor and https://www.facebook.com/bostonharbor

2022 Metropolitan Beaches Water Quality Report Card

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay released its annual Metropolitan Beaches Water Quality Report Card on the 2021 beach season on Saturday, May 27 - just in time for Memorial Day weekend.

They have summarized the results in the following table. *

In 2021, the overall water quality safety rating for the Boston Harbor’s region’s beaches managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation was 86%, down from the previous year’s score of 93%. 

Rainfall has a significant impact on water quality on many beaches and varies substantially from year to year. In 2021 there were far more rain events in the region than in 2020, with 19 storms exceeding a half-inch of rain, 12 of which exceeded one inch of rainfall.

These seasonal variations are why Save the Harbor/Save the Bay is reluctant to draw conclusions from results for individual years, preferring to rely on multi-year averages in evaluating overall water quality on the region’s public beaches.

Despite the wet weather, Pleasure Bay and City Point Beach in South Boston, Nantasket Beach in Hull and Winthrop Beach had perfect scores of 100 % in 2021, while five area beaches scored between 82% - 94%.

“Considering the wet weather, most of the region’s beaches scored quite well, earning A’s and B’s” said Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Executive Director Chris Mancini, who noted that King’s Beach in Lynn and Swampscott and Tenean Beach in Dorchester continue to lag behind.

“Sadly the Department of Public Health’s beach posting and flagging protocols failed to make the grade again this year,” said Mancini, noting that 75% of the red flags that flew on Constitution Beach in East Boston in 2021 were wrong while an astonishing 100% of the red flags on that beach were incorrect in 2020. “We believe that there are better ways to provide timely and accurate information about beach water quality to those who need it most and would like to work with DPH and other stakeholders to get it right.”

According to Mancini, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that, though most of DPH’s website is available with Google Translate, their Bureau of Environmental Health beach water quality locator is still available in English only, though many beach goers primarily speak other languages in their home.

Rather than wait for DPH to update their website, Save the Harbor has posted the FAQ’s from the DPH site on their blog “Sea, Sand And Sky” where they can be easily translated into more 100 languages using Google Translate, which is an important first step.

According to Save the Harbor’s Director of Strategy & Communications Bruce Berman, “Working together with DPH, DCR, MWRA, and BWSC we can provide more accessible, timely and accurate water quality data to beachgoers, improving public access to the beach and better protecting the public’s health.”

According to Berman, this year Save the Harbor conducted a detailed study of Constitution Beach in East Boston to determine the accuracy of posted swimming advisories and beach flags and plans to evaluate other Metropolitan beaches using the same data review process.

“On many beaches, simply installing an accurate and accessible rain gauge and making the information available online in real time with a QR code would provide better information. We can – and should – do better than the current system, which relies on yesterday’s results which are a terrible predictor of today’s water quality.”

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay would like to thank Dr. Judy Pederson, former Chair of our Beaches Science Advisory Committee for her guidance in developing the methodology we use in this report.

We would also like to thank the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Richard M. Saltonstall Charitable Foundation, Kelly Coughlin of Stony Brook Partners, Ben Wetherill of Coastal Sensors, and Save the Harbor’s Environmental Policy Assistant Caroline Adamson.

Thanks as well to Metropolitan Beaches Commission Co-Chairs Senator Brendan Crighton of Lynn and Rep. Adrian Madaro of East Boston and each of the legislative and community members of the Commission for their commitment to clean water and the region’s public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket.

For more information on Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Beaches Report Card, contact Bruce Berman on his cell at 617-293-6243 or email bruce@bostonharbor.com

To learn more about Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and the great work they do to restore, protect and share Boston Harbor, the waterfront, islands and the region’s public beaches with all Bostonians and the region’s residents, visit their website at www.savetheharbor.org and follow @savetheharbor on social media.

*Beach safety scores are calculated as the percent of samples that comply with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health single sample limit for bacteria, a straightforward way to evaluate seasonal beach water quality and potential impacts on public health.

