From Snails to Whales: Alex Beach Introductory Post

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Alex Beach Introductory Post

Good Morning everyone. There is a lot of pressure on me for posting first but I guess that's what I get for checking email at 8am. I apologize in advance if anyone uses my format and gets a bad grade.

My name is Alex Beach. I grew up in the City of Ithaca in upstate New York. Ithaca is located in the Finger Lakes region of NY which I find somewhat relevant to our study of the Harbor Islands in that the same general forces shaped both geologic features. If you are really bored at work reading this post feel free to check out this brief summary of the Finger Lakes and why "Ithaca is Gorges" from the Paleontological Research Institution. Growing up in such a geologically unique area, I quickly fostered a sense of excitement and curiosity about nature. You would too if grew up ten minutes from the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies, and I'm not talking about Niagara. However, I did not step foot in the ocean until a family vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina when I was eleven (unless you count a 7 year old me who naively thought that Cayuga Lake was the Atlantic and that I could see Africa across on the opposite shore).

I graduated from Boston University in 2009 with a degree in Science Education. In five weeks I will be starting the masters in Earth Science program at the University of New Hampshire. My research topics will include mechanisms for rapid climate change, determining ancient ocean temperatures by analyzing sediments, and some advocacy work with public policy groups such as Carbon Solutions New England. Currently I am work for BU and since they let me take free classes I figured "why not?". As a future educator and advocate for science literacy I feel that it is very important to see science in action, out in the field. It's one thing to talk about the the geologic features or the ecology of an area in the classroom, and quite another to actually go out and experience those things for yourself. And frankly, spending a week exploring the islands in the summer is much more enticing than sitting in my office.

As for our first field trip/assignment: I witnessed the water in the sink spinning counterclockwise down the drain and the water in the toilet spinning clockwise down the drain. The fact that the water spun in opposite directions is not an issue. I am sure that at BU alone we could find sinks and toilets that spun in both directions. Same goes for those in Australia. The popular myth about this fact is that the Coriolis Effect would cause all the water in the Northern Hemisphere to spin clockwise and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. This is a pretty good hypothesis for someone first exploring this issue. You take a proven physical phenomenon and apply it to the situation in question to see if it can verify your hypothesis. This is the scientific method in a nutshell. It is also perfectly acceptable science when your original hypothesis proves to be untrue, as in our case. The Coriolis Effect arises because different points on the surface of the Earth are traveling at different speeds through space. If you were to stand on the North pole (rotational, not magnetic) you would spin about your axis but not move laterally. Contrast that to standing on the equator where you would need to travel the entire circumference of the planet in 24 hours. The Coriolis Effect becomes more pronounced over large distances (like pole to equator) and negligible over incredibly short distances (like the diameter of a toilet bowl). The direction that water is introduced to a sink/toilet and the geometry of the container will determine which direction it flows, regardless of position on the planet.

Why the two groups saw opposite results is a bit more puzzling. The only reason I can think of that we as a class were not as observant as we should have been and Professor Berman was doing this to make a point. I was one of the closest people to the sink and could not tell which direction the water was spinning. Professor Berman said that it was spinning counterclockwise and we all agreed, even though most (if not all of us) could not see for ourselves. Perhaps he said the opposite for the first group and that is why they all believed it was spinning in the other direction. While this conspiracy can be viewed as a veiled demonstration of some Milgram Experiment principles (i.e. blindly listening to authority) and a lesson to be more observant in this course, it would also serve as a detriment to the team trust and group responsibility values that Professor Berman stressed. Because of this conflict I am left without a clear answer to this problem and await my classmates' posts to shed more light on the situation.

Until Friday.

-Alex Beach

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From Snails to Whales

Welcome to Snails to Whales, Bruce Berman's blog focused on both the little and the big things that make Boston Harbor such an interesting and extraordinary place to live, work and play.

With 50 miles of protected water, four sheltered bays, seven river systems, 34 islands and a nine-foot average tide, Boston Harbor is one of the most diverse urban ecosystems in America.

This blog focuses on the flora and fauna of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay - on the beach, the shore, and the harbor islands, and in the cleaner waters of Boston Harbor and Mass Bay - including this ecosystems most important species - people.

During the summer, it is also a place for my Boston University Students and my colleagues at Save the Harbor / Save the Bay to share their work and experiences.

Where I am coming from...

Love that clean(er) water
Learning about the Boston Harbor Cleanup from the waterway’s eyes, ears, and mouthpiece

By Brian Fitzgerald, BU Bridge

On Georges Island, Bruce Berman talks with his students about the history of the Boston Harbor Cleanup,
which is largely complete. Photo by Vernon Doucette

Bruce Berman, aboard a ferry from Boston’s Long Wharf to Georges Island, poses a question to his students: “How clean is clean enough?”

