In addition, we learned how on Lovells island there are exotic, large birds. I hope we will be able to see some of these in person in our class expedition to the island this Sunday. The fun facts continued throughout the entire trip such as how the lighthouse on Little Brewster Island, "Boston Light," is the oldest light station in America--pretty neat.
The longest and most impressive of all the stories and facts we were told today was the recovery story of the harbor itself, "Save the Harbor, Save the Bay" organization and the water treatment project that took place. It is a long and detailed process that I would butcher if I tried to explain, but while at a pitt stop Professor Berman had us demonstrate, in a human chain, the steps taken to purify the water. Lauren and I played the "scrapers," which would push off floating nutrients from the large pool of contaminated water. It was a lot of fun and involved a great deal of laughter if you can imagine that we were demonstrating how human feces is extracted from the contaminated water and made into little pellets of fertilizer, which I believe Professor Berman stated were used to fill roads among other uses. Later the purified water--good enough to drink, right Professor? Haha --is pumped through a pipe many miles off shore into the depths of the harbor. What is truly miraculous, is that we were actually pitt stopped right next to the facility that purifies this source of "human nutrients" and it didn't even smell, not even a little. If these scientists could work similar magic with the remains of my lovely canine friends, I would be more than pleased.
Also, did you know that this year, even with the horrendous amount of rain we had during the storms from this past June, the Boston Harbor Islands had no storm discharge/run-off? We had no pollution, while other beaches everywhere were shut down for safety from contaminated water, our harbor was spotless. What a life.
See you all tomorrow!
-Janelle
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