Weekly water quality testing at Boston’s regional beaches began in late May of 2021. Additional daily testing of Constitution Beach, King’s Beach, Malibu Beach, Tenean Beach, and Wollaston Beach began in early June and concluded on Labor Day, September 6, 2021

Beach Glass in Provincetown

 

We drove to Cape Cod last weekend to look at a vintage 19' Aquasport Osprey Dual to use as a tender to the 41' DeFever Trunk Cabin Trawler Verandah which is home to bostonharbor.com . It was well worth the trip: TT Verandah will be delivered to Boston in late April - just in time for flounder season and early striped bass fishing.

We stopped along the way to pick up some great fried clams at Mac's Fish House and Market (whole clams, not strips!), buy pickling spice and Herbs de Provence at Atlantic Spice Company and a few things for the galley at Utilities.

 We also stopped to take a few photographs of Cape Cod in the late winter before the crowds arrived, including this photo of the harbor at low tide from the East End.

As I headed back to the car, I notice what appeared to be small "nests" of sea glass trapped in the rip-rap by the side of the road.

 

Some of it was recent but some of it was quite old, including some vintage bottle rounds and turquoise art glass. I even found a piece of green "fire glass'" and a few lovely pieces of extremely rare lavender glass from the 1940's, which was originally green (like a Coke bottle) before the dye faded away.

(The original colorfast green dye was made by the German chemical company IG Farben who manufactured Zyklon B gas for the Nazi death camps and was unavailable during the war years. But that's a story for another day.)

So how did it get there? I have seen similar troves of glass and pottery in small depressions in the rocks at the wrack line at Spectacle Island, where it develops a patina as it spins and spins in the surf. I have also seen similar caches of glass near storm drains and abandoned industrial sites in the city.

It is possible that this glass was tossed by a wicked bad storm on a wicked high tide, and trapped at the side of the road. It is also possible (and perhaps more likely) that it was placed there by someone who gathered it on the beach and put it in small piles for people to discover and enjoy.

I took a few small pieces for further research to document the find, which will eventually end up on display in my rescue turtle tank which you can watch here. But I left most of it on the beach for others to discover and enjoy.

Real beach glass is increasingly rare, a shared treasure that is getting harder to find in these plastic times.  

(At the suggestion of former Boston Globe reporter Beth Daley, who is now editor The Conversation US, I personally have been doing my part to alleviate the shortage of blue beach glass by carefully "releasing" Sky Vodka bottles to the sea for nearly 20 years. After all, glass is made from silica - which is made from sand. But that's a story for another day.)

Take it from one who knows. Beach glass looks much better on the beach - or on public display - than it does buried in a shoe box in a dresser drawer or as part of a craft project. If you are going to gather it, follow the rules. It is against the law to "harvest" beach glass from state and national parks - like Spectacle Island. 

As you walk the beach this year look for treasures in the sand, use this great chart for reference - and please share your photos with Boston Harbor on Facebook.

See you on Boston Harbor, the beach or the islands soon.

B-

 

 

 

 

Get Cold for a Cause at the Shamrock Splash!

Roses are red, Boston Harbor is blue.
I'm splashing in Boston Harbor on March 6,
and need two quick favors from you.

Happy Valentines Day!

In just over two weeks I'll be leaping into the clear, cold (35 degree!) water of Boston Harbor at the Shamrock Splash to raise money for Save the Harbor's free youth and beach programs. 

Over the past 10 years I have personally raised more than $25,000 for free beach events and kids programs on the region's public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket. 

Though I hope that you will join our bostonharbor team and splash with us on the beach in East Boston on March 6th,  I know that you may be unable - or unwilling - to take the plunge with us this year.

There are two other ways that you can help.

First, it would be terrific if you could make a contribution today to support my Splash to support Save the Harbor/Save the Bay's free Youth & Beach programs in 2022.

And second, I'd also appreciate it if you would take just a moment to subscribe to our new Boston Harbor YouTube Channel, for great videos from previous splashes and regular updates of this year's Splash.

(Yes, you can also watch the video of me wrestling a 12 foot long Burmese python in the Everglades on the channel, as well as some great live feeds of Boston's spectacular harbor.)

Thanks for your friendship, and your support.

I hope to see you on Constitution Beach in East Boston on Sunday March 6th!

All the best,

Bruce