From Snails to Whales: Day 1

Friday, July 30, 2010

Day 1 - Orientation

What a day! It is really interesting to see that everyone caught on different things. Today was pretty much my first experience with the harbor and the islands.

First some data:

Date:Friday, July the 30th
Time: from about 1pm. to 3.30pm
Starting point and route: Long Wharf. To be totally honest I still don't have in my mind a crystal clear view of route we followed. I know that we did a circle from Hull to Quincy and that we stopped in Killroy (shipyard) and the airport. After I finish this blog post I will take a better look at the map.
Temperature felt a bit colder than in the city. This link has a lot of very detailed info (updated hourly) about the weather conditions in Boston Harbor. According to the data collected, the atmospheric temperature at the time of our visit was between 68.2 and 68.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The water temperature was also around 68 degrees. The wind speed was very low, and there were no waves. For those that cannot be bothered to click on the link, here is a summary of the measurements.

	Wind Direction (WDIR):	S ( 180 deg true )
	Wind Speed (WSPD):	9.7 kts
	Wind Gust (GST):	11.7 kts
	Wave Height (WVHT):	1.3 ft
	Dominant Wave Period (DPD):	2 sec
	Average Period (APD):	3.1 sec
	Atmospheric Pressure (PRES):	29.92 in
	Pressure Tendency (PTDY):	+0.02 in ( Rising )
	Air Temperature (ATMP):	68.7 °F
	Water Temperature (WTMP):	68.2 °F
	Salinity (SAL):	30.94 psu
	Dew Point (DEWP):	61.0 °F

source: National Data Buoy Center

Now the observations:

The first impression I got is that the water is pretty clean. This impression is primarily based on what I have been told, however the water seemed relatively clear to me. That said I could not see very deep inside, nor did I measure how far I can see.

Today I was able to take a glimpse at life in Boston harbor and the islands. The traffic did not seem to me very intense, however I have no criterion for this observation since it was my first experience there. Also, I was able to see some of the erosion that has taken place after the last ice age. The most astonishing thing to me was perhaps how green the islands were. I have a lot of experience from very dry and rocky islands in Greece, and I was surprised to see very small but very green islands. I wonder whether they are so green just because of the rain, or if these islands have water reserves. In any case, I am not a tree expert but there seemed to be a good variety, and I think that I was able to see some varieties of Pine? trees.

I was also very happy to see Deer island, because we have talked about it in both my science classes this summer. Two hundred and eighty million of mostly untreated waste sounds like an awful lot of waste, and yet people came up with a good solution. Every time I hear about this success story I am more and more impressed. It makes me think that if people were able to clean the Boston harbor and the bay, they should be able to do it elsewhere. This immense effort that took place in the last 25 years should serve as a model to other big ports around the world. I was mostly surprised (in a good way) by the reaction of the court to the first clean-up proposal. The response was extremely effective in mobilizing people in Massachusetts and the result is spectacular. The second thing that I found very smart was that the efforts were first geared toward fixing the problems that were hurting the health of the harbor and the bay, and later address the problems associated with the closing of the beaches. This ensured that everyone would be committed until the clean up is finished. I can see the policy response and the clean up efforts becoming textbook cases in the very near future. I am sure that in the early eighties it would be practically impossible to do what we are doing today. Even if it was possible, probably I wouldn't be willing to go anywhere near the harbor and the islands.

My internet connection is really bad right now but I will upload some of my pictures once I get the chance.

I can't wait to get out there tomorrow and learn more about the harbor.

Alexandros

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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

Friday, July 30, 2010

Day 1 - Orientation

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