He’s talking about the water below.

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 is the communications director for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, a public-interest environmental advocacy organization whose mission is 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.

“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. 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 during even mild rainstorms, sending millions of gallons of untreated waste directly into the harbor.

Since then, bacteria counts in the water have decreased by more than two-thirds. Now the harbor teems with plants and animals, and people can legally dig for clams on Carson Beach in South Boston, which was unheard of in the 1980s.

“It was one of the filthiest harbors in America, and now it’s one of the cleanest,” says Berman. “What I’m trying to impress upon students is how this incredible comeback occurred, and how business, advocacy groups, environmentalists, and government can affect the outcome of large projects such as the Boston Harbor Cleanup through negotiation.”

Paradise regained

Berman 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?” he asks. Berman, his booming baritone competing with the roar of planes taking off from Logan Airport, has a habit of putting students on the spot to see if they’re paying attention.

“The outfall pipe,” say several 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 it 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.”

Now Berman returns to his original question: “How clean is clean enough?” There’s no quick and clear answer to this one. “It’s a question that at the end of the day the federal courts had to decide.”

In 1985, a landmark federal court case required that the harbor’s beaches be made swimmable and fishable by 2000. Save the Harbor/Save the Bay was formed the next year to raise public awareness of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup. Sewer ratepayers in the 43 cities and towns financing the project cried foul over the prospect of astronomically rising bills, but because of the determination of environmental advocacy groups such as Berman’s, the cleanup was largely completed on schedule.

Berman says it isn’t finished, however. There are still frequent beach closures because the counts of Enterococcus bacteria exceed the federal and state standard for swimming. The culprit: filthy storm water and sewage, much of it from leaky pipes and illegal hookups emptying into storm sewers, and then into the harbor.

“So is the harbor clean enough,” the Springfield native asks his students, “when you can’t swim in it one out of five days in the summer?”

Work to be done

Berman and his class look out from Georges Island to Gallops Island (left) and the white tanks of the waste treatment plant on Deer Island (right). Photo by Vernon Doucette

This summer the state approved one of the last parts of the cleanup: the construction, by 2011, of a 2.1-mile tunnel near the Dorchester and South Boston shorelines that will hold sewage and storm water during bad weather. It then will be pumped to Deer Island for treatment.

Berman is ecstatic over this development, the result of “tireless negotiation and consensus-building,” he says. “After 2011, we’re looking at beach closings once every five years, when there is a major storm, instead of once every five days.”

But he is not about to let his guard down. To say that he is a man obsessed with the harbor cleanup would be an understatement. Berman is also Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s “Baywatcher,” and he lives on his 40-foot trawler Verandah. Polluters beware: if you’re discharging oil or sewage into Boston Harbor, the Baywatcher just might be watching.

He is quick to point out that his zealotry is not just on behalf of the harbor’s flora and fauna. “The harbor is for everyone,” he says. “If you’re from a working class or poor family in Boston, and you can’t afford a Cape Cod getaway in the summer, a clean harbor is important. The same is true if you’re a tourist vacationing in Boston or you happen to live in a pricey waterfront condo.”

Accordingly, Berman, who was a political consultant and contributing editor to the Phoenix newspaper before joining Save the Harbor/Save the Bay nearly 10 years ago, also teaches his students about the harbor’s role in the city’s economy. He points out that in the early 1990s, just a few ferries cruised the harbor’s waters. Today, more than 100,000 people visit its islands each summer, discovering their ecological and historic treasures.

“The best way to protect the harbor cleanup,” Berman tells his students, “is to make sure that the public has access to the resources and can see a return on its investment.”

Trevor Kosmolsick (MET’05) has lived in Boston for seven years, but until taking Berman’s course, he had never been to the waterfront. “I’ve also wanted to go camping in the area, but I never knew that you could camp on a few of the islands,” he says. “Bruce Berman is not only a great professor, but the ultimate tour guide.”

He also backs up his words with actions. Sometimes he takes off his shirt and dives in the water to demonstrate to passing boaters that it’s safe to swim. To show people on ferries that fishing is safe, he’s been known to grab one of the bluefish or striped bass he’s caught and (very carefully) plant a wet kiss on it.

“What I want everyone to understand is that investment in the environment really does pay off,” says Berman. “We’re willing to pay for a clean Boston Harbor, so we should enjoy it.”

From Snails to Whales

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Alex Beach Introductory Post

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