From Snails to Whales: Observations from Harbor Cruise

Friday, July 30, 2010

Observations from Harbor Cruise

Hey everyone,

So, our first trip into the harbor as a class went really well. I was impressed with the ease and speed of travel via the ferry system. I am usually on my own boat in the harbor and didn't realize how efficient the ferry system actually was. We left at 1 and made the loop through hull and Quincy before 3pm! In any event, I will go through a more detailed description of my observations and impressions below.

Before meeting in the Starbucks at the Marriott, I, along with Darryl and Matt, took in the scenery at the aquarium. Although I am in the city almost every day, I haven't been to the aquarium in years. It was packed with people! the whole place is new and totally accessible by water taxi and the harbor walk. I'm definitely going back. After discussing the plan for the day, we boarded the ferry to Hull at about 1pm and I noticed that the wind was coming from the south east which is different from the southwest wind that the harbor typically gets in the summer. Upon disembarking from the dock, we traveled through the Boston Yacht Haven Marina and saw some beautiful Burgers, Browards, and Feadships. (I personally liked "MELINDA"). We then began to move through the harbor towards the mouth and I noticed that there was significant recreational sailboat traffic that prevented us from increasing our speed at the end of the no-wake zone. Once we got going, I was baffled by the speed of our jet-driven ferry. We must have been going 25 Knots if not more. We then went to the left of spectacle Island and I had a view of the captains instruments and noticed a depth of 29 feet which means that we were clearly traveling outside of the shipping lanes. I learned that Spectacle was a dump from the 1700s to the 1950's and that although it was filled with trash for a few hundred years, the hills on the island are actually made from the waste of the Big Dig. Apparently they let the dredged material drain out in South Boston before bringing it by barge to spectacle.

We arrived in Hull at 1:24 pm and I learned that Hull is a hook that was made from glacial movements similar to the origins of cape cod nearly 50,000 years ago. I also learned that the two windmills in Hull have the capacity to power the entire city of Hull, which is surprising. After a short stop at Hull, we traveled behind Peddocks Island and towards Quincy. Behind Peddocks, I again looked into the wheelhouse and noticed that the water depth was now 50 feet. We then passed through Hull Gut and learned that the waves caused from the opposition of tidal currents and winds were often dangerously large and posed a threat to boaters. However, because of the current and small mouth, many species of fish like to wait for their prey in Hull Gut because it is easier to catch food.

We then moved through Hingham Bay and then into the Quincy Shipyard via the ford river. We learned that 25 years ago, 280 million gallons of waste was being pumped into the harbor before lawsuits and creative legal decisions prompted the state to act. the MWRA was then created in 85' and the cleanup began in 86'. We now have some of the cleanest urban beaches in the world (except for wollaston). We docked next to the USS Salem in Quincy and I was astounded to learn that the fertilizer pellet plant from deer island was located within a thousand yards of our berth. I couldn't smell a thing. It was wild.

Prof. Berman then discussed how the pollution that was being dumped into rivers was causing algae plumes that used up all the oxygen in the water and made it unsuitable for fish life. I had always thought that the bacteria from the waste was the problem for the eco system, I never imagined it was too much algae growth. We then did an exercise to show how water gets from BU to the 9 mile long Mass Bay Outfall Pipe that has diffusers to disperse the treated water. One interesting fact that I learned was that the Mass Ave sewer is made from oak! that is incredible. Whats even more amazing is that it is hundreds of years old and is still working! Additionally, I learned that you can actually measure the influx of sewage through the mass ave sewer during the 7th inning stretch at the Sox game. haha. that is ridiculous and repulsive at the same time.

On our way to the East Boston stop at Logan, we passed through a flock of seagulls that was apparently circling over a school of bait fish. these bait fish were being eaten by stripers and there were 4 center console boats in the school of bait fish that were fishing for stripers. the circle of life I guess. Finally, we arrived back at Long Wharf and walked to fanuel hall to see the old line of Boston Harbor before it was filled in and the city was extended. This was pretty cool too. All in all, I thought it was a successful day. My only regret is that I didn't bring a sweatshirt... it got pretty cold while underway on the ferry.

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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

Observations from Harbor Cruise